January 22, 2008
Resting Youkilis
The Red Sox are looking to add another left-handed bat:
The Red Sox are hoping to obtain a player who can give Youkilis more rest. Because of the hard-nosed nature of Youkilis' play, the Sox are concerned he wears down at the end of the season...
Maybe Youk should learn to lighten up when the Sox have a big lead. :-)
One person they are considering is Sean Casey. Sean and I have a common friend through six degrees of separation. A close classmate of mine from Harvard is the older brother of Sean's priest. Sean and Father Paul do a lot of charity work together, so bringing him to Boston would certainly make that easier.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:21 PM
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Gaaah. It would take a profound faith in the value of "major league experience" to believe that Sean Casey has anything to offer a major-league team aside from enthusiasm and good conversation. At best, he brings an okay batting average and a decent OBA; at worst, he's a big negative at a position that should give you a premium OPS. He's a nice guy, but is he really the best the Sox can do?
Who was the guy they thought they had no use for - oh yeah Carlos Pena - 46 HR Carlos Pena
Well, to be fair about Pena, Boston wasn't the only place he was a washout. He couldn't stick with the Tigers when they were a terrible team.
When Boston let him go, he was a once-hot prospect who'd been a complete failure in multiple major-league trials. He'd have a hot streak once in a while, but he was usually a black hole in the lineup. Last year in Tampa, at age 29, he topped his previous season-best OBP by 70+ points, and had his best slugging season by 140 points! I'm glad for him, but you can't really fault the Red Sox or Tigers for giving up on him.
?????????? So now they're looking at some washed up Sean Casey type? Pena was exactly what they were looking for except they kept Hinske because he can sorta play the corner OF spots. Pena played pretty well for the Red Sox except they really didn't give him much of a look in '06. Then they released him the day the season was over. They stuck with Youk eventhough he's had big dropoffs in the 2nd half the last 2 years. Now they are looking for a BL to give him a break.
In retrospect, releasing Pena was a bad move. But at the time, there was no reason to think that he was going to suddenly get his act together after nearly five full years in MLB.
Right now? Any team but the Cardinals could use Carlos Pena. At the end of 2006? He was one short step from an audition with the Nippon Ham Fighters. The only kind of place he would have gotten playing time in 2007 was with a noncontender like Tampa. No contender in their right mind would have started 2007 with Carlos Pena as their everyday first baseman, or even as half of a platoon.
The Sox had him at the end of '06 - they could have brought him to spring training for next to nothing - they went with Hinske instead and released Pena the day after the season was over and he had played pretty well for them in very limited action. He hit a walk off in 1 game. Make all the excuses you want - they had him and let him go instead of letting him compete for a job.