All I Want for Christmas is Teixeira in a Sox Uniform

Long time, no blog. Lots of stuff happened since I last blogged. Pedey won a slew of hardware, including the coveted A.L. MVP and a Gold Glove, Youk tied the knot, the Sox inked a deal with another pitcher from The Land of the Rising Sun, 'Tek declined arb and hit the open market, Coco gets shipped to Kansas City for reliever Ramon Ramirez, and Julio Lugo, Big Papi, J.D. Drew, rental player Mark Kotsay, and yours truly all turned 33. Gotta love it when they talk about baseball players my age as OLD... Ok, well it's sort of true for ballplayers that performance peaks in the late 20s to around 30 or 31, so by 33 some guys are beginning the south end of their career, but last year's World Series MVP, Mikey Lowell had a career year at 33.

Now I'm gonna sound like a big ol' hypocrite for advocating the Sox' shipping Lowell to make room for one of the most complete players in baseball, Mark Teixeira, but come on, it's Mark frickin' Teixiera! Do we really want to see this power hitting switch-hitter with a Gold Glove to boot in pinstripes, facing him 18 times a year? Sure, he's only one player, and the Sox now have Gold Glovers at three out of four infield positions, but the Sox offense could use that powerful bat when we don't know how Papi or Lowell will do next year on the staying healthy front. Both had injury-ridden seasons this year and Papi had offensive struggles both before and after his wrist injury. Bay and Youk have pop, but they're not quite to the level of a healthy Papi, Teixeira, and, yes, Manny in his eight years as a Red Sox. Teixeira hits for both power and average and he's in the prime of his career at 28.

There are other issues the Sox need to address this off-season. Most importantly, a starting catcher. If 'Tek walks, the Sox need to find his replacement and fast. Even if 'Tek stays on, it would be in the team's best interest to find a young catcher for him to mentor. Then there's starting pitching. Buchholz and Bowden are question marks, at least for the start of the 2009 season, so a solid #4 (with Wake being the #5) is needed. If it so happens that filling these other holes precludes the Sox from shelling out the dough for Tex, then I hope the Nationals find a way to sign him. Though I'm a Sox fan through and through, the Nats are actually my hometown team and they could really use a player like Tex to build their young, struggling team around. Maybe he can help turn things around for them. Plus, it keeps him out of the A.L. and, most importantly, not in pinstripes.

Unless there's any earth-shattering Sox news (like, if the Sox actually ink Teixeira) I probably won't be blogging until the start of Spring Training, so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Go Red Sox in 2009!

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!