Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Sox Consider Plan To Keep Middlebrooks Up

Stranger In A Strange Land?
Red Sox GM Ben Cherington has stated that—with the multiple injuries of late—the team will keep Will Middlebrooks' right-handed bat with the big club when Kevin Youkilis returns. Of course, this begs the question, what do you do with the kid? Let him rot on the end of the bench until Bobby V. decides to pinch-hit him once a week? Another scenario that's floating out there is to keep Middlebrooks anchored at third base, place Kevin Youkilis at first base and semi-permanently move Adrian Gonzalez to right field. This has many pluses and almost as many minuses. The big risk, of course, is that A-Gon hurts himself chasing an elusive ball around the pinball-like right field corner in Fenway. The upside is that you present one of the most potent offensive lineups in baseball—with a healthy Youkilis and streaking Middlebrooks in the middle of it. You can weigh-in on this issue in our latest poll HERE.