This offense needs some serious help. On the 7 game road trip, the Red Sox were 7 for 7 in quality starts. Every starter went at least 6 innings, giving up 3 or fewer runs. Yet the team went 3-4 during that stretch, in large part because the offense scored: 4, 2, 0, 1, 10, 4 and 1 runs, respectively. Take out the 10 run outlier and that's an average of 2 runs per game.
Julio Lugo, Coco Crisp and J.D Drew continue to contribute almost nothing offensively. Mike Lowell is starting to go into his second half slide. It may be time to re-consider a variation of the Todd Helton trade. Do you think the Rockies would bite on the following offer?:
Mike Lowell (3 months, $4.5 million), Julio Lugo (3.5 years, $32 million), Joel Pineiro (3 months, $2 million), Craig Hansen (2.5 years, $2.5 million), Dave Pauley (minimum wager), Travis Hughes (minimum wager), Abe Alvarez (minimum wager) and $4 million (to make 2007 salaries even on both sides) for Todd Helton (4.5 years, $77 million) and Kaz Matsui (3 months, $0.8 million)?
Here's why the Rockies would make the deal - they'd save $41 million over 4 years, or an average of $10 million per year. They'd pick up three potential starting pitchers in Joel Pineiro, Abe Alvarez and Dave Pauley (who is from Colorado.) They'd add a pair of young fireballing relief pitchers in Craig Hansen and Travis Hughes. They'd replace at least some of Helton's offense with Gold Glover Mike Lowell (who would come off the books at the end of the year.) Lugo would take over for Matsui at second base, or could take over for a mediocre rookie at shortstop.
Here's why the Red Sox would make the deal - Todd Helton would vastly improve the offense, and his statistics could actually go up even more playing half his games at Fenway Park. Kaz Matsui would give the Red Sox even more of a Japanese flavor, and more importantly, he'd provide an offensive upgrade at shortstop. He'd come off the books at the end of the year, effectively allowing the Red Sox to get out from under Lugo's contract. The team could then target Orlando Cabrera or Alex Rodriguez during the off-season. Or they could continue with Kaz Matsui if he plays well. While the team would be giving up some of its starting pitching depth, the Red Sox would still have Kason Gabbard, Devern Hansack and Clay Buccholz as capable fill-ins, along with Manny Delcarmen and Egar Martinez out of the bullpen.
Post-trade roster:
1. 2B Dustin Pedroia
2. 3B Kevin Youkilis
3. DH David Ortiz
4. LF Manny Ramirez
5. 1B Todd Helton (.332 AVG, 6 HR, 29 RBI, .447 OBA)
6. RF J.D Drew
7. C Jason Varitek
8. SS Kaz Matsui (.324 AVG, 1 HR, 14 RBI, .355 OBA)
9. CF Coco Crisp
10. C Doug Mirabelli
11. 1B/3B/OF Eric Hinske
12. 2B/SS Alex Cora
13. OF Wily Mo Pena
14. SP Curt Schilling
15. SP Josh Beckett
16. SP Daisuke Matsuzaka
17. SP Tim Wakefield
18. SP Jon Lester
19. RP Jon Papelbon
20. RP Hideki Okajima
21. RP Mike Timlin
22. RP Brendan Donnelly
23. RP Javier Lopez
24. RP Julian Tavarez
25. RP Kyle Snyder
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