Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Springtime Brings More Angst To Red Sox Fans

Spring Breaks Over New England This Morning
As Spring officially dawns on New England (see photo for proof), Red Sox fans are met with a whole host of issues with less than two weeks until Opening Day. There are the injury woes of David Ortiz (probably out for the first month) and Stephen Drew (in Pittsburgh of all places for intensive concussion testing). The bullpen strength was diluted some with more injuries to Franklin Morales (disc in back) and Craig Breslow (shoulder). There's the question of whether BenCher will pull the trigger on a deal with either Texas (trading off some bullpen) or Anaheim (trading off some catching). There's the issue of whether the bevy of ThirtySomethings (Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster, Mike Napoli, David Ross) will be a boom or a bust. There's the agonizing question of whether Jackie Bradley Jr. (now hitting a mere .439) will be on the roster when the Carmine Hose take on the Empire on April 1. And, there's the question of whether Jose Iglesias (the default Opening Day SS) can hit enough to stay on the big club. Finally, there's the question of whether the generally good Spring starting pitching will translate into the regular season. Other than that, no angst at all.