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Originally Posted by dalakhani
Wakefield is injured but will be back and he has pitched well. lester is a solid number 2 behind beckett. Then you thow in the grab bag of penny, bucholz and smoltz before matsuzaka comes back. I know they are a little beat up but that is still a good staff to go along with the deepest pen in the league. I dont see pitching as a problem for them really IF they can get past the injury bug.
Their lineup looked anemic before this deal. They will have to pick up some major contract dollars and throw in some prospects for anyone to want any part of papi or lowell. Now the middle of the order actually looks like that of a legit contender.
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I dont agree at all. Penny is a 5 inning guy and got absolutely smoked the other night, Smoltz has been really shaky against mostly weak teams, Dice K wasnt good before his arm troubles. While the top 2 are as good as anyones and Buchholz is a good pitcher, the rest of the staff is shaky. The bullpen has plenty of late inning guys but is lacking in a solid middle guy now that Masterson is gone. I suppose Bard will fill in but those innings will are going to be important since they have three more or less 5 inning pitchers in Penny, Smoltz and Dice K. They can probably get a guy that gets through waivers but they are needing a veteran guy to pick up innings and make some spot starts.
As for the lineup, Martinez is a very good hitting catcher but as a 1st baseman or DH he is just pretty ordinary. Not to mention that he hasnt been hitting much the last 2 months. Plus Martinez in the field makes an already weak defensive team weaker. He is a huge downgrade at 1st from Youlkilis and is not a strong catcher. I like Martinez and his ability to catch makes him valuable but I would like him more if he were going to play 5 games a week behind the plate.