What do you expect the Red Sox to do this year? Do you think they’re going to win the Series again? It’s time for us all to put our expectations down. All of you should put your predictions down below in the comments section of this page. I personally expect that the Sox will get back into the Wild Card position. It’s hard for the other divisions to do better than the East to take a division winner and a wild card spot too. So instead, I expect that the Red Sox will get it. I would say that they’ll have about 85-90 wins, second place in the division. Then I would think that they’ll make it to the ALCS, just because they’re due. There have been some weird mistakes during the offseason, but I’d rather have them make the big mistakes now and then have it out of their system before the pivotal moments in the year. So what do you say? Any nay-sayers amongst you? Or any real optimists who expect them to sweep through the playoffs?

Yesterday was the Hall of Fame voting for the 2010 class and the winner was, unsurprisingly, a Red Sox player. But it is a little bit surprising which one it was. Andre Dawson, who only played with the team for a year or two and was injured most of the time, is the newest member of baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He will be honored in a ceremony in a few months. He definitely deserves it, although his actual time of performance was really low. He had 12 knee surgeries during his career and it sidelined him for such a long time that most fans only got to see short moments of his legendary ability. When he was playing great, he was amazing. He deserves it, though I suppose the Red Sox can’t take much credit for his election.

There are rising concerns about the level of the roster that the current Red Sox team will put on the field this year. I mean, we play in the same division as the Yankees, but we don’t have the kind of push that they do in their batting. Our pitching is decent and our fielding is getting better. But can’t we get the big bats here too? They have made some big changes over the last few years and especially this offseason. They have invested some impressive resources in their lineup this year, but there’s nothing really big in it as far as the batting goes. Hopefully we’ll be able to make some big changes in the next few weeks before Spring Training begins. Either that, or hopefully someone’s bat will simply light it up again this year. Let’s get ready to see it in action!

Finally, the Mike Lowell issue should be more or less put to rest. After the botched trade attempt and the rough fallout afterwards, the team has finally got their man to have surgery. Happy New Years to him. But some of the damage has already been done and will be tough to change. Lowell, hopefully, will be back at full strength at some point early in the season. His thumb surgery doesn’t appear to be very serious but it is important to get him back on track for the next few seasons. Can we still trade him? Possibly, but I doubt it. That’s about all the big news there is in Red Sox world, so we’ll see you in 2010!

When Mike Lowell hurt his thumb awhile back, it would appear that the Sox should have taken a look at it before it got to the level that it did. Especially if you’re going to shop the guy out. This is the problem. We should have taken a look at Lowell before we started offering him for a trade. If he has a sore thumb, you look at it to make sure it isn’t a problem. Since we let the Texas Rangers check it out and release the news, it’s a bigger problem and becomes a news story. These other teams aren’t going to want to bring him in, or at the very least, they’re going to approach it all very skeptically! If he’s hurt, we need to check for that kind of thing so that the people who want to have him can say “ah, he’s hurt, but we can definitely count on him halfway through the season.” That’s how you can trade a guy like Lowell.

Mike Lowell needs surgery. I know it’s a bit of a surprise for all of you, but it’s true. When the Texas Rangers were looking at him during the trade talks this was not part of the deal. The Red Sox never disclosed that Lowell’s jammed thumb was actually something that needed a bit of operation. So instead, we might not get to play him right away at the beginning of the season, but instead we will have to wait until he recovers. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be something really serious with lots of physical therapy, but it’s still going to be tough. Alternately, the Red Sox have been trying to shop him out recently too, so we’ll have to keep that in mind as the time goes by too, though with a bad thumb it might not be clear that someone is willing to take him.

Matt Holliday was going to get a deal from our Sox before we got Lackey, but it was going to be a big deal for Mr. H. We had hoped that we would get to see Holliday on the Fenway field, but it didn’t work out that way. It’s not that we’re having so much trouble with the pitching, but this is the division where you want to keep your team extra strong to be able to compete with the Yankees, so I can see why Lackey was needed. I read something the other day where they were lamenting that we and the Yankees are looking likely to take the division and wild card for a lot of time in the future. Well, that’s what happens when the teams are that good. I won’t say that the Yankees are good, but the Red Sox are amazing. With their new pitcher and some good new hitting, they’re looking like they’ll be even more impressive this year!

John Lackey is headed to Boston and it means a lot. While the Red Sox pitching hasn’t been called into question much in the last few years, it’s good to keep bringing in new prospects. Lackey has pitched admirably for his previous teams and will continue by giving the Red Sox an advantage down the stretch. This has importance in other parts of the country too. Seattle has missed out on another free agent pitcher that they badly need. This might give the Yankees a little bit of fear in the next few seasons, possibly even making them spend resources on raising their own pitching staff another notch. Either way, Lackey’s probable arrival in Boston is definitely the best news we’ve had in awhile.

Mike Lowell is the talk of the city right now. The player is being talked about as a player to be sent over to the Texas Rangers. He was the World Series MVP back in 07, but hasn’t been able to produce the way he could before. We would like to see him stay in town, but it’s possible that we might get to see an even better player come into Boston next time. The trade isn’t official yet, but it’s starting to seem more and more likely. Lowell has been able to raise his stock since the last time he was in free agency and the team has been trying to deal him out for a couple of years already. Not because he’s a bad player, but perhaps we just need something different right now. Thanks for the good time Mike, and good luck in your new place if this trade is true.

It seems that everyone in Boston is talking about the Red Sox’ various issues with the shortstop position. There is good reason for this. This position has been shaky for many years now. We would love to see them get a good solid person in there, but they haven’t been able to. The pitching has been fine, the hitting decent until this year. Most of the fielding positions have been held reasonably well too, though the infield has fallen off a bit in the last couple years. But what we’re looking is someone who can play the position and hit reasonably well. We don’t need a Gold Glove and a Barry Bonds-type hitter. Of course that would be nice, except for some of the drama that accompanies that. But let’s just get something steady in there and things will be great. Hopefully Scutaro is that guy!