Now the REALLY Important Stuff

What are the Sox gonna do this off-season??

Ok, so as the baseball winter meetings start in Las Vegas, some musings on the Sox. My wife and I were talking about the 2004 World Series at dinner Saturday night (not exactly sure how we got into that), so I've been thinking and reading (as I do every day) the latest baseball writings on si.com and boston.com/redsox. The main hole the Sox have is at catcher. My view is that they need to either:

1) Sign Jason Varitek to a 2-year deal (assuming his agent, Scott Bora$, will accept
that) and then you have 2 years to determine whether or not the Sox have a good
prospect in the farm system - they have several young cathchers there - or whether
they will need to get one from outside.

2) Trade with Texas for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Texas has 3 catchers (they had 4 but
traded Gerald laird to Detroit this past week-end). Salty seems to be the best
combination of youth (he's 23), ability (he batted .253 in 61 games last year) and
potential. He's also been working on catching the knuckleball in winter ball,
which, if he could do it, would eliminate the need for the Sox to have a personal
catcher for Tim Wakefield. The problem is, what would the Sox have to give up?
Probably Clay Buchholtz, which seems like s pretty steep price to pay.

The Sox could do both 1 and 2, which might not be a bad idea. Sign Varitek and let him start for 110 - 120 games and if he still can't hit, you have a guy you can put in to pinch hit and then catch in key spots late in the games. Salty could learn about game-calling from one of the best. Might be the best of both worlds.

Pitching should be fine, with Beckett/Matsuzaka/Lester/Wakefield set and some combination of Buchholtz/Masterson/Bowden/Tazawa (and maybe Paul Byrd?) in the 5th spot. The bullpen will be good, too.

What else do the Sox need to do? Well, they probably need some balls for spring training, so they should trade Julio Lugo for the proverbial bag of balls. Eat the contract, whetever. Just dump him. Let Jed Lowrie have a full season at short, and assuming he isn't hurt again, he'll produce. They also need another outfielder, with Coco Crisp being gone. They were looking at Rocco Baldelli, formerly of the Rays, but that's kind of a risky move, as he can't play a lot of games and if JD Drew gets hurt (or any other outfielder, for that matter) that could be problematic. I wouldn't mind them signing Baldelli and then another guy that can play outfield as well as infield. I'd also like to see them pick up another starter, although that could be a number 4 or 5 guy. How about taking a flyer on Ben Sheets, if he'd sign for 2 years?

So that's what they NEED to do.

As far as Mark Teixiera, I have real mixed feelings. Signing Tex means that either Kevin Youkilis or Mike Lowell would probably be traded, and I would hate to see that. Push comes to shove, I'd rather see them trade Lowell, but coming off a hip injury and surgery, his value is lower than Youkilis. Youk would bring a lot right now, but I just can't see the Sox doing that deal, not even the Nomar-traders. But Texis such a great player, and a really good guy, according to what I've read, that it's hard to say, we're not going to sign him because Mike Lowell has 2 years remaining on his contract... I mean, Tex is going to command a 6 - 8 year deal, so to NOT do that because it might cost you a player that is at the end of his career (albeit still very productive, a great defender a wonderful clubhouse guy)... This is a guy that will be your middle-of-the-order hitter, protecting Big Papi, for years to come, and is a Gold Glover at first. Seems hard to pass that up, if 'all' it is going to cost you is money (versus prospects). So, on balance, if that deal can be done, then I say do it.