Boston Red Sox

Over the next few weeks, I'll be publishing a series of articles on the Red Sox farm system, profiling a dozen or so top-tier prospects that have high potentials and will likely help the club as the next wave of homegrown talent. You can read part one on Ryan Kalish here.

My friend Shawn came out to Los Angeles on a business trip and while he was on the Left Coast, we got together in Malibu for lunch at Dukes.

We sat in the barefoot bar area out on the deck overlooking the ocean.

He had never been to L.A. before, so I figured a few libations and some dolphins swimming by wouldn’t be a bad way to introduce him to the laid back lifestyle Southern California seems to thrust upon its (totally willing) inhabitants.

When the Red Sox traded one of their all-time best players, Nomar Garciaparra, they entered a state of turmoil with regard to the shortstop position.

The Red Sox acquired Orlando Cabrera in 2004, followed quickly by Edgar Renteria and Julio Lugo. A combination of Lugo, Jed Lowrie, Alex Cora, Nick Green and Alex Gonzalez were used between 2007 and 2009.

Finally, the Red Sox signed Marco Scutaro, who started for the Red Sox in 2010. All in all, nine Red Sox started at least 50 games for the Red Sox since 2004.

Spring training is a great opportunity to get a sense of how a player's offseason went, and what to expect in terms of improvement or regression. How a player performs during spring training often helps scouts see how players are recovering from injury or whether or not to expect a player who disappointed the previous season to bounce back.

Wait he still plays?

Like many baseball fans, I am guilty of saying this expression from time to time. It seems like more than any other major sport, baseball players still tend to have the ability to produce in the later stages of their careers.

Every team seems to have that one old hitter that you thought retired five seasons ago. Often times we poke fun at them, but it is not deserved.

Most championship caliber teams are guilty of having these kinds of players. There is a lot of value in having a hitter that has aged like fine wine.

Spring is almost here. Okay, not really. A good portion of the country is currently covered in snow. But it is just around the corner. And with spring comes the baseball fan's favorite thing to hear after a long, cold, baseball-less winter: Pitchers and Catchers report.

The Boston Red Sox usually does a good job when it comes to retooling and trying to keep up with the New York Yankees. They should, it is as important of a skill for the front office now than ever before.

Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jonathan Papelbon each face the daunting challenge of regaining the old velocity and movement on their fastballs.  That's a hard thing for any pitcher to do when their fastball has begun to decline.  

In trying to assess players at Spring Training for the Boston Red Sox this season one can take several different approaches from a few different angles. You can look at those current roster players on the depth chart and say you need to pay attention to those guys since they are slated to play in the majors as it stands today, or you can look at the guys who have made their living in the minors and are ready to make the jump by replacing the major leaguers if they slip up in Ft. Myers this spring.

The Red Sox have all the pieces necessary in order to boast the league's best offense. They have the speed demons in Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford, they have the guys who seemingly always get on base in J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia and they have the guys to drive in these base runners in David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez.

The next step for the Sox is to strategically place these players in an order in which they will thrive. Before getting into the specifics of who should bat where, let us begin by establishing the 'definition' of a batting order.