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Look, I love Jason Bay as a human being. And I appreciate all that he’s done for the Red Sox since arriving in Boston a season and a half ago. But he’s just not the guy for the Red Sox to sign this offseason – he’s coming off a career year and a half, and he plays defense roughly like a bump on a log. To think that he may sign a deal on par with or even bigger than Matt Holliday this offseason just boggles my mind.

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The Red Sox plan to meet with Josh Beckett to discuss his future with Boston. This is a contract year, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him locked up for a 2-3 more seasons.

Despite interviewing with the San Diego Padres and their new GM Jed Hoyer, director of player development Mike Hazen has decided to stay with Boston. That’s despite the fact that Hazen was a player in the Padres’ system at one time; that’s an encouragement.

Dustin Richardson has been selected to the AFL All-Star team. After his star dimmed a bit over the last year or so, the lefty looked impressive with the Sox this year and is throwing harder than ever. Casey Kelly and Jose Iglesias are splitting time at shortstop, and Kelly hopes to decide soon – offense or defense?

We’ve covered our impending free agents here. Now we need to step back and see what the team looks like, sans those guys we’re gonna let walk. Then we can examine our strengths and weaknesses and formulate a plan for the offseason. Let’s take a look at what the Red Sox have already in-house, and what players could be gone:

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The best way for me to get my mind off the fact that the Red Sox are no longer in the hunt while the Yankees are is to get thinking on the 2010 season before the corpse of 2009 gets too cold. It’s good to know that Epstein sees this team’s core as having one more year left to contend; could that mean we’ll have a bit more of a “win now” approach this offseason?

Bring ‘em back?

First we should address the expiring contracts. The Red Sox need to decide whether they want to re-sign these players or let them go to free agency. Then we can examine what to do about any holes.

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Now that the regular season is over, we can take a look back and compare our expectations with what we really saw. Here are the predictions I made on this blog before this season, and how it all turned out. Back in January I predicted that we would score about 835 runs, allow 729 runs and end up with a 92-70 record, winning the wild card. We got the wild card, but actually ended up with 95 wins, mainly due to the unexpected struggles of the Rays. Going into a bit more detail: Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Mauer is having a season for the ages as a catcher. It’s ridiculous how good he’s been – and if this analysis can be believed, he could be worth some $170M+ when he comes up for free agency at the end of next year. Would the Sox invest that kind of money in Mauer, even if he couldn’t remain a catcher for the whole length of the contract?

Hallelujah, Jed Lowrie is back! Lowrie appears to be healthy, but as the Sox are wont to do, they will bring him along cautiously, and platoon him with Nick Green for a while. Along with that move, Julio Lugo has been DFA’d to make room on the roster. Whether he is released or traded, the Red Sox will be eating the rest of his contract. Give Theo some credit for admitting his mistake in signing Lugo to an inflated 4-year deal.

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For those who are enamored by Jason Bay’s stellar 1st half performance and wanted to sign him to a contract extension, the Red Sox have let it be known that further talks won’t be happening until the offseason. Bay is eligible to become a 30-year old free agent this offseason, and is putting himself in line for a huge deal as one of the top left fielders and power bats available this offseason. His top-notch hitting against the Yankees and other tough competitors is only adding to his perceived value.

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It’s trading time, and a lot of teams are deciding right now whether they want to buy or sell. Here are some rumored players and why they are or are not likely to become Red Sox:

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Jonathan Papelbon just set the Red Sox record for saves with 133 for his career, passing Hall of Famer Bob Stanley at just 28 years old. The other numbers are pretty amazing too; Paps owns a 1.83 ERA. For his career. He’s struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings. For his career. In 25 innings of postseason play, he has 7 saves and has yet to give up a single run. The man just thrives on pressure situations in the pressure cooker of pressure cookers. And the accolades just keep piling up. He narrowly missed the AL Rookie of the Year in 2006, but he was just selected for his fourth All-Star appearance in his fourth full season. He is already recognized as one of the most dominant closers in baseball, and his dream of becoming the next Mariano Rivera appears to be coming true.

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Fenway header image by Eric Kilby, licensed under Creative Commons.

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