The Red Sox have seemed to finally acquired themselves a shortstop as reports indicate that Alex Gonzalez is in town for a physical and will be signed to a deal once the doctors check him out. At this point most of the holes and questionmarks surrounding the Olde Towne Team are starting to be answered.
The infield is shaping up, as I feel that Mike Lowell will bounce back from the rough year and a half patch that he has gone through the past year and a half and can hit .280 and knock in 25 HR's. Gonzo will be a vacuum at short, making the plays that Renteria didn't and the O. Cab did during the '04 World Series run. The Loretta/Grafanino combo at 2nd should be able to hold it down batting around .280 with minimal power. Youkilis is still rather untested but raw, only playing 116 games over the past two seasons, but J.T. Snow will be right there to back him up as needed. I expect most Sox fans to be watching for Youk to have a breakout year in '06. Not that it should be too hard to forget Millar's 9 dingers and .272 avg.
I won't even go into wondering if Josh Bard is going to beat out John Flaherty for the backup catcher role, or the off chance the Doug Mirabelli might be headed back east now that Piazza has signed on with the Padres. I won't talk about the outfield and Coco Crisp or the pitching situation. Ms. C and I were talking on Sunday and she was wondering if she might feel as if she is in the middle of Fever Pitch once April rolls around, starring 4-rilla as Jimmy Fallon. It's not like I watch all 162 games... Probably only 140!
I will admit to trying to score some Sox tickets as they went on sale this past weekend, but I didn't do anything more than spend an hour and half stuck in the dreaded virtual waiting room before getting on with my day.
There was plenty of talk on WEEI Monday regarding the fact that this coming season will be the first in which all 162 games will be broadcast on NESN, no more Friday night games on UPN. I was surprised by the amount of people calling in who do not have cable tv, complaining that they will no longer be able to see any Red Sox games without getting cable. The hosts of both the midday show and the afternoon drive show were taken to task by callers though. Everyone at EEI was basically saying if you want to watch the games, then get cable. They couldn't believe that some people didn't have cable and pretty much were under the opinion that most people can "afford" cable and if they want to watch the Sox games they should pay up and put aside the moral or political stand they were taking by not having cable.
At this point the hosts were reminded by the callers that WEEI is constantly airing those annoying "radio should be free commercials" since regular radio is more concerned then you know about the onslaught of new subs coming over to satellite radio. The ads in Boston are super annoying as they feature the radio call of the final pitch of the 2004 World Series. Slow roller back to Foulke, Foulke flips to first..... And the commercial cuts to an annoying beep and a female operator says, "Please deposit .25 cents for the next two minutes." Or something along those lines. It was just very funny that the hosts of both shows were saying that consumers should pay for content if they want it; however whenever we would go to break the parent company was telling us that we should only be listening to "free radio" I know I haven't minded spending my .43 cents a day for my Sirius receiver as I sit here listening to the Howard Stern show replay with my back to President Bush's State of The Union address.
I'm off to collect all my tax documents from around the house and perhaps even fireup Turbo Tax.
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