10-22-09 Links: Successful surgeries, Aroldis, Kikuchi, staff changes and Bay versus Holliday

Tim Wakefield had successful back surgery yesterday, and is expected to make a full recovery in time for Spring Training 2010. I hope this means he can come back for an encore. Outfield prospect Zach Daeges also had surgery to remove an extra bone in his ankle, which sidelined him for the 2009 season. His prognosis is also good going forward.

Links: Early speculation on the Red Sox offseason plan

It’s never too early to start speculating about next year. It may seem like Spring Training is an eternity away, but the Sox have to start game-planning now. Should they tangle with Scott Boras again and risk Matt Holliday going to the Yankees or some other team at the last minute? Thinking they had and then not landing Mark Teixeira really left them in the lurch last year.

Post-2009: Potential free agents

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.

2009 ALDS: More info and analysis

Unsurprisingly, the New York Yankees have elected to start their Divisional Series tomorrow, so that means the Red Sox will play game 1 against the Angels on Thursday. Here’s what the schedule looks like:

Game 1: Thu @ LAA, 9:37PM
Game 2: Fri @ LAA, 9:37 PM
Game 3: Sun @ BOS, 12:07 PM
Game 4: Mon @ BOS afternoon (if needed)
Game 5: Wed @ LAA

Red Sox roster

Pitchers (10)
Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz
Jonathan Papelbon, Billy Wagner, Hideki Okajima, Daniel Bard, Takashi Saito, Ramon Ramirez, Manny Delcarmen

Positional (14)
Victor Martinez, Jason Varitek, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Alex Gonzalez, Mike Lowell, Casey Kotchman, Jed Lowrie
J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Bay, David Ortiz, Rocco Baldelli/Josh Reddick, Joey Gathright]

That leaves one spot up for grabs. The Sox could add Daisuke Matsuzaka to avoid pitching Lester on short rest in Game 4, or add another middle infielder, given the shaky status of Lowrie.

2009 Projections: How did we do?

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:

9/28/2009: Looking ahead to the playoffs

As Dan Shaughnessey points out, getting swept by the Yankees in a series that doesn’t count for anything doesn’t really matter, because the Sox are doing what they do best – getting healthy and prepped for the postseason. It looks like it’s working:

Notes: Sept 17, 2009

Just a few items to catch you up on.

You know about Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez, but Jonathan Papelbon also tweaked his back the other day, after losing his footing on a warmup pitch.

Tim Wakefield is not really improving, but he wants to give it another shot. He’s slated to start Monday in Kansas City against the Royals. Personally I don’t want to see him get hurt, but with the wild card race shaking out, if he can give us some innings, it can’t hurt, right? More rest for our playoff rotation.

Congratulations to David Ortiz, who recently set the record for most career HR by a DH with 312.

Sox add Dusty Brown, Lowrie

Things are going swimmingly for the Red Sox so far in September. They are winning and players are returning to health – sort of. The Sox recalled Josh Reddick last week, and they added Dusty Brown and Jed Lowrie this week to deepen the bench and hopefully get people healthy.

Dice-K’s bad inning at Portland, minor goings on

Look up Daisuke Matsuzaka’s latest rehab start for the Portland Sea Dogs, and you’ll see a very ugly line there: 2IP, 5 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks with 1 HR. The silver lining is that all the damage came in the first inning, and he zipped through the second inning on nine pitches with good control while throwing close to 100%. Let’s hope he can show some more of that up here with the Sox.

2009 September callups and that Kazmir trade

With their grasp on the AL wild card tightening, the Red Sox can take a slightly less accelerated route for prospect promotion this September. So you may not see Michael Bowden or Josh Reddick up here again this season. As of today, they have recalled OFs Brian Anderson and Joey Gathright (remember that backup CF trade I mentioned at the July 31st deadline? Here they are.) SS Jed Lowrie and C George Kottaras will almost certainly join the club, now that rosters have expanded. Lowrie was recently given the all-clear to play.