Green was sidelined with what was believed to be a slipped disc in his back since mid-Sept., with his last at-bat coming on Sept. 16 when he drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning of a win over the Angels.

The shortstop, who complained of a ‘dead’ right leg throughout the last few weeks of the season, played in 103 games with the Red Sox in 2009, hitting .236 with six homers.

The 31-year-old has spent parts of five season in the major leagues, having previously played in the Braves, Rays, Yankees and Mariners organizations.

Because the Marlins had to deal Hermida or face the prospect of making him a non-tender free-agent (there was no chance Florida was going to offer the 25-year-old salary arbitration), the acquisition cost was relatively low. The Sox gave up a pair of left-handers without a clear path to their major-league roster in Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez. Here’s a brief primer on how each fit into the Sox system:

HUNTER JONES

Jones was one of the great scouting finds in the Red Sox organization, an undrafted free agent whom scouting director Jason McLeod saw on the Cape and brought into the Sox system for $35,000. He completed a remarkable and unlikely journey (this cannot be understated: he was never supposed to be able to throw over 85 mph after fracturing his ulna and requiring the insertion of a metal rod in his forearm) by reaching the majors this year.

But even though Jones is a strike-thrower with good deception and plane on his fastball, he has yet to develop a consistent breaking pitch that would allow him to be a real contributor in the Red Sox bullpen. He also didn’t prove particularly effective against lefties.

And so, with Dustin Richardson (recently named an All-Star in the Arizona Fall League) having passed him on the organization’s left-handed depth chart, he became a replaceable part who could be moved. For Jones (who has one option remaining), the opportunity is potentially an excellent one, as he gets to audition for a bullpen role with a Marlins franchise that is close to his hometown.

Jones has one option remaining, but with the Red Sox, there was little chance that he could be more than a last-man-in-the-bullpen type. Particularly given the number of established roles in the bullpen, Jones likely would have spent 2010 back in Pawtucket (for the third year), with the occasional call-up when the Sox needed some innings in their bullpen. With the Marlins, he faces a greater likelihood of big-league innings, in a ballpark and league that can only help his career.

JOSE ALVAREZ

Alvarez’ performance in 2009 — especially in Lowell of the Single A New York Penn League — was outstanding. He actually started the year in High A Salem, working out of the bullpen, as the Sox thought it would be more beneficial for him to have innings at an affiliate club than in extended spring training. He pitched credibly, especially considering that at 20 years old he was very young for the league. He had a 4.74 ERA in 12 relief appearances, where he struck out 11 and walked six in 24.2 innings.

When Lowell’s season began, he went to the Spinners to work as a starter, and his numbers jumped. Alvarez went 8-3 with a 1.52 ERA while pounding the strike zone, allowing just 10 walks against 63 strikeouts in 83 innings. He was an All-Star at the level.

His stuff is considered decent, if unspectacular. His willingness to throw strikes at a young age is impressive. He demonstrated a good feel for his changeup, a fringe-average fastball (high-80s, perhaps ticking 90 or 91) that he throws for strikes, and a breaking ball that remains a work in progress. The fastball/changeup combination suggests a pitcher better suited for the rotation than the bullpen, and he would have competed for a spot in the Greenville rotation in 2010, but with no certainty of cracking into that starting group.

On Hermida: “Hermida is a player who hasn’t fulfilled his potential yet and we acquired him today for a reasonable cost to see if he might be able to fulfill that potential enough.”

“He’s somebody who has positive indicators that his future performance might be better than his past performance. His minor league track record, his draft pedigree, [and] our scouting reports over the years indicated there’s a chance that he can turn into the player that he was once thought to be.”

“Certainly this was a good time to acquire him when his value was a little bit low and see if [in a] change of scenery he might be able to fulfill his potential.”

“He’s an average defender on the corners [and] a fairly well-rounded player, but coming out of the draft as the 11th overall pick and having an outstanding minor league performance as a young player throughout the minor league, he showed a lot of offensive potential.”

“When you acquire a player, sometimes you acquire them because you think there’s a chance that with a change of scenery they might grow into their potential and into their promise. He’s somebody who had and we feel may still have considerable promise.”

“[Hermida] was very young for each level he was at and performed extremely well, especially at Double A, and things just never came together for him in the big leagues. That’s not uncommon for young players. He’s about to turn 26 [and] move into his prime years. Sometimes talented young players who have struggled in the big leagues level put it all together and sometimes they don’t. When you have a chance to acquire one for what we deem to be a very reasonable cost, we think that’s the type of move that makes sense.”

On whether this is the start of a busy offseason: “This was not a blockbuster. This was a value trade, a chance to get a guy with unfulfilled potential for a reasonable cost. I don’t think we can draw grand conclusions about our offseason or the offseason throughout Major League Baseball based on this one transaction. It’s just a small move and I’m sure there will be increased activity with a lot of clubs when we get to the general managers’ meetings.”

On Hermida’s injuries: “I think that’s one of the things that has held him back and that has prevented him from reaching his potential. Most of the injuries he’s had have been soft tissue, head injuries, nothing that should be chronic, nothing structural that should impair him going forward. Again, often times young players get hurt early in their career and it really hampers them as they move closer to their prime and mature a little bit. Some figure out how to stay on the field and that helps them reach their potential, others don’t. We’ll see what happens with Jeremy.”

Hermida, a left-handed hitter, batted .259 with 13 home runs, 47 RBI and a career-high 56 walks in 129 games this season. Splitting time between left field and right field, Hermida made just one error in 205 total chances for a .995 fielding percentage, sixth among National League outfielders. He appeared in just three games after Aug. 31 due to an intercostal strain on his right side.

Here’s the press release from the Red Sox announcing the move:

BOSTON, MA — The Boston Red Sox today acquired outfielder Jeremy Hermida from the Florida Marlins in exchange for left-handed pitchers Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Hermida, 25, hit .259 (111-for-429) with 13 home runs and 47 RBI over 129 games with the Marlins in 2009 and set a career high with 56 walks.  The left-handed hitter appeared in 81 games (73 starts) in right field and 51 (40 starts) in left.  He made just one error in 205 total chances for a .995 fielding percentage, sixth among qualifying National League outfielders.  He appeared in just three games after August 31 due to an intercostal strain on his right side.

Selected by Florida in the first round (11th overall) of the 2002 First-Year Player Draft, Hermida has a .265 batting average (452-for-1,708), 57 homers and 210 RBI in 516 career Major League games with the Marlins.  He owns a .996 (1 error/264 total chances) fielding percentage in 151 contests beginning August 8, 2008, second in the NL over that time behind only Randy Winn (1.000), and is 45-for-148 (.304) in his career against AL East opponents.

Jones, 25, made his Major League debut with Boston in 2009 and appeared in 11 games in relief.  The left-hander posted a 9.24 ERA (13 ER/12.2 IP) with the Red Sox, compiling nine strikeouts.  In 36 relief outings with Triple-A Pawtucket, he was 4-3 with two saves and a 4.25 ERA (25 ER/53.0 IP).  Signed by the Red Sox as a non-drafted free agent on July 23, 2005, Jones went 22-14 with 22 saves and a 3.09 ERA (116 ER/338.0 IP) in 178 career minor league games (6 starts) in the Boston organization.

The 20-year-old Alvarez combined to go 9-4 with a 2.26 ERA (27 ER/107.2 IP) and 74 strikeouts compared to 16 walks in 26 games (12 starts) between Single-A Salem and Short-A Lowell in 2009.  He led the New York-Penn League with a 1.52 ERA (14 ER/83.0 IP) while recording eight wins over 14 outings (12 starts) with Lowell.  Signed by the Red Sox as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2005, the left-hander has compiled a 23-15 record and a 3.21 ERA (116 ER/325.2 IP) in 76 career minor league appearances (48 starts) in the Red Sox system.

The Red Sox also today outrighted right-handed pitcher Fernando Cabrera, outfielder Joey Gathright and infielder Nick Green to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Buster Olney is with is, good morning Buster.

Hey guys, how ya doin’?

Hey Buster, how do you think we’re doing? In Boston, Massachusetts, following a Yankees convincing World Series title.

Oh, come on, you’re in the middle of plotting how you’re going to take them down next year.

[Holley:] In all seriousness, we’ve been having a pretty spirited debate about the role of money for the Yankees in the World Series. I’d say money’s important, but you’ve got to do other smart things to put a great baseball team out there, and Dale sees it a little differently.

[Dale:] When I look at team payrolls, Buster, the Red Sox are closer to the San Diego Padres at 29 then they are to the Yankees, and that that’s a huge disadvantage to the Red Sox, and tough to overcome.

These next two statements are absolutely true in themselves: Number one, the payroll situation in baseball, the disparity, is getting to be an increasing problem and it’s only going to get worse in stuff that’s going to happen in the next 37 days. And two, I think the Yankees did a great job in the way that they spent their money, the way that they’ve changed the way they’ve operated really since the fall of 2005 when Brian Cashman went to George Steinbrenner and said, “Look, we have to change the way we do things, we have to catch the Red Sox and some of the other teams that are running organizations better than we are.”

So is it possible, maybe the Red Sox aren’t a great example because they spend a lot of money, too. A team like Tampa last year, is that a once-in-a-generation situation where you have great scouting and development and you have a bunch of kids that can take down a high-salary team like the Red Sox or the Yankees?

You ever seen the movie “Hoosiers?” I think that’s the way we’re going to view the 2008 Rays, because I think their window’s closing. On the off day the other day between Games 5 and 6, the Rays traded Aki Iwamura to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the reason why they did this was to save $650,000 in buyout money on his contract. They weren’t going to bring him back because he’s too expensive, and by the way, Iwamura is making $4.85 million with the Pirates — their highest-paid player. Does that tell you everything you need to know about where teams are? Yeah, I think the window of opportunities for small- or mid-market teams are getting smaller and as I mentioned, the next 37 days you are going to see a wave of non-tendered players like you’ve never seen before. General managers are thinking it’s going to be between 75 and 100 guys. Guys like Jeremy Hermida. Today, there’s a rumor that Mark Teahan is probably going to be traded to the White Sox by the Kansas City Royals because at $5 million, the Royals don’t think they can afford him. You know, that is going to be an increasing problem, so I absolutely do think that money is not a minor issue. And certainly, the Yankees, in the first year they open this new ballpark, which was a tremendous success, they win the championship. They’re loaded, and if they decide they want John Lackey, they’re going to get him.

One of the examples that we used concerning the financial disparity was just Teixeira. If the Red Sox had spent more than the Yankees for Teixeira, if he were here instead of there, how significantly would the gap between the two teams be closed?

I really think we’re going to look back at that bidding as a turning point in the dynamic between the Red Sox and Yankees. I think the Red Sox would have been the better team this year if they had won the Teixeira bidding. I think he’s that important of a player, he would have given the Red Sox exactly what they needed, a younger guy, a guy who can replace [David] Ortiz/Manny [Ramirez], a guy who can upgrade the defense, not only this year but in years going forward. And instead, the Red Sox are kind of left to choose among a lot of lesser options, and the Yankees meanwhile have this guy. And let me tell you something, I mean, there are always going to be character judgments about guys when they make money decisions as Teixeira did last winter, but from the moment he got in the Yankees clubhouse, he’s been tremendous in terms of how he’s dealt with the media, how he’s dealt with teammates, by all accounts he’s been a great teammate — and the Red Sox are left to sort of pick up the pieces from that.

You know, Buster, I have no doubt that Mark Teixeira is an impact player, but this is why I disagree that it would have vaulted the Red Sox to the World Series. I think the Yankees, with the signing of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and even acquiring Nick Swisher, I think they still had enough to overcome — if the Red Sox had gotten Teixeira, I still think the Yankees would have won the World Series.

Well, I hear you — and I think Sabathia and Burnett were terrific as well, but I think Teixeira would have made a huge difference during the regular season, the Yankees would have had Nick Swisher at first base, some lesser option out in the outfield, and going forward they wouldn’t be set up. And on the other hand, the Red Sox would have had that bridge guy to the next middle-of-the-order-type guy. I mean, you see them play more than I do, and I don’t think there’s any question at the end of the year what they were just starved for was a consistent offensive guy in the middle of their lineup. And I know people within the game thought the day Teixeira signed with the Yankees last year, they were like, “Wow, that might swing the balance of power between these two teams.”

Hideki Matsui was the World Series MVP, was tremendous, was great last night against Pedro in two situations that turned the game around. Does that change the way the Yankees are going to approach him in the offseason now that he’s a world series MVP, maybe they thought about moving on from this guy and now it’s going to be difficult to do?

No, it’s going to turn into business and not personal. I really think what they’re going to do is play [Johnny] Damon and Matsui off of each other. They’re only going to keep one of the two guys. I think they want to keep some flexibility because [Jorge] Posada clearly with his regressing defensive skills is going to be eating up some at-bats at designated hitter next year and the year after that. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were to basically put offers out to both Damon and Matsui or maybe they go after Damon first and say, “This is our offer for you, Johnny, and if you don’t take it we’re going to go after Matsui,” and basically get one of those two guys at the price they want to sign them to.

As I look at this thing with the left field position for the Red Sox and the Yankees, if they flopped left fielders, if Jason Bay got wooed by the Yankees and signed there and the Red Sox as a stop gap put Damon in left field here, I think he’d hit about eight home runs here next year.

You know what, I hear you. I don’t think the Yankees are going to be aggressive in going after an outfielder because they’ve got Austin Jackson coming up, and they do have this impending decision with Derek Jeter, about, you know, it doesn’t have to be next year, within the next two or three years, they’re going to move him out of shortstop. And because they have Teixeira and A-Rod locked up, they can’t put him in a corner, so I do think that they will not be a major bidder for [Matt] Holliday or Bay. Maybe I’ll be surprised, but I don’t think so.

Buster, I’m about to give you a new job here, get ready for this. I know I haven’t prepped you on this, but you are no longer ESPN baseball analyst, you are now the general manager of the Boston Red Sox. What are you going to do in the offseason, general manager Olney, to get the Red Sox back to the World Series?

I’m calling the Florida Marlins about Jeremy Hermida, who’s going to be one of these guys who might be non-tendered. I’m calling and trying to pluck the best of those guys, and I guarantee you Theo [Epstein]’s been doing that, in talking with general managers around the game. They say this is a really heavy part of the conversation right now. I don’t think they’re in a position at this moment to make a dynamic huge move. Idiots like me might say go get Prince Fielder, go sign John Lackey. I think they’re going to be laying back a little bit. Next year’s going to be somewhat of a transition year as they work through the last years of the contracts for Ortiz and Mike Lowell, and I don’t think they’re in a position really to do really what they’re going to need to do to upgrade their offense. I think next year’s going to be another sort of plug-and-fill year, and they’re going to have to do more incremental-type stuff like adding a promising young player like Jeremy Hermida.

I’m going to throw some names out here, and just tell me about the possibility or the viability of these guys being available. One is Felix Hernandez, two is Adrian Gonzalez, three is Miguel Cabrera and four is former Red Sox Hanley Ramirez.

One, I think if you’re going to get Hanley Ramirez, you basically have to throw the entire farm system at the Marlins. He’s hugely important to them, especially since they are getting ready to open up a new ballpark. I know the Red Sox and Marlins had a conversation lasted about .2 seconds about Hanley Ramirez last year. Unless the Marlins get into some serious financial situations, I just can’t see it happening and I can’t see Theo now, given where the Red Sox farm system is, I don’t see him suddenly just stripping down everything to get that one player especially with the young Cuban shortstop they have coming up that everyone just raves about. Miguel Cabrera, it all depends on whether Mike Ilitch, the Tigers owner, decides that he’s got to slash payroll, and we have no indication that’s the case. During the summertime, Magglio Ordonez, they allowed him to reach a vesting option for $18 million when everyone else in baseball thought they were crazy to do so, so it seems like Ilitch has no problem putting money down a drain. Felix Hernandez, I think the Mariners are going to make a sincere effort to sign him, and my gut is that they’re going to work it out. I think the Mariners know that he’s going to cost about $100 million. And Adrian Gonzalez, again, it’s a little bit like the Hanley Ramirez thing, certainly he wouldn’t be as expensive in terms of prospects, but if you’re the Red Sox, do you want to give up a boatload of prospects for him or do you want to just bide your time and wait for another first baseman to come around, because you know that Jed Hoyer, going into that job, is going to ask for an arm and a leg. And, he’s not expensive. It’s not like he’s sitting there with a $15 million contract, he’s only making $4 million, so you literally have to overpay to get him away from the Padres.

Well, asking you, Buster Olney, the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, this simple question: Are either Mike Lowell or David Ortiz tradeable?

No, they are not. You basically would have to eat a huge chunk of the contract to make them go away, and let’s face it … I think spring training, if not sooner, there will probably be an evaluation process where they will look at them and decide, you know what, should we just eat the money sooner or should we do it later, and we’ll see. I’m convinced that one of those two guys is not going to finish next year with the Red Sox.

Josh Beckett in town here the last couple of days said that he and his agent are going to begin conversations with the Red Sox very soon about the possibility of a contract extension, he reiterated his desire to continue on here. Do you feel that will get done?

If he’s looking for a CC Sabathia-type deal, no, he won’t. That’s not the Boston style for doing things, and given the fact he’s a little older than CC was when he became a free agent, it might be like John Lackey, where we’re seeing the Angels basically draw a line in the sand, think their offer was something in the range of four years and $60 million, and they’re telling him, “Look, we love you, we value you, but we’re not going to overpay to keep you.” And the number might be higher than the 60 million from the Red Sox to Beckett but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar stance from them where they place a value on him, maybe that’s five years and 75, tell him, “This is where we’re going, and if it’s not good enough, well, we love you Josh and good luck to you.”

You said earlier, if the Yankees want John Lackey they’ll get him. Do they want him?

I don’t know, my instinct is no, because they’ve got Joba Chamberlain coming up and certainly Phil Hughes. They can look at guys developing, but we saw during the postseason they are kind of having this issue with the back end of their rotation. Chien-Ming Wang is a real strong candidate to not be tendered a contract by the Yankees, they got a hole at the back end of the rotation. So, Lackey is going to be looking to get paid by somebody, and we saw with the Teixeira thing — I don’t think as the winter began the Yankees were like, “Let’s throw $180 million at Mark Teixeira,” but I think as they assessed the market they were like, “You know what? We got the money, let’s go get him.” And I think the real question on Lackey is going to be which team is going to give him a five-year, $60 million deal like Burnett. Last year it was the Yankees who went the extra mile to go get him, and it wouldn’t stun me if the market on Lackey kind of hangs around on 60 million, if the Yankees look at that and say, “You know what, let’s go get him. We made a lot of money, we could use him, we’re paying our luxury tax, let’s add to the back end of the rotation.”

Is it possible that the Yankees’ financial situation is not as good as we think it is? We see all those empty seats and those expensive seats around home plate, we know that Brian Cashman continues to talk about getting the payroll below $200 million. Are they maybe not as flush as we may think?

No, I think they’re doing pretty well, because of the network. And I don’t pretend to know what’s in the books, but from what I read, the network is now worth over a billion dollars. I mean, think about that, they now have a completely separate entity, they’re doing extremely well on all parts of it, all facets. The seats certainly look ugly, but I think that’s related to the fact that the tickets clearly were overpriced given where the economy was. I think next year those seats are going to be filled and coming off the championship. They’re probably going to sell out most of their games.

We know the Yankees still have some youth in [Robinson] Cano, they have some relative youth in CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, they also have some age. If you are looking ahead to 2010, they just won the World Series, are they the favorites to do it again?

Yeah, I think they would be. And the Phillies would go in next year as the favorites to win the National League. Yeah, that’s one of the big questions going forward, besides the back end of the rotation, is when does the age manifest itself? And it will at some point. Derek Jeter has worked really hard the last two offseasons, but within the next two or three years, he’s not going to be good enough to play shortstop. Alex Rodriguez, you guys could see it this year coming off hip surgery, he looked stiff. Does he really begin to lose a lot of his lateral movement the way you guys saw in Mike Lowell this year. When are other guys going to regress? But let’s face it. I mean, they’ve got so much money, and they have the ability to plug those holes quicker than any other team, and I expect that they, like the Red Sox, are going to take advantage of this situation with the arbitration-eligible players and you might see them going out and trying to add a guy like Jeremy Hermida, plucking the best of those 3-5-year guys from the small-market teams.

I have a feeling your offseason’s going to last about three days.

How about three minutes? Waking up this morning and hearing the Royals may be trading Mark Teahan to the White Sox today, and I’m like, “Oh boy, here we go.”

Yeah, there is no offseason for you, right?

You know, it’s interesting, I talked to Brian Cashman two days ago, and he was sort of like, “Hey, what do you hear out there,” and I talked about the non-tender thing. And he said, “Boy, I kind of wish I had more time to get into it, but I don’t.” And I guarantee that today after he picks up his kids from school, he’ll be making phone calls and jumping into that market. It just doesn‘t stop now.

Duquette was the G.M. of the Red Sox for eight seasons, from 1994-2001, following two years in the same role with the Montreal Expos. He traded for Martinez both when he was with the Expos (in exchange for Delino DeShields) and again as the G.M. of the Sox (for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr.). Other notable deals that he made in Boston included trading reliever Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe, and signing Tim Wakefield. The Sox made the playoffs three times under Duquette’s stewardship, once as the A.L. East winners, and twice more as the wild card team. During his Boston tenure, the Sox went 656-574 while setting numerous attendance records.

Duquette is now the President of the Dan Duquette Sports Academy, a sports training center for boys and girls ages 8-18 who are interested in learning baseball, softball, basketball and life skills from distinguished high school, college and professional coaches. This summer, the Academy will host its first-ever All-Girls session, led by Justine Siegal who is the first women to coach a men’s professional baseball team.

PREVIOUS CHATS

Oct. 29 — Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay

Oct. 22 — Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan

Oct. 15 — Red Sox director of amateur scouting Jason McLeod

Pedro Martinez after throwing six no-hit innings of relief in an elimination game in 1999. AP.

Will Pedro show up for Game 6 in Yankee Stadium? Literally — will he show up?

The question is ridiculous, of course. Pedro Martinez will take the mound with the eyes of the baseball world upon him on Wednesday night, in a game that will decide whether the Yankees win the World Series tonight or whether there might be a winner-take-all Game 7.

That said, while the question now seems absurd, it is worth remembering that it was once a genuine issue whether Martinez would, in fact, show up at the ballpark when his team faced elimination in a Game 6 in Yankee Stadium. After the pitcher navigated a tightrope for six innings while allowing four runs in Game 5 of the ALCS (more on that in a bit), Martinez declared that he would not accompany the Sox to New York for Game 6 against the Yankees. Instead, he stayed in Boston, feeling that doing so somehow helped him should he be needed in relief for a potential Game 7.

The line of thinking made little sense. What could Martinez do in Boston that he could not do to prepare in New York?

Some in the Red Sox organization were disgusted by the pitcher’s decision, feeling it was completely selfish, a borderline act of betrayal, for him to be apart from his team on a night when they faced elimination.

Though it was a story at the time, it became an afterthought in the rest of the Sox’ remarkable run to the 2004 title. And the incident is rightly relegated to the status of a footnote — if that — when considering the arc of Martinez’ incredible career, both in Boston and in the majors.

On Wednesday night, Martinez will show up in Yankee Stadium, and for the fifth time in his career, the game will be on his shoulders in a postseason elimination game, this one representing the most significant of his three career World Series starts.

In his prior four significant elimination games (not including his mop-up role in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS), he has a 2-1 record and 4.10 ERA. The Sox have a 3-1 record in those contests. But numbers do not tell the story.

If history is a guide, the combination of Pedro and a win-or-go-home scenario will lend itself to an unforgettable game. Here are the previous four times that those two elements have been combined:

Oct. 11, 1999: ALDS Game 5, at Indians

Martinez, sidelined for most of the American League Division Series by a back injury, enters as a reliever in the fourth inning of the winner-take-all Game 5 against the Indians. He fires six no-hit innings of relief, as the Sox take a 12-8 win and complete the first-ever comeback from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five ALDS.

Oct. 6, 2003: ALDS Game 5, at A’s

Once again, Martinez is the man on the mound for the Sox as they try to complete a comeback from a 2-0 hole in the ALDS. This time, the opponent is Oakland. Martinez carries a 4-2 lead into the eighth inning but allows a pair of hits for a run to start the eighth. With the Sox clinging to a 4-3 lead, the Boston bullpen comes up huge, punctuated by Derek Lowe’s infamous crotch chop after punching out Terrence Long with the bases loaded.

Oct. 16, 2003: ALCS Game 7, at Yankees

This one was rehashed once or twice in New England after the fact. Martinez was dominant through much of the game but started to fade in the middle innings. After he gave up a run in the seventh inning, it appeared that the Sox ace considered his work done. But he was sent back to the mound for the eighth inning, and the Yankees — who entered the inning trailing 5-2 — jumped on a gasping-for-air Martinez for three runs as his pitch count drifted up to 123.

Martinez left with a no-decision, and the game marched on. Aaron Boone’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the 11th inning served as the dagger in the Sox’ season.

Oct. 18, 2004: ALCS Game 5, vs. Yankees

By this point, the Yankees were beyond intimidation with Martinez. After the right-hander allowed a bases-clearing, three-run double to Derek Jeter in the top of the sixth inning, it appeared that the impending free agent would absorb the loss in his final game as a Red Sox, a contest he left with his team trailing, 4-2.

But the Sox came back against New York’s bullpen, setting the stage for an agonizingly exciting, 14-inning contest in which the Sox claimed a 5-4 win on David Ortiz’ walkoff single after 5 hours, 49 minutes of play. By that point, Martinez had been rendered an afterthought, but the game will not be forgotten in baseball lore anytime soon.

This we know.

Heck, we knew this back in February when the Sox’ pitcher identified such a get-together as a priority, saying in the first few days of spring training: “At the end of the year hopefully we’ll sit down and maybe have a talk with (Red Sox general manager) Theo (Epstein), me and my agent (Michael Moye) and see what they’re thinking about. … I want to see where they’re going, if I’m even in their plans. If I’m not it was an awesome run. I really haven’t sat down and thought about it too much, but at the end of the year we will sit down and at least have a talk. Even if nothing comes of it, just to say, ‘Are we in the plans? Are we looking to get younger?’ It’s really up to them. I would like to stay here. I love playing in Boston. I can’t imagine another organization that would go so far out of the way to make my job as easy as possible. They realize our jobs are very demanding and very hard, and they do everything they can.”

After that nobody knows what’s going to happen, but whatever transpires, it might just define what the Red Sox will have to prioritize in the very near future.

One of the most important — yet also perhaps most under-publicized — aspects of the coming offseason is just starting to gain some steam. Take, for instance, the first comments from Epstein on the matter at hand:

“It’s been really fun for us to watch him mature on and off the field during his time in Boston,” Epstein said. “He’s put himself in a position to be valued very highly by us. He’s someone we’d obviously like to have to be a part of our future. Those things have a way of taking care of themselves. … We’ll see what happens.”

Nobody — not Beckett, or the Red Sox — can have any idea of what lies ahead, which makes the big picture of the Sox a bit blurry.

This is what you should know heading into the conversations:

THIS IS HIS BIG CHANCE: Beckett isn’t likely to take a hometown discount. He happily signed his extension in 2006, despite the fact that many surmised he lost out on as much as $60 million by not becoming a free agent after ‘07 (assuming he was in line to make Johan Santana money following the ‘07 playoff run). As he pointed out throughout the last few seasons, he will have made $50 million by the time he’s 30, and that’s OK by him. But the deal was also made palatable by the fact that he knew if his performance stayed fairly consistent, there was another big contract waiting around the corner.

That corner is getting really close.

By the time next offseason rolls around, Beckett will be 30, which is under the Mendoza Line when it comes to the age at which teams are more willing to roll out the five-year plan for free-agent starting pitchers.

“We’ll see,” was Beckett’s line when asked about the scenario that lies ahead, talking with a bit of a smile. Leading up to his last deal, there were few grins. His ERA was hovering above 5.00 heading into July and he was coming off an offseason during which he was told there was going to be some issues in getting his right shoulder insured. The Red Sox were approaching the pitcher at the right time. Now, Beckett has some chips on his side.

ABOUT THE HEALTH CONCERNS: Some will say that Beckett’s health should be a concern for any team diving into a long-term deal with the Texas native. Over the past few years, he has had various physical issues (oblique, back, elbow) that have popped up at inopportune times.

Heading into his tenure with the Red Sox, his current club had similar doubts. The MRI on Beckett’s right shoulder wasn’t good (five years earlier, a doctor wanted him to have labrum surgery before Dr. James Andrews convinced him it wasn’t necessary), and there were those concerns raised over the potential insurance risks.

Since then, however, Beckett has gotten insured (after taking an MRI following the 2007 season), while committing himself to an in-season training regimen that not only has kept his shoulder strong but has served as an example for the young pitchers in the Sox’ organization.

The various physical issues that have occurred in his tenure with the Red Sox will be some of the things that make this far from a cut-and-dried negotiation, but with 792 innings under his belt since the beginning of ‘06 (17th-best in the majors) to go along with his 65 wins (third-most), he has seemingly shown enough for some team to be willing to go down the four- (or maybe even five-) year road. A.J. Burnett, after all, wasn’t really known as the most durable of pitchers when he signed a five-year deal with the Yankees last offseason, or with the Blue Jays (with an opt-out after three years) following the 2005 campaign.

FROM THE RED SOX’ PERSPECTIVE: If Beckett did become a free agent after ‘07, the Sox might have been in trouble considering the amount of years and dollars the pitcher would have commanded. The question now is: How many years are the Sox willing to go this time around?

One thing that plays in Beckett’s favor is the role he has taken on as a staff leader (while sharing the ace role with Jon Lester). The Sox point to the starter when identifying what type of commitment it takes to be successful between starts, and how to approach the job as a whole. Ironically, this is one of the major drawing cards when entertaining the notion of committing to any sort of long-term deal with Roy Halladay, a pitcher three years older than Beckett.

But what if the Red Sox aren’t willing to go to the lengths of another team, or to the level of Beckett’s liking? Then this is where the conversations in the coming weeks might translate into how the Sox’ approach this offseason. If there is a hint that Beckett is going to be a difficult signing, than securing the likes of a Felix Hernandez or Halladay (who, right now, appears to be locked into Toronto with the Blue Jays holding onto the ace for the time being) becomes a priority.

And if Hernandez, Halladay, or another sure-fire, top-of-the-rotation pitcher becomes the be-all, end-all, then where does it leave the Sox in regard to having the chips to trade for a much-needed bat? As hesitant as the Red Sox are to dip their toes in the free agent market, it might become a necessary route if for no other reason as the need to hold on to some of their high-end minor leaguers.

They are scenarios that make you realize how important the signing of Lester was, as well as Beckett’ initial extension, and, whether you want to admit it or not, the long-term commitment to Daisuke Matsuzaka, who at least has the potential for top-of-the-rotation residency.

So while these initial talks might not yield any sort of tangible progress, any hints they could deliver could go a long way in helping the Red Sox’ plan of attack heading into the next few months.

Pedro Martinez, who is scheduled to pitch Game 6 of the World Series, spoke to the media at Yankee Stadium. Among the topics, Martinez touched on his relationship with the Red Sox fans:

Q. Would it amuse you to hear that every Red Sox fan is rooting for you to beat the Yankees?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: No, it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t surprise me at all. I know that they don’t like the Yankees to win, not even in Nintendo games. (Laughter). And knowing that I am part of Boston, I consider myself a Bostonian, as well, too, I’ve been a Montrealer, a Bostonian, and now a New Yorker, and somehow I might become a Philadelphian now. But I’ve only been there for a short period. It’s something that’s a work in progress, and I’m pretty sure that every Boston fan out there can feel proud that I’m going to try to beat the Yankees, and I’m going to give just the same effort I always did for them. They’re special fans, and they will always have my respect.

Here is the transcript (courtesy of ASAP Sports): 

Q. I want to know how you feel to have your whole career come around full cycle here with all the confrontations you’ve had with the Yankees, all the confrontations you’ve had with Pettitte, that this would come down to six games of the World Series with you in a different uniform but sort of in the same setting with so much relying on it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, I would just have to actually thank God, not only for the opportunity but for actually keeping me healthy and blessing me and Andy. I actually have such a long career go full cycle around, actually be able to compete once again in a World Series, on one of the biggest stages, just see two old goats out there doing the best they can and having fun with it.

Q. Following up on that, what do you make of the chants when they start chanting “who’s your daddy” out there at Yankee Stadium?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: That’s an old one. I’m going to pass on that one. Let’s just kind of stay in the present over here. I’m not going to answer that question. And I’m sorry for that.

Q. Now that you’re a little older and you’re relying more on finesse than power, what kind of challenges are there facing the same team back to back just a few days apart?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: The challenge, it’s pretty much the same most of the time when you face experienced teams like this. And even not even facing them back to back, you still have a very good challenge. It’s such a good team, you just normally go out there, do the best that you can, adjust to the moment as they develop and pray that you do an acceptable job and come out of it healthy. That’s all you can do. You can’t really help being in this situation. You’ve got to compete and do the best that you can.

Q. You had said when you came to the Phillies that you were very impressed with their toughness and their bounce-back ability, and the fact that they go out and hang out every day. You’ve been on a lot of teams in this situation. Can you compare those teams with this team in terms of the mindset to play this game.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, this team is unique in so many ways. Yesterday, it’s a very good example of resiliency, stubbornness and desire to go out there and win. I’m so thankful to have been part of this team and be able to experience it, because that’s the kind of game I like to see. If I sit at home and I’m watching a baseball game, that’s the kind of attitude I want to see. And it wasn’t just our team. Their team did the same thing. That team never went away. We had a big lead, and it just didn’t feel like it was safe at any point. And those are the kind of games that you pay to watch.

Q. This is the first time in a month and a half that you’ll be pitching on when you normally go on every five days, every fifth day. How has your routine changed for this start compared to the first couple you made in the post-season? Do you like that and do you think it’ll help you?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I’ve got no choice but to expect that it will help me. I feel really good. I feel like I had enough time to rest, plus the previous two outings with all those days, I guess this is just a makeup from all those days of rest that I had. I’m confident that I’m going to be able to do as much as I can. I can’t really tell you what to expect, but I’m going to go out there and try like I always do. Just try as hard as I can and leave it at that.

Q. You once made a comment about the Bambino, and everybody instantly knew that you were talking about Babe Ruth. Given what you’ve accomplished in baseball and your career right now, do you give yourself the luxury of thinking that 60 years from now somebody might say “Pedey” and everybody would know that they’re talking about Pedro Martinez?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, in some ways I give that to you guys because it took me a while to realize that anything I say, everything I do has a meaning to you. I hope that when I need you for the community work and other things that I’m going to need, I’m going to need help to help people, that you guys actually bring the message across because that will give me help for all those things that I have in mind for after I retire.

But I’m pretty sure that my name will be mentioned. I don’t know in which way. But maybe after I retire, because normally when you die, people tend to actually give you props about the good things. But that’s after you die. (Laughter). So I’m hoping to get it before I die. I don’t want to die and then hear everybody say, “Oh, there goes one of the best players ever.” If you’re going to give me props, just give them to me right now.

So I’m hoping to get my name mentioned, yes, just like Babe Ruth is such a legendary name. I hope that my name is mentioned. But not only as a player. I hope that you guys realize that I’m a human being that really likes to help, that really likes to do things in the community, that’s a fun human being and a great competitor. That’s probably my legacy. I don’t want to just leave a legacy in baseball and be a (expletive deleted) human being. I’m sorry about the word.

I hope I can be remembered more as a human being to take his clothes off to probably give it to a man down the street. I don’t mind doing that any time. I hope I’m mentioned in between all those names, even though I will never put myself in that category. That’s very different. That’s a different level.

Q. You’ve changed speeds a lot and mixed your pitches around to different spots during the course of any given at-bat. You did that in Game 2 quite a bit. Those sequences, how much of those are pre-planned and based on what you know against a hitter you’ve faced a thousand times against a Derek Jeter and how much of that is improvising what they might be expecting in the moment? What’s the balance between planning and improvisation?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: If I say it, honestly you might not believe it, but that’s all created in the middle of the moment. What you see is a combination of experience and instinct. It’s just instinct, surviving. Everybody that grows up in the Dominican and didn’t have a rich life, it’s a survival. That’s what we call it in the Dominican, survival. And in baseball I am a survivor. I’m someone that wasn’t meant to be, and here I am on one big stage. I really thank God for the blessings of being here, because I was supposed to just survive and that’s it. And here you are, guys; I have a lot of you paying attention to me right now. That’s a great joy.

Q. Could you talk about your four years in Montreal and what you learned there as a starter and as a winner in ‘94 and playing for Felipe Alou?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: That’s a little far back, but I’m very happy to actually have taken part on that Montreal team. If you ask me, that’s when I became a pitcher. I quit being a thrower over there, I quit being a headhunter like I was labeled in those first few years. That’s where I really became a baseball player, actually, because before then I was just a kid with a good arm that didn’t know what he was doing. 154 soaking wet with a good arm. Felipe and that group of guys that we had, which now Pete Mackanin is part of one of my coaches right now, and last year with Jerry Manuel, one of the coaches that I also had the privilege to change, and that’s where I think I developed myself as a player was in Montreal probably. Without taking anything away from any of the cities I’ve played for, it’s probably one of the most fun cities that you can ever play for. Montreal is always going to be a special place in my heart.

Q. Charlie said he chose you for Games 2 and 6 partly because he knew you could handle the big stage, and I’m wondering if that’s something that came naturally to you or if you developed that as a skill over time?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, I look at this situation as a blessing. I mean, what else would I want? I’m doing the job I love. I’m doing something that not everybody gets to do. If you consider the fact that I was — two months back I was sitting at home not doing anything, none of you were thinking of me whatsoever, none of you were asking me questions, and today I am here, probably pitching one of the biggest games ever in the World Series, two great teams with a whole bunch of legendary players that are going to be. I know when you mention Derek Jeter, you mention Alex Rodriguez, Teixeira. I see those guys as probably the future of the game, the next Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, and Andy Pettitte, those are guys, Mariano Rivera, I get to once again probably experience seeing Mariano again, which I will continue to pay my tickets to go watch. I don’t have enough words to describe how excited I am about being here. This is just a great gift to me. This is a blessing.

Q. Ryan will be an important factor in this next game on offense. He’s certainly struggled a lot and you’ve faced him in the past. What do you think that the Yankee pitchers are doing to have success against him?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, they’re making pitches. They’re really executing their program. I mean, you’re talking about guys, Sabathia, you’re talking about Andy Pettitte, you’re talking about two of the biggest names in baseball pitching against one really good hitter. Out of that match-up you can always expect one thing; one of the two is going to have to fail and one is going to have success. At this time it was Ryan. Well, tomorrow I don’t know. Tomorrow I’m hoping that Ryan makes the adjustment and that for some reason if Andy doesn’t execute, Ryan will probably get the advantage, which is what we want.

But I can tell you one thing: Knowing Andy and knowing the kind of pitcher he is, it’s going to be tough. We all expect it the same way.

Q. You played with and against Johnny Damon. How much of a battler is he at the plate?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: (Laughing) He’s a big-game player, he’s a great player, a great human being. You know, I’m in some ways glad I got to face him to realize how uncomfortable the other guys were feeling when he played with me. He’s a tough out. He’s a tough out, and he’s going to give you a battle, and he’s not going to get unraveled for anything. He’s always going to make it fun. J.D. is just a special human being and a special player. I’m glad he’s doing well, too. That’s one of the guys I will always root for.

Beckett’s $12.1 million option for 2010 vested when he made 28 starts this year. After the season, barring an extension with the Sox, Beckett — at age 30 — would reach free agency for the first time in his career.

The prospect does not seem to weigh on the pitcher.

“Right now, I’m not too concerned with it. I’m just kind of enjoying the first part of my offseason,” Beckett said. “We’ll see what happens. It’s kind of up to them what we talk about now. As of now, I’m a Boston Red Sox in 2010. Unless somebody tells me I’m not, that’s what I’m focused on.”

“We have to let the business people take care of the business,” added Beckett. “This would be a fun place to play.”

Beckett did tell Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that he and his agent are planning on meeting with Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein in the coming weeks.

Epstein suggested that the club did not want to disclose details of negotiations with one of its own players. Even so, he made clear that the Sox would welcome the possibility of keeping the pitcher beyond his current contract.

“It’s been really fun for us to watch him mature on and off the field during his time in Boston,” Epstein said. “He’s put himself in a position to be valued very highly by us. He’s someone we’d obviously like have to be a part of our future. Those things have a way of taking care of themselves. … We’ll see what happens.”

Both also weighed in on free-agent outfielder Jason Bay.

“I think he’s very important,” said Beckett. “I hope they do something with him. … He is very important to our team.”

“The fundamentals are in place,” said Epstein, repeating his prior statements on the matter. “He really wants to be here and we’d love to have them, but sometimes players need to go through the process (of free agency).”

Epstein said the team will wait until the last possible date to make any decisions with pkayer options, but he did say that “all the reports are positive” in Tim Wakefield’s recovery from surgery.

“We’re just letting things die down a little bit,” Beckett said. Beckett is entering the last year of his contract with the Red Sox after having his option for the 2010 season vest thanks to making 28 starts in ‘09

Prior to the 2009 season, which saw Beckett go 17-6 with a 3.86 ERA, the pitcher made his desire to broach his future with the Sox known following the campaign.

“At the end of the year hopefully we’ll sit down and maybe have a talk with (Red Sox general manager) Theo (Epstein), me and my agent (Michael Moye) and see what they’re thinking about,” he had said. “I want to see where they’re going, if I’m even in their plans. If I’m not it was an awesome run. I really haven’t sat down and thought about it too much, but at the end of the year we will sit down and at least have a talk. Even if nothing comes of it, just to say, ‘Are we in the plans? Are we looking to get younger?’ It’s really up to them. I would like to stay here. I love playing in Boston. I can’t imagine another organization that would go so far out of the way to make my job as easy as possible. They realize our jobs are very demanding and very hard, and they do everything they can.”

Check back on Full Count for more from Beckett and Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, who also attended the event at the Seaport Convention Center.

Expected attendees include Red Sox players Beckett and Kevin Youkilis, Sox Principal Owner John Henry, President & CEO Larry Lucchino, Executive Vice President & General Manager Theo Epstein, alumni Joe Morgan and Luis Tiant; Celtics star Glen “Big Baby” Davis, alumni JoJo White and Dana Barros; New England Patriots players Darius Butler, Matt Light, and Tyrone McKenzie; former Boston Bruins Lyndon Byers, Gord Kluzak and Tommy Songin; New England Revolution stars Taylor Twellman, Jeff Larentowicz and Chris Tierney; WEEI-AM’s Glenn Ordway and many more.

A limited number of tickets are still available at www.childrenshospital.org/champions.

Children’s Hospital Boston, an internationally renowned center for medical research and treatment, is one of the only pediatric hospitals nationwide that focuses on pairing world-class research with clinical resources to develop novel therapies to treat and cure children. Many of the hospital’s scientific advancements have far-reaching implications for treating adults, too – they target diseases including prostate and breast cancer, macular degeneration, and Alzheimer’s. For more information, visit www.childrenshospital.org/giving.

Hazen, a native of Abington, Mass., has been the Sox’ farm director since 2006, when he came from the Indians’ front office. He spent two seasons as a player in the Padres’ minor-league system.

Skokie, IL, October 30—THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced after one of the closest races in the history of the award centered around the keystone sack. Second basemen Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia and Chase Utley finished with 76, 76 and 73 points respectively, forcing a tie-breaking procedure that awarded Hill his second Fielding Bible Award. 

One important distinction that differentiates THE FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS from most other baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves, is that there is only one winner at each position, instead of separate winners for each league. This distinction came into play this year as Jack Wilson, who split his time between Pittsburgh in the National League and Seattle in the American League, won the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop. “It is almost impossible for a player who is traded between leagues to win a Gold Glove,” said John Dewan, author of the new Fielding Bible—Volume II. “I predict that Wilson will not win a Gold Glove in either the National or the American League this year, even though our 10 voters thought he was the best-fielding shorstop in Major League Baseball.” 

Joining Hill as repeat winners are Albert Pujols (four wins in the four years of the award), Carl Crawford (his third), Yadier Molina (his third), Ichiro Suzuki (two) and Franklin Gutierrez (his second, this one for center field after claiming last year’s right field award). First-time winners are Mark Buehrle, Jack Wilson and Ryan Zimmerman. 

A panel of ten analysts, listed below—including John Dewan, Peter Gammons, Bill James and Joe Posnanski—examined the 2009 seasons of every defensive player in Major League Baseball and then used the same voting technique as the Major League Baseball MVP voting. First place votes received 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. A perfect score was 100. 

Here are the results of THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS. A complete record of the voting can be found inThe Bill James Handbook 2010.

Former assistant general manager Jed Hoyer, who worked with Hazen after he came to the Red Sox from the Indians and assumed the job of director of player development in 2006, was named San Diego’s GM Monday. The Padres fired vice president of scouting and player development Grady Fuson earlier this week.

Hazen, a native of Abington, Mass., spent two years playing in the Padres minor-league system.

Click here to listen to the full audio and read below for some highlights.

That was quite a performance by Cliff Lee last night, wasn’t it?

That was one of the great performances that I’ve ever seen in person and how he carved up the Yankees, how they had no chance, how he came to be — as [Fox broadcasters] Tim McCarver and Joe Buck said — performing as if he was getting his work in for Spring Training. The whole package was just frankly unreal.

How did you see the series playing out before Game 1? What your take? What was your prediction?

I picked the Yankees in 6. And, obviously, now you look at it and if they lose tonight they are in trouble. I have a hard time believing that Pedro is going to hold them down the way that Lee held them down. And I will say this, that the difference tonight is Charlie Manuel can go to the bullpen whenever he wants to. If Pedro is stinking it up — and I’m not saying he will — but if that scenario takes place, you got J. A. Happ, you got Joe Blanton, you have a group of relievers who haven’t pitched in eight days. So, they can practically turn this into a bullpen game and I will not be surprised if they do if they need to.

I don’t agree with Manuel pitching Pedro in Game 2…having said that, the drama for tonight is off the charts.

Well, I don’t think Manuel is thinking about that but I’m with you. I can’t recall the last time exactly when I was this excited to go to the ballpark. And it’s not just because of Pedro, although he is a huge part of that, it is because the Yankees lost Game 1 and they’re in a situation tonight where they definitely need to win and the Phillies are not like the Angels, they’re not like the Twins, they’re not like any other team really. They can stand up to the Yankees and it’s going to be really great theater tonight and very interesting to watch.

What’s your take on [Pedro] saying he’s the most influential player to perform in Yankee Stadium?

I think what he meant, and I don’t want to put any words in his mouth, is that he influenced the most emotion. Certainly he has influenced quite a bit of emotion. I don’t know that even Pedro would say he is a more influential person than Babe Ruth or any of the other Yankee greats. But, that press conference yesterday was absolutely fascinating. I know people in Boston are well aware of this; Pedro is not just one if the greatest pitchers in history, but one of the most intelligent players I’ve come across, one of the most well-spoken, and that thing yesterday was just a tour de force. And he had some points he wanted to make, and he got them out there about the New York media, about the confrontation with [Don] Zimmer. There are very, very, very few players I can count on one hand who can have that kind of press conference and speak so eloquently on a number of issues whether you agree with him or not.

Where would you put him [on the all-time great pitchers]?

He’s right there at the top. And we’re talking right now about Pedro in his prime in this discussion that we are having. In that aspect, yeah, I don’t know anybody better. Certainly [Roger] Clemens had his moments, Randy Johnson had his moments, there are a whole host of pitchers, [John] Smoltz. You can go right down the line. Roy Halladay for that matter. In terms of electricity, sheer stuff, and the ability to win, he dominated.  Pedro was the guy. I remember one year, I can’t recall which season it was exactly, it might have been 1999, but it was an MVP-type year. I remember writing a column, “Hey, he should be the MVP,” because not only does he impact the one game he pitches, but he impacts the other four because he saves the bullpen and he has this mystique about him. He was and to some degree he still is a transcendent figure. People have their opinions about him and that’s fine. He’s certainly angered people over the years, but he was absolutely brilliant in his prime. There aren’t many pitchers who I would get as excited about seeing.

I have more questions about the other starting pitcher tonight. A.J. Burnett has more to prove than Pedro does.

That’s fair and even if the atmosphere will be charged tonight, and it will be charged, he is going to be that much more tested because he is an emotional guy, he does get pumped up and carried away at times and he really actually has pitched very well in the postseason. You could even make the case in the last start he should have been out of the game before he was. Yeah, I see what you are saying, but my question is how is Pedro’s stuff going to match-up against the Yankees? Not only an American League line-up, but the DH, the highest scoring team in the majors, a team that generally abuses guys with that kind of stuff.  He has to know how, if his breaking ball is good, that will be an advantage. The other thing that we don’t know is how tight are the Yankees going to be? If they are tight and if they are stretching a little bit at the plate, then it plays right into Pedro’s hands.

Are the Phillies built like an American League team?

They’re not quite that, but they’re pretty darn good. [Pedro] Feliz and [Carlos] Ruiz are not great offensive players at their position. Ruiz, the catcher, has certainly had a good postseason, done a lot of really good things, a lot of big hits. When [Jimmy] Rollins and [Shane] Victorino are going, and they haven’t always been going this season — especially Rollins, they’re very dynamic. One of the huge differences already in this series is Rollins and Victorino vs. [Chone] Figgins and whoever batted second for the Angels in that series, mostly [Bobby] Abreu. That was a huge thing that the Yankees shut down the Angels’ 1-2 guys and they didn’t do that last night.

Is Charlie Manuel an old school guy?

That is totally accurate. What is inaccurate is the perception of him because of the way he speaks, because he is from North Carolina not West Virginia, is that he is dumb. Anyone who knows him or been around him for any length of time knows he isn’t dumb. He might not speak as polished as some people and whatever, but it bothers me when he went to Philadelphia for the first time [after] they hired him and the people of Philadelphia were all over [him] because of his accent. As if that city or any city for that matter was full of Nobel Prize winners walking the streets. Hey, he is a regular guy who has overcome a lot physically, being in Japan, all kinds of things happened to this guy and the proof is on that field every day. Look at that team, look how they played for him. And, yeah, they’re talented, no question about it, but there are other talented teams that don’t play as well as the Phillies do.

What are the offensive problems going on right now with guys like Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher? What’s going on with them?

I’m not sure with Teixeira. Swisher in the previous series was rushing a bit and just not himself. Teixeira actually in the final two games had kind of come around a little bit. Remember, he had the big bases-clearing triple and a couple of hits in the Game 6 as well. I’m not convinced his problems last night was totally Cliff Lee. Last night, Cliff Lee held Teixeira and A-Rod 0-for-8 with 5 K’s. That’s impressive and I want to see more tonight before I make any judgments.

Any predictions tonight for Pedro?

I think more like 4 1/3 innings, 9 hits, 5 runs. I love Pedro and I was warned last night by a member of the Phillies offense not to bet against this guy and we all know why. He’s brilliant out there and has got the heart of a lion, but I just think the Yankees are going to get him.

Were you buying [Manuel's] explanation for pitching Pedro tonight in Yankee Stadium.

Very simple. Pedro is pitching better than Cole Hamels, so you want Pedro on the mound instead of Cole Hamels. Also, and it hasn’t been talked about that much, Cole Hamels has been very inconsistent all season, you know that. He has been better at home: 3.75 at home ERA, 4.99 on the road. That means something to me and the idea of splitting the left-handers, there is some merit in that because you don’t give the switch-hitters a chance to get comfortable. They’re going left, right, left obviously pacing left, right, left. At the same time, if Pedro goes  2 2/3 tonight, we are going to see J. Happ and it’s going to switch all the switch-hitters around anyway. So, I understood it, it’s a bit of a questionable move , but Cole Hamels has really been an iffy guy all season long, especially in the postseason.

Who wins the managing match-up in you eyes, Manuel or Girardi?

I don’t know. They’re both guys that will leave themselves open for a lot of second guessing and this series will probably end up a second-guesser’s delight. They’re opposites. Charlie goes by his instincts, Joe Girardi goes by information from scouts, from numbers, and yet they still do things that make people scratch their heads and that’s the beauty of baseball.

What did you think of Girardi’s moves out of the bullpen last night?

Well, he has a problem. His problem is that he has so many young relievers that he can’t really put much trust in any of them. None of them are performing that well. So, I didn’t mind [Phil] Hughes starting off the inning. In fact, I said in the broadcast that Hughes is more comfortable in the wind-up or at least didn’t rush that much. I thought maybe that would help him, but obviously that didn’t make a difference. The [Damaso] Marte move was the right move, I didn’t mind David Robertson coming in. You could have had [Phil] Coke pitch to [Raul] Ibanez. It was one of those games where they weren’t beating Cliff Lee no matter what and the disturbing thing is that his relievers are simply not performing.

There had been some confusion as to whether Rodriguez remained Red Sox property after a report that the Royals had acquired him. The Royals had indeed filed a transaction stating that they had reached an agreement with the 22-year-old, who is currently playing in the Colombian Winter League, though it had not been approved by MLB.

After reviewing the case, however, the Commissioner’s Office found that the Sox had gone through the proper channels in purchasing Rodriguez’ rights from the Golden Baseball League. Because the GBL had already picked up the 2010 option on Rodriguez’ deal after he hit .335/.380/.486 for the Scorpions, a team could only acquire his rights by purchasing his contract from the League, as the Sox did. Moreover, the player informed the club that he had not come to an agreement with the Royals.

The Sox will follow Rodriguez this winter in Colombia, and then let him compete for a spot on one of their minor-league affiliates in spring training. For a scouting report on the former Yankees minor leaguer, click here.

How is it playing in left field with the Green Monster?

Jason Bay: Playing left field in Boston is great for a few reasons. The history of the wall and all the players who have played there in past years make it really special. I think that the monster is a little intimidating at first, but after getting used to it, I really like the nooks and crannies and the effect that it has on the other team and players who aren’t used to it.

Hey Jason…did you find that Fenway helped your offensive production in comparison to playing in a park like PNC?

Jason Bay: It’s definitely a whole different comparison when you’re talking about PNC Park and Fenway. The monster is very close and left center field in Pittsburgh was roughly 400 feet, so I would say that the Green Monster didn’t hurt my offensive numbers. That being said, I think more than the ballpark dimensions, the team I had around me in the lineup probably had a greater effect. When you have a former MVP, a guy who steals 70 bases and numerous high on-base percentage guys hitting in front of you, it makes it easier.

Jason if you could attribute one reason to the unfortunate early playoff exit for the Sox what would that be?

Jason Bay: I can’t give you one reason. It was a combination. It was no secret we didn’t hit very well. Now do you attribute that to good pitching or poor hitting? I say it was a combination of the two.

Hey Jason, what’s the most important factor for choosing which team you will sign with?

Jason Bay: There isn’t one important factor. The funny thing is that everybody has an opinion of what I’m waiting or or what I’m doing and I don’t even have an opinion, and that’s the truth

Phillies or Yankees and why?

Jason Bay: It’s funny, after playing baseball all year I don’t really pull for one team or another. I just enjoy watching it.

What is it like playing for Tito, and of all the teammates and coaches you have played with, who in particular has really helped you elevate your ability?

Jason Bay: Really, really enjoyed the atmosphere that he created. Boston is one of those places there is a lot of media and he does a very good job of not letting that affect his decision and let everybody does their job. I really enjoyed Brad Mills also, and wish him the best. He has great people skills like Tito, and like it or not that’s what a manager needs.

Who do you think will win the Stanley Cup?

Jason Bay: The Vancouver Canucks for the hometown call

How do the Pittsburgh fans compare to Boston fans

Jason Bay: Pittsburgh and Boston are very similar in their passion for sports. Obviously the Red Sox have had more success lately than the Pirates, but if you ever had a chance to go to a Steelers or Penguins game you would understand the two cities have a lot similarities

Hey Jason, I was just wondering what your favorite moment as a Red Sox has been so far?

Jason Bay: Scoring the winning run in the clinching game of the ALDS against Anaheim on Jed’s base hit

How many HRs do you think the Monster took away from you this year?

Jason Bay: I would say a couple but at the same time I probably got more than a few doubles that would have been fly outs anyplace else, so I can’t complain

The right field fence at the New Yankee Stadium is really only 270 feet from home, right? I mean even Pedroia knocked one over that thing.

Jason Bay: I don’t think it matters how far the fence is. I think it’s the same thing as Fenway. Both teams have the same amount of opportunities. It’s kind of like the weather. It’s really a wash. As for Pedroia, it seems like once a week he’s claiming that if a certain pitcher gets him out one more time he’s going to quit

Jason, ever gotten tips from Jim Rice on patrolling LF in Fenway?

Jason Bay: Jim is always in the clubhouse and around the guys and has numerous times offered bits of info. He always makes sure to mention the history of the guys that played there before me … hah, hah

Are you spending the offseason with a heavy training regimen…or relaxing at home and enjoying the offseason?

Jason Bay: As of right now relaxing but this Monday the offseason program begins again. I go to an athletic training institute and do a lot of running, jumping, stretching … not your conventional bench press and biceps curls.

All things equal, would you rather play on the west coast? We always hear you are a “west coast guy.” How much will that play into your decision this offseason?

Jason Bay: The window for my career doesn’t last forever so limiting myself to one geographical spot really has no bearing on my decision

There was a recent article about Youkilis, that he has a negative relationship in the clubhouse. How do you feel about him as a teammate?

Jason Bay: I definitely don’t feel the same way. Youk is obviously a great baseball player and a great teammate, on the field and off. I think his intensity sometimes gives people a skewed reality of the type of person he is, but I would take him on my team every single time

When would you like to get a contract signed seeing we’re on the topic?

Jason Bay: Ideally, I would like to know where I would like to be sooner rather than later, but understand there is a process to this as well

Hi Jason, Congrats on the new citizenship. Is sister Lauren still pitching the softball?

Jason Bay: Thanks for the pat on the back for the new citizenship. But for all you Canadians who religiously go to WEEI.com, I am still a Canadian citizen. My sister is happily retired, married and enjoying motherhood

Jason, where do you stand on the “existence” of clutch hitters? Most stat-geeks (like me) will scream from the mountaintops that they don’t exist. I think they do in that some hitters are able to mentally adjust better than others to the pressure situation at hand (most of the time). What are your thoughts?

Jason Bay: I definitely think that certain guys have the ability to rise up in certain occasions, but it’s very hard to quantify that with a statistic. I think you understand and get a better feel for that just by watching certain players perform. Obviously you aren’t going to get a hit or strike somebody out in every big situation. But if a guy is statistically superior in the statistical “clutch situations,” is he more “clutch” than a guy who doesn’t do much all regular season and wins a handful of playoff games?

Jason, When John Kruk said you have “dank” hands at the plate, was he giving you a compliment or was her being coy?

Jason Bay: Your guess is as good as mine

Were you shocked and disappointed that Papelbon did not win the Nobel Prize (again!)? I know I’m still dealing with the let down…

Jason Bay: Say what you want about Pap, you always know where you stand with him and there is no gray area. Sometimes people don’t like to hear it but he’s not hiding anything and you have to respect that

Given your background — 22nd round pick, traded a bunch in the minors, etc. — could you have ever imagined being in this free-agent position? Do you think back at all about that career path?

Jason Bay: Obviously I didn’t take the most direct path to the big leagues but I think it has an effect on the type of player and person that I am today. It has always helped me keep things in perspective and therefore this whole free agent position I’m in, I’m trying to treat like any other year and whatever happens, happens.

Seattle and SF have massive left fields to play. Just sayin’.

Jason Bay: I played in Pittsburgh for five years

Jason Bay: This was the first time I’ve done an online chat and I really enjoyed the questions and the genuine interest from everybody. We’ll see many of you next year????

Chapman, whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph, is considered to be one of the top pitchers in the world who is not currently pitching in the Major Leagues. Chapman has already met with the Yankees and the Mets, and figure to be scheduling meetings with the Cardinals and Mariners (among others) shortly. While Chapman’s upside is considered greater than one of his countrymen, Jose Contreras, who defected in 2002 before signing with the Yankees, the southpaw isn’t considered as major-league ready as Contreras.

Terry Francona (pictured) is happy for his friend and former bench coach Brad Mills. (AP)

Red Sox manager Terry Francona appeared on the Dale & Holley show yesterday and talked about losing bench coach and longtime friend Brad Mills to the Astros. He also touched on the World Series and the Phillies‘ keys to keeping the Yankees in check.

The transcript follows. To hear the interview, check out the Dale & Holley audio on demand page.

What are you going to do without your best friend. He is your best friend, isn’t he?

He’s one of my best friends I’ve ever had in the whole world. I’ve known him since 1977 — that’s  college, professional, we’ve been through a lot together. And there’s a reason we stayed that close. You go through this game and if you don’t think alike on a lot of things, you’re friendship ends up taking a pounding for it. We’ve endured a lot of things together. He’s one of my true special friends in the whole world.

I think sometimes fans don’t understand what bench coach means. They know what a pitching coach is, they know what a hitting coach is. And I don’t think fans have a real grasp of how important Brad Mills was to what you guys were doing there.

Yeah, and every organization is probably a little bit different. nd again now that Millsy is gone, maybe the bench coach here may have a little bit different assignments or responsibilities. The one thing with Millsy is we knew each other so well that I knew if I left the room or I got called away to do something, especially in spring training, whatever was supposed to get done got done. Millsy had a lot of responsibility here, and he earned that. And it was great. It was good for him, it was tremendous for me. But again, you can’t just have that happen overnight.

It’s interesting that the general manager in Houston now was the general manager in Philadelphia when you guys were there. Do you think that worked to his advantage?

I think it got him an interview. I think Millsy had to kind of take it and go from there, which is good. Ed Wade’s a good guy. We’ve been through a lot together. Shoot, he had to fire me, and that’s not easy for him and it wasn’t a whole lot of fun for me. But we’re still really good friends. And I think a lot of Eddie. He’s a solid, solid guy. Cares about people. I think he and Millsy are a very good match together.

What kind of manager do you think he’ll be?

You know, I don’t know. I know one thing, he’s cheap. He’s not going to pay for any cabs for his coaches. You’re going to have start working on that. [Laughter] You know what, this will be interesting, because he’s always kind of had to formulate his feelings around how I felt. I mean, that’s what a bench coach does. You give your opinion, but the decisions come down to me. Now, he’ll be making those decisions. The game won’t be going too fast for him. He’s been doing this his whole life. He’s got a great feel for baseball. He’s a very good person. He’s got a combination of a lot of good things that should help make him successful.

What’s that old line? He’s about find out the difference between making a suggestion and a decision?

He’s so conscientous. I can’t wait until about next June when he calls me at about 4 in the morning because he’s not sleeping. Then I can laugh at him.

I wasn’t surprised that you did it [but] I was surprised that Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane spoke so glowingly of a phone call you made to Drayton McLane to give your endorsement for Brad Mills. He was pretty open about how important that was to him.

Well, he actually called me and I was really impressed. So many times in this game people make calls to maybe cover their backside or just to say they did it. He came armed with questions — and good questions. And I actually really enjoyed it. We had a fun conversation. In fact, toward the end of the conversation we both kind of commented that we were ready for spring training. He’s a really likable guy, got a lot of personality. And again, you’re talking about Brad Mills, one of my favorite people in the the world, so, yeah, I told him how I felt. And I hope it did help. That was the whole idea.

You told me before that you and Mills were so close that at times during a game either you wouldn’t have to say anything, you knew what he was thinking, or he would try to talk to you, and you could say things to him that maybe if you said them to somebody else they would take it the wrong way.

Yeah, and that’s just the good fortune of knowing somebody for 30 years. The coaches all laugh, ’cause Millsy takes the brunt of a lot from me. I can do that because we’ve known each other. And he’ll give me a look every so often like, “OK, enough’s enough. Back off.” And I’ll leave the room and retreat to my office, because he is bigger and stronger, and I need to watch myself sometimes. The guys get a kick out of it. But we also have a relationship where he can say something right in the middle of a game, and I can say, “Shut up, Millsy.” Or he can tell me, “What are you doing? That doesn’t make any sense.” We have that special relationship. That’s something that just doesn’t happen overnight. And I appreciated it. It was good, it was healthy, it was good. When you talk about loyalty, loyalty isn’t just somebody who tells you you’re good. It’s somebody that has the caring of you and your organization to tell you sometmes he thinks you’re wrong.

What do you think of the transition now that you’re dealing with in the organization — in baseball operations, I mean. You lost Brad Mills to Houston, Jed Hoyer goes on to San Diego to be the general manager. Does that affect you at all? Those two losses, what does that do for you?

I think inevitably these types of things happen when you have good people. Theo’s got a lot of guys in his office — this isn’t going to be the only guy who turns into a general manager. Ben Cherington is going to be next. And Mike Hazen. There’s guys that are good. Brian O’Halloran — you could name a pretty good list down there. That’s inevitable. Losing Millsy, sure it puts a dent in what we do, but I think you kind of hope you lose people. They’re your friends, and they get respect from the industry, and then they get asked to move on. I think our happiness for them far outweighs our concern about gfilling their spots.

I understand there’s nobody within your organization that you’ve had a 30-year relationship with. Do you think there’s somebody within your organization you can approach the relationship you just described to us with Brad Mills … have you got somebody you can do that with?

I hope so. A couple of points: One, you don’t take 30 years and cram it into six months. That’s just not realistic/ We’ve got a lot of good coaches here. Not just at the major league level, but in our player development system. And so, in the next couple of days Theo and I, we need to sit down. And we’ve already talked a little bit last night, but we’ll talk a little bit more today and tomorrow. One of the important things to think about is staying in the organization. I have some friends, some people that I think are really good baseball people that aren’t in the organization. OK, is that the best move? I don’t know. Theo and I need to sit down and talk about that. There are some really good people in organization, and I’ve been here long enough now where sometimes you need to stay in the organization and promote. It’s healthy. And again, we’re hiring good people, so sometimes they need to be recommended for these jobs also.

Is it possible or likely you’re going to have to find somebody else as well? Is somebody going to go with Mills to Houston?

I think Millsy is in the process today of trying to get some thoughts together on his staff. I think it’s a possibility but I don’t think it’s a probability.

Last time we talked to you, you said you had no interest in the [American League] Championship Series. Did you watch any of it?

Not much, not much. … I certainly knew what was going on. Maybe it sounds silly [but] this was a tough ending of the year for a lot of us, and I just wasn’t that into it. A lot of, I don’t know if jealously is the right word or envious, but I just didn’t like watching other teams play. I wanted it to be us. I really didn’t enjoy sitting down and jsut watching them play baseball.

So, I know you’re not interested, but I’ve got to ask you this: Who do you think’s going to win?

I’ve been wrong so far, because I thought it was going to be us. You look at [CC] Sabathia and Cliff Lee, and they’re going to have a huge say-so in the outcome of this series, because potentially they could to pitch three times. I think it’s going to be hugely important for whoever starts for Philadelphia to get deep enough into a game because if you don’t — I think what people don’t realize is you can’t match up against New York’s lineup. You better have a good bullpen. And we had as good a bullpen as anybody, but you can’t match up. They have switch-hitters, they have lefties that are productive against lefties. You’ve got to get somebody out there that’s productive and keep them out there because you can’t just bring in lefty-righty-lefty. It doesn’t work against New York.

What’s the harder part — you and Brad Mills separating or your families separating?

My one daughter … she sent Millsy a note yesterday right after his press conference and said, “You ruined my dad’s life.” It wasn’t, “Congratulations” … [laughing]. We’ve been close for a long time. Millsy and Ronda and their kids, they’re the nicest family in the world. Everybody that’s come in touch with them knows that. Millsy embodies a lot of what’s right in baseball. So, for him to get this opportunity, it’s pretty neat.

Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay. AP Image/Elise Amendola.

In 2009 — his first full season as a member of the Red Sox after coming to Boston at the 2008 trade deadline — Bay hit .267 with a .384 on-base percentage and .567 slugging mark, finishing third in the American League with 36 homers, second with 119 RBIs, and led all A.L. outfielders with a .921 OPS. His performance earned Bay his third career All-Star nod.

Bay was acquired by the Red Sox from the Pirates in 2008 in the three-way trade that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers. He is one of eight players to hit at least 30 homers, drive in at least 100 runs and score at least 100 runs in a season in which he was traded. The 2004 National League Rookie of the Year has been one of the most consistent power hitters in the game since breaking into the majors. He ranks 15th in baseball with 181 homers since the 2004 season, and is one of 12 players in the majors with at least 20 homers in each of the last six years.

PREVIOUS CHATS

Oct. 22 — Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan

Oct. 15 — Red Sox director of amateur scouting Jason McLeod

This is the first big-league managing job for the 52-year-old, who has a dozen years of experience managing in the minors in the Cubs, Dodgers and Rockies organizations. Mills worked previously with Houston G.M. Ed Wade when the two were in Philadelphia from 1997-2000, Mills as the first-base coach under then-Phillies manager Francona, and Wade as the Philadelphia general manager.

Mills and Francona, meanwhile, have spent nearly 20 years together, first as players, and more recently on coaching staffs. The two were teammates at the University of Arizona (where they were roommates) and again on the Montreal Expos before working together for a total of 10 seasons in Philadelphia and Boston.

Mills had been one of 10 candidates for the Astros job, which became available when Houston skipper Cecil Cooper was fired in September. Mills inherits a team that finished 74-88, in fifth place in the N.L. Central in 2009.

It was the most memorable fall in the history of New England sports. It created terms that need no explanation — The Steal, Bloody Sock, A-Rod Slap, Big Papi Walkoff …

There were 25 players on the roster for the clinching game in St. Louis. Some of them never played baseball again after that fateful day, some are still kicking around the majors. Four are still with the Sox and now own two World Series rings. So, let’s take a look at where the heroes of 2004 are now and remember what they did for New England five years ago.

To jump to individual players, use the following links:

STARTERS:

Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, Bronson Arroyo

LINEUP:

David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, Orlando Cabrera, Mark Bellhorn

BULLPEN:

Keith Foulke, Mike Timlin, Mike Myers, Alan Embree, Curtis Leskanic, Ramiro Mendoza

BENCH:

Dave Roberts, Doug Mientkiewicz, Gabe Kapler, Doug Mirabelli, Pokey Reese

THE ROTATION

Curt Schilling

Current Occupation: Contributor to WEEI.com with his 38Pitches blog; founder, 38 Studios

2004 Stats: 32 games, 21 wins, 6 losses, 226.2 innings, 3.26 ERA, 203 strikeouts, 35 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: No. 1 starter

LDS -

1 game, 1 win, 6.2 innings, 2.70 ERA, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks

LCS – 

2 games, 1 win, 1 loss, 10 innings, 6.30 ERA, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks

WS –

1 games, 1 win, 6 innings, 0.00 ERA, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-07

Performance After 2004: 87 games, 32 wins, 23 losses, 448.1 innings, 4.30 ERA, 371 strikeouts, 73 walks

The Memories –

Bloody Sock Game in Game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees goes down as one of the most memorable performances in the history of the Red Sox.

The Line –

Where do we start with Schilling? He joined the team at WEEI.com in 2008 with the 38Pitches blog and has been a constant source of information, opinion and amusement since. He is an avid online gamer and started 38Studios, a video game design company (that is currently hiring, by the way). Active with his wife Shonda in fighting Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) with the organization Curt’s Pitch for ALS.

Pedro Martinez

Current Occupation: Starting pitcher, Phillies

2004 Stats: 33 games, 16 wins, 9 losses, 217 innings, 3.90 ERA, 227 strikeouts, 61 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: No. 1a starter

LDS –

1 game, 1 win, 7 innings, 3.86 innings, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks

LCS –

3 games, 1 loss, 13 innings, 6.23 ERA, 14 strikeouts, 9 walks

WS –

1 game, 1 win, 7 innings, 0.00 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks

Subsequent Teams: Mets 2005-08, Phillies 2009-present

Performance After 2004: 88 Games, 37 wins, 24 losses, 531.1 innings, 3.86 ERA, 501 strikeouts, 145 walks

The Memories –

Seven scoreless innings in Game 3 of the World Series, though really, the ones you really remember are from 2003. That’s when Martinez plunked Yankees outfielder Karim Garcia, setting off a brawl that ended with Martinez “pushing” the elderly Don Zimmer to the ground. That would probably be your second memory, with the first being the fact that 2003 manager Grady Little may, or may not have, left Martinez in ALCS Game 7 a little too long against the Yankees.

The Line –

“They beat me. They’re that good right now. They’re that hot. I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.” The Phillies hope that is not true right now. ”I’m starting to hate talking about the Yankees. The questions are so stupid. They’re wasting my time. It’s getting kind of old. … I don’t believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the ass, pardon me the word.”

Tim Wakefield

Current Occupation: Starting pitcher, Red Sox (option pending)

2004 Stats: 32 games, 12 wins, 10 losses, 188.1 innings, 4.87 ERA, 116 strikeouts, 63 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Spot starter, long reliever

LCS —

3 games, 1 win, 7.1 innings, 8.59 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 3 walks

WS —

1 game, 3.2 innings, 12.27 ERA, 2 strikeouts, 5 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-present

Performance After 2004: 138 games, 61 wins, 51 losses, 865 innings, 4.42 ERA, 540 strikeouts, 293 walks

The Memories –

The man who ate the innings and took it on the chin when the Sox needed him. Saved the bullpen in Game 3 of the ALCS with 3.1 innings of relief (5 earned runs) and was the starter in Game 1 of the World Series, going 3.2 innings and giving up five earned runs on a windy night (note, tailwind is not good for a knuckleball) at Fenway. The Sox won that game, 11-9.

The Line –

One of the biggest bargains in baseball with a perpetual $4 million dollar team option. Climbing the list of all-time Red Sox pitching stats in just about every category, good and bad. Just underwent successful surgery and hopes to remain with the Sox until his durable right arm falls off or the rest of his body fails him.

Derek Lowe

Current Occupation: Starting pitcher, Braves

2004 Stats: 33 games, 14 wins, 12 losses, 182.2 innings, 5.42 ERA, 105 strikeouts, 71 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Middle-of-the-rotation starter, spot reliever

LDS —

1 game, 1 win, 1 inning, 0.00 ERA, 1 walk

LCS —

2 games, 1 win, 11.1 innings, 3.16 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk

WS —

1 game, 1 win, 7 innings, 0.00 ERA, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk

Subsequent Teams: Dodgers 2005-08, Braves 2009-present

Performance After 2004: 169 games, 69 wins, 58 losses, 1045 innings, 3.79 ERA, 674 strikeouts, 277 walks

The Memories –

Lowe was the finisher. In all three series-clinching games he was the winning pitcher. He pitched one inning against the Angels in the ALDS (Ortiz walk-off home run), he started Game 7 against the Yankees in the ALCS in the Bronx, and he started Game 4 of the World Series in St. Louis. No other pitcher has earned the victory for every deciding game of a World Series winner in the wild card era.

The Line –

The sinkerball specialists and his hard-charging ways have been tempered since he left Boston. He remains reliable as an innings-eater who will win about 55 percent of the time. Signed a 4-year, $60 million contract with the Braves last offseason.

Bronson Arroyo

Current Occupation: Starting pitcher, Reds

2004 Stats: 32 games, 10 wins, 9 losses, 178.2 innings, 4.03 ERA, 142 strikeouts, 47 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Long reliever, spot starter

LDS —

1 game, 6 innings, 3.00 ERA, 7 strikeouts, 2 walks

LCS —

3 games, 4.0 innings, 15.75 ERA, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks

WS —

2 games, 2.2 innings, 6.75 ERA, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Reds 2006-present

Performance After 2004: 171 games, 67 wins, 60 losses, 1,077 innings, 730 strikeouts, 314 walks

The Memories – Led the league in 2004 in hit batters, though there is really only one that Red Sox fans care about. Started Game 3 of the ALDS, a game Lowe ended up finishing. Induced Alex Rodriguez into one of the most embarrassing scenes of his career in Game 6 of the ALCS when Rodriguez slapped the ball out of Arroyo’s glove when he tagged him out late in the game.

The Line –

Still a contributor to the Hot Stove, Cool Music jam sessions at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Released an album in 2005 called Covering the Bases. Led the National League in games started in 2006 and 2008.

The Lineup

David Ortiz

Current Occupation: Designated hitter, Red Sox

2004 Stats: 150 games, 582 plate appearances, .301 average, .380 on-base percentage, .603 slugging, 41 home runs, 139 RBI, 133 strikeouts, 75 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Cleanup hitter, designated hitter aka “Mr. Clutch”

LDS —

3 games, 16 plate appearances, .545 average, .688 OBP, 1.000 slugging, home run, 4 RBI, 2 strikeouts, 5 walks

LCS —

7 games, 35 plate appearances, .387 average, .457 OBP, .742 slugging, 3 home runs, 11 RBI, 7 strikeouts, 4 walks

WS —

4 games, 17 plate appearances, .308 average, .471 OBP, .615 slugging, 1 home run, 4 RBI, 1 strikeout, 4 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-present

Performance After 2004: 718 games, 3184 plate appearances, .286 average, .393 OBP, .570 slugging, 187 home runs, 590 RBI, 552 strikeouts, 476 walks

The Memories —

“I am a bad man!” The Legend of Big Papi began in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 3 of the ALDS when Ortiz hit a two-run walk-off bomb of Jarrod Washburn to complete the sweep of the Angels. The legend grew in the bottom of the 12th in Game 4 of the ALCS when Ortiz kept the Sox alive when he took Paul Quantrill deep for a another two-run, walk-off home run. Less than 24 hours later he brought the Sox back within one run of the Yankees by taking Tom Gordon deep in the top of the eighth inning before ending Game 5 in the 14th with a bloop single to score Johnny Damon. It was one of the most chaotic and memorable performances in Red Sox history.

The Line —

New England high school graduating classes of 2023 will probably have an inordinate of people named David. Ortiz led the league in RBI in 2005 and 2006. He also set the single-season Sox home run record with 54 in 2006. His skills have been diminishing of late (with allegations of steroid use this past year), but Big Papi will forever remain a New England hero.

Manny Ramirez

Current Occupation: Left fielder, Dodgers

2004 Stats: 152 games, 663 plate appearances, .308 average, .397 OBP, .613 slugging, 43 home runs, 130 RBI, 124 strikeouts, 82 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Three-hole hitter, left fielder

LDS —

3 games, 16 plate appearances, .385 average, .375 OBP, .769 slugging, home run, 7 RBI, 4 strikeouts, walk

LCS —

7 games, 35 plate appearances, .300 average, .400 OBP, .333 slugging, 4 strikeouts, 5 walks

WS —

4 games, 20 plate appearances, .412 average, .500 OBP, .588 slugging, home run, 4 RBI, 3 strikeouts, 3 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-08, Dodgers 2008-present

Performance After 2004: 672 games, 2862 plate appearances, .307 average, .412 OBP, .571 slugging, 156 home runs, 518 RBI, 518 strikeouts, 409 walks

The Memories —

One of the oddest statistical postseasons for a player named Most Valuable Player of the World Series. Had a phenomenal series against the Angels, though he managed the strange feat of having his on-base percentage actually be lower than his batting average (sacrifice flies being the culprit). Then he went 0-for-the-entire-ALCS in terms of driving in runners, odd for a man who led the American League with 43 home runs in 2004 (Ramirez had one double and eight singles against the Yankees). He regained his form in the World Series to take the MVP award while hitting a home run of Jeff Suppan in the first inning of Game 3.

The Line —

Oh Manny, Our Manny, our fearful trip is done. The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won. A belated thank you to Walt Whitman, though Boston fans won the prize they sought, twice actually, with Ramirez sporting red socks. Then Manny went searching for his own prize and found it to the tune of $45 million from the Dodgers after he ran himself out of Boston at the trading deadline last year.

Johnny Damon

Current Occupation: Left fielder, Yankees

2004 Stats: 150 games, 702 plate appearances, .304 average, .380 OBP, .477 slugging, 20 home runs, 94 RBI, 71 strikeouts, 76 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Leadoff hitter, left fielder, co-captain of the Idiots

LDS —

3 games, 16 plate appearances, .467 average, .500 OBP, .533 slugging, 2 strikeouts, walk

LCS —

7 games, 37 plate appearances, .171 average, .216 OBP, .343, 2 home runs, 7 RBI, 8 strikeouts, 2 walks

WS —

4 games, 21 plate appearances, .286 average, .286 OBP, .619 slugging, home run, 2 RBI, strikeout

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Yankees 2006-present

Performance After 2004: 724 games, 3212 plate appearances, .292 average, .363 OBP, .454 slugging, 87 home runs, 371 RBI, 413 strikeouts, 321 walks

The Memories —

Good ALDS, bad ALCS … until the final game. Everybody knew that going into Game 7 against the Yankees that anything could happen. Anything turned out to be Damon. The center fielder broke the Bronx Bombers’ backs (and their hearts) with a grand slam in the second inning to make the score 6-0 Sox, then added another two-run shot in the fourth to really ice the champagne.

The Line —

Speaking of champagne, or, whiskey more appropriately, it is rumored that Damon and a couple other players would take whiskey shots before games to stay loose. Has a penchant for being naked in the clubhouse, once prompting Terry Francona to say, “I have never seen a man go from naked to uniform that fast.” Wrote “Idiot: Breaking The Curse and Enjoying The Game of Life” with Peter Golenbock about the 2004 championship season before jumping ship and signing with the Yankees for four years and $52 million in 2006.

Trot Nixon

Current Occupation: Free agent

2004 Stats: 48 games, 167 plate appearances, .315 average, .377 OBP, .510 slugging, 6 home runs, 23 RBI, 24 strikeouts, 15 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Right fielder, six hole hitter.

LDS —

2 games, 10 plate appearances, .250 average, .400 OBP, .250 slugging, 2 RBI, strikeout, 2 walks

LCS —

7 games, 29 plate appearances, .207 average, .207 OBP, .345 slugging, home run, 3 RBI, 5 strikeouts

WS —

4 games, 15 plate appearances, .357 average, .400 OBP, .571 slugging, 3 RBI, strikeout, walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-06, Indians 2007, Diamondbacks 2008 (AAA), Mets 2008; released by Brewers on March 25, 2009, after signing a minor league contract

Performance After 2004: 348 games, 1318 plate appearances, .263 batting average, .357 OBP, .393 slugging, 25 home runs, 151 RBI, 183 strikeouts, 163 walks

The Memories —

Hit a two-out, two-run double in Game 4 of the World Series that put the Sox up for good. Also hit a home run in Game 3 of the ALCS off Kevin Brown to at least give the Sox a semblance of dignity in the 19-8 whipping the Yankees handed the Sox that day.

The Line —

Sox fans will always remember Nixon with a dirty jersey, a timely bat and a guy who had a penchant for hitting grand slams. A stalwart in right field, his time was just about up when the Sox released him after the 2006 season. Bounced around with the Indians and Mets before being cut by Milwaukee in spring training this year. He has been out of baseball since then and recently went to Iraq to visit troops.

Jason Varitek

Current Occupation: Catcher and captain, Red Sox

2004 Stats: 137 games, 463 plate appearances, .296 average, .390 OBP, .482 slugging, 18 home runs, 73 RBI, 126 strikeouts, 63 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Catcher, club leader, seven-hole hitter

LDS —

3 games, 15 plate appearances, .167 average, .333 OBP, .417 slugging, home run, 2 RBI, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks

LCS —

7 games, 31 plate appearances, .321 average, .355 OBP, .571 slugging, 2 home runs, 7 RBI, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks

WS —

4 games, 15 plate appearances, .154 average, .267 OBP, .308 slugging, 2 RBI, 4 strikeouts, walk.

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-present

Performance After 2004: 607 games, 2381 plate appearances, .243 average, .339 OBP, .415 slugging, 778 home runs, 287 RBI, 538 strikeouts, 285 walks

The Memories — July 24, 2004 —

The Day That Changed Red Sox History. It was a career year for Varitek and he was the heart of the team that socked the Yankees in the face in the middle of July and then again in October. The captain did his work against the Yankees with two home runs in a good offensive series.

The Line —

In 2004 Varitek became the only player to ever play in the Little League World Series, the College World Series and MLB World Series. Parlayed his good 2004 into a four year, $40 million deal.

Bill Mueller

Current Occupation: Special assistant to Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti.

2004 Stats: 110 games, 460 plate appearances, .283 average, .365 OBP, .446 slugging, 12 home runs, 57 RBI, 56 strikeouts, 51 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Third baseman, nine-hole hitter

LDS —

3 games, 13 plate appearances, .333 average, .385 OBP, .333 slugging, strikeout, walk

LCS —

7 games, 33 plate appearances, .267 average, .333 OBP, .300 slugging, RBI, strikeout, walk

WS —

4 games, 18 plate appearances, .429 average, .556 OBP, .571 slugging, 2 RBI, 4 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Dodgers 2006

Performance After 2004: 182 games, 716 plate appearances, .288 average, .367 OBP, .425 slugging, 13 home runs, 77 RBI, 83 strikeouts, 76 walks

The Memories —

Game 4 tying single off Mariano Rivera will go down as the singular moment when the Sox turned the series around. Mueller, one of the most professional hitters in baseball at the time, was one of the few people with the composure and grit needed to get a clutch hit off the “Hammer of God.” Also had great numbers against the Cardinals in the World Series. When Mueller was hot at the bottom of the lineup, the Sox were tough to beat.

The Line —

Mueller’s knees gave out after the 2005 season and he went to the Dodgers to play a few games before taking over hitting coach duties. He has jumped upstairs and serves with Colletti in the front office now. No word on Joe Torre’s feeling about having one of the biggest 2004 postseason heroes haunting him in the hallways.

Kevin Millar

Current Occupation: First baseman/DH, Blue Jays

2004 Stats: 150 games, 588 plate appearances, .297 average, .383 OBP, .474 slugging, 18 home runs, 74 RBI, 91 strikeouts, 57 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Offensive first basemen, five-hole hitter, co-captain of the Idiots

LDS —

3 games, 11 plate appearances, .300 average, .364 OBP, .600 slugging, home run, 4 RBI, strikeout, walk

LCS —

7 games, 29 plate appearances, .250 average, .379 OBP, .375 slugging, 2 RBI, 4 strikeouts, 5 walks

WS —

4 games, 11 plate appearances, .125 average, .364 OBP, .250 slugging, 2 strikeouts, 2 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Orioles 2006-08, Blue Jays 2009

Performance After 2004: 629 games, 2477 plate appearances, .253 average, .348 OBP, .406 slugging, 68 home runs, 278 RBI, 384 strikeouts, 291 walks

The Memories —

Drew the walk from Rivera that eventually became the game-tying score in Game 4 of the ALCS. From “Cowboy Up” in 2003 to the “Idiots” of 2004, Millar was the man who kept the Sox loose. Credited for his ability to placate Manny Ramirez and helping turn the Sox from “25 players, 25 cabs” to the tight unit that claimed the 2004 World Series.

The Line —

Millar was headed to Japan before the Sox scooped him up in 2003 in a little bit of a fishy transaction (the Marlins sold him but Millar blocked the waiver). Is one of the few players not in the Major League Baseball Players Association because he was a replacement player during the strike of 1994-95. Though his power would probably play better in say, the National League West, Millar has refused to leave the American League East after his time with the Sox by signing with the Orioles and Blue Jays. Famous quote before Game 4 against the Yankees: “Don’t let us win this game. … This is a big game. They’ve got to win, because if we win we’ve got Pedro coming back tomorrow and then Schilling will pitch Game 6 and then you can take that fraud stuff and put it to bed. Don’t let the Sox win this game.” The Sox won the game, of course, and the rest is history.

Orlando Cabrera

Current Occupation: Shortstop, Twins

2004 Stats: (With Red Sox) 58 games, 248 plate appearances, .294 average, .320 OBP, .465 slugging, 6 home runs, 31 RBI, 23 strikeouts, 11 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Short stop, eight-hole hitter

LDS —

3 games, 15 plate appearances, .154 average, .367 OBP, .231 slugging, 3 RBI, 2 strikeouts, 3 walks

LCS —

7 games, 33 plate appearances, .379 average, .424 OBP, .448 slugging, 5 RBI, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks

WS: 4 games, 21 plate appearances, .235 average, .381 OBP, .294 slugging, 3 RBI, strikeout, 3 walks

Subsequent Teams: Angels 2005-07, White Sox 2008, Athletics 2009, Twins 2009

Performance After 2004: 770 games, 3401 plate appearances, .282 average, .329 OBP, .385 slugging, 42 home runs, 349 RBI, 314 strikeouts, 225 walks

The Memories —

So long, Nomar! Cabrera was one of the key cogs in the trade deadline deals that sent long-time fan favorite Nomar Garciaparra out New England. Cabrera became a steadying influence and productive hitter from the shortstop spot and performed well in the ALCS.

The Line —

Is it any wonder that the Twins picked up Cabrera in the second half of 2009 then went on a miraculous run to beat out the Tigers for the American League Central crown? Well, yeah, probably a little bit, but the Sox went 42-19 in the 60 games after they acquired Cabrera. In his first game back in Boston, with the Angels in 2005, Cabrera received a 30-second standing ovation. Ironically, earlier in 2009, Cabrera and Garciaparra manned the left side of the Athletics infield, with Garciaparra at third and Cabrera at short.

Mark Bellhorn

Current Occupation: Infielder, Colorado Sky Sox (Rockies AAA affiliate)

2004 Stats: 138 games, 620 plate appearances, .264 average, .373 OBP, .444 slugging, 17 home runs, 82 RBI, 177 strikeouts, 88 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Second baseman, two-hole hitter (Bellhorn and Mueller were switched in the batting order a couple of times in the playoffs)

LDS —

3 games, 16 plate appearances, .091 average, .375 OBP, .091 slugging, 4 strikeouts, 5 walks

LCS —

7 games, 31 plate appearances, .192 average, .323 OBP, .500 slugging, 2 home runs, 4 RBI, 11 strikeouts, 5 walks

WS —

4 games, 16 plate appearances, .300 average, .563 OBP, .700 slugging, 1 home run, 4 RBI, 2 strikeouts, 5 walks

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Yankees 2005, Padres 2006, Reds 2007

Performance After 2004: 222 games, 661 plate appearances, .198 average, .306 OBP, .344 slugging, 16 home runs, 58 RBI, 207 strikeouts, 88 walks

The Memories —

Bellhorn hit the fourth-inning, three-run home run in Game 6 against the Yankees that gave the Sox a lead they would not relinquish. It was a funny ball on a cold night in the Bronx that cleared the fence but hit a woman in the stands and bounced back into the field. There was some confusion if it was actually a home run, but the umpires conferred and got the call right. Bellhorn also hit a home run (no doubt this time) in Game 7. Also, 15 walks in 14 games in the playoffs is remarkable by itself.

The Line - “Who died and made you Mark Bellhorn?” Though he never hit again in his career, Bellhorn will be remembered fondly by the denizens of New England for his postseason drama. Kind of reminds you of Nick Green a little bit, right?

THE BULLPEN

Keith Foulke

Current Occupation: Pitcher, Newark Bears of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

2004 Stats: 72 games, 5 wins, 3 losses, 32 saves, 83 innings, 2.17 ERA, 79 strikeouts, 15 walks

2004 Postseason Role/ Stats: The closer

LDS —

2 games, save, 3 innings, 0.00 ERA, 5 strikeouts, walk

LCS —

5 games, 6 innings, 0.00 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 6 walks

WS —

4 games, 1 win, 1 save, 5 innings, 1.80 ERA, 8 strikeouts, walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2006, Athletics 2008

Performance After 2004: 118 games, 8 wins, 9 losses, 16 saves, 126.1 innings, 4.84 ERA, 93 strikeouts, 38 walks

The Memories —

There are desktop wallpapers, screen savers and posters all through New England of Varitek jumping into Foulke’s arms after the final out of the 2004 World Series. Foulke threw the pitch that became the out that made so many people cry and allowed old-time Sox fans go to their graves happy.

The Line —

Do not let the “Jonny from Burger King” comment be the thing you remember about Foulke. He was straight dominant in the 2004 playoffs, often times going multiple innings and still not allowing any runs. Why is he playing for the Newark Bears?

Mike Timlin

Current Occupation: Free agent

2004 Stats: 76 games, 5 wins, 4 losses, save, 76.1 innings, 4.13 ERA, 56 strikeouts, 19 walks

2004  Postseason Role/Stats: Setup man

LDS —

3 games, 3 innings, 9.00 ERA, 5 strikeouts, walk

LCS —

5 games, 5.2 innings, 4.76 ERA, 2 strikeouts, 5 walks

WS —

3 games, 3 innings, 6.00 ERA, walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-08

Performance After 2004: 246 games, 19 wins, 14 losses, 249 innings, 3.72 ERA, 152 strikeouts, 70 walks

The Memories —

A lot of good memories with Timlin, though his pitching in the 2004 postseason was a little erratic. Timlin was always just one of those guys who looked really mean on the mound, even if he gave you a heart attack with that consistent 93 mph straight fastball. Timlin could dominate at times. Sometimes he got dominated.

The Line —

Timlin is one of the only non-Yankees players in history to be a member of four World Series winners (1992-93 with the Blue Jays, 2004 and ‘07 with the Red Sox). Timlin signed a minor league contract with the Rockies on July 29 this season and was released on Aug. 15.

Mike Myers

Current Occupation: Special assistant to outgoing MLBPA head Donald Fehr

2004 Stats: (With Red Sox) 25 games, 1 win, 15 innings, 4.2o ERA, 9 strikeouts, 1 walk

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Lefty specialist

LDS —

2 games, 0.1 inning, 27.00 ERA, strikeout, walk

LCS —

3 games, 2.1 innings, 7.71 ERA, 4 strikeouts, walk

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Yankees 2006-07, White Sox 2007

Performance After 2004: 199 games, 8 wins, 3 losses, 122.1 innings, 3.90 ERA, 70 strikeouts, 46 walks

The Memories —

Ah, the old submariner. Did not pitch particularly well in the 2004 postseason and did not pitch in the World Series.

The Line —

It was always interesting to watch Myers and Chad Bradford (right submariner) warm up next to each other in the outfield in 2005. Retired from baseball in 2007.

Alan Embree

Current Occupation: Reliever, Rockies

2004 stats: 71 games, 2 wins, 2 losses, 52.1 innings, 4.13 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 11 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Setup, lefty specialist

LDS —

2 games, 1 inning, 0.00 ERA, walk

LCS —

6 games, 4.2 innings, 3.86 ERA, 2 strikeouts, walk

WS —

3 games, 1.2 innings, 0.00 ERA, 4 strikeouts

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Yankees 2005, Padres 2006, Athletics 2007-08, Rockies 2009

Performance After 2004: 314 games, 11 wins, 17 losses, 18 saves, 258.2 innings, 4.98 ERA, 211 strikeouts, 90 walks

The Memories —

Embree played the left-handed complement to Timlin and pitched reasonably well as a specialist in the 2004 playoffs. Was a go-to guy for Francona against the Yankees in tough spots during the ALCS with six appearances and recorded the final out in Game 7.

The Line —

Embree is the classic journeyman left-handed reliever, having played for 10 teams in 16 seasons. Broke his tibia when he was hit by the bat of Atlanta’s Martin Prado on July 11 this year and missed the rest of the season.

Curtis Leskanic

Current Occupation: Red Sox scout

2004 Stats: (With the Sox) 32 games, 3 wins, 2 losses, 27.2 innings, 3.58 ERA, 22 strikeouts, 16 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Emergency reliever

LCS —

3 games, 1 win,  2.2 innings, 10.12 ERA, 2 strikeouts, 3 walks

Subsequent Teams: None

Performance After 2004: None.

The Memories —

Curtis “The Panic” Leskanic actually was the winning pitcher in the historic Game 4 against the Yankees as he pitched 1.1 innings and allowed one hit to Jorge Posada to lead off the top of the 12th. Apparently, that was enough panicking because Leskanic never pitched in the big leagues again.

The Line —

Leskanic hung up the cleats after 2004 and eventually joined the Sox scouting department. After the Sox won the World Series, Leskanic mimicked the snow angel celebration that Lonie Paxton did after the Patriots famous “Snow Bowl” victory over the Raiders en route to the 2002 Super Bowl. Hit Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield with a pitch in 2004 but did not have to face Sheffield’s temper because Leskanic’s brother had installed a pool at Sheffield’s house.

Ramiro Mendoza

Current Occupation: Pitcher, Newark Bears of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

2004 Stats: 27 games, 2 wins, 1 loss, 30.2 innings, 3.52 ERA, 13 strikeouts, 7 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Emergency reliever

LCS —

2 games, 1 loss, 2 innings, 4.50 ERA, strikeout

Subsequent Teams: Yankees 2005

Performance After 2004: 1 game, 1 innings, 18.00 ERA, strikeout

The Memories —

Face it, most of the memories of Mendoza actually came AGAINST the Red Sox, not for them. He spent his entire career except for 2003-04 with the Yankees and was an effective setup man for Rivera for awhile. Was the official losing pitcher (somebody had to be) in the disaster that was Game 3 in the ALCS.

The Line —

Mendoza joined Foulke in Newark with the Bears this year. Oddly enough, Scott Williamson also is on that team. Mendoza must not have liked the fact that he was on the Red Sox team when they finally won the World Series because he pitched exactly one inning for the Yankees in 2005 before leaving the big leagues for good. He did sign a minor league contract with the Yankees after 2005 and had a tryout with the Brewers this year but failed his physical. Pitched for Panama in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

The Bench

Dave Roberts

Current Occupation: NESN Red Sox analyst

2004 Stats: (With the Sox) 45 games, 101 plate appearances, .256 average, .330 OBP, .442 slugging, 2 home runs, 14 RBI, 17 strikeouts, 10 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Backup outfielder, pinch-runner

LDS —

1 game, no plate appearances

LCS —

2 games, no plate appearances, 1 stolen base, 2 runs

Subsequent Teams: Padres 2005-06, Giants 2007-08

Performance After 2004: 410 games, 1618 plate appearances, .273 average, .349 OBP, .386 slugging, 12 home runs, 114 RBI, 204 strikeouts, 166 walks

The Memories —

Really, there is only one. “The Steal.” Millar walks, Roberts pinch-runs. Everybody on the planet knows that he has to steal second base. He goes, Posada fires. Safe. Mueller gets the hit that sends him home, and the Red Sox have never been the same since.

The Line —

“Maury Wills once told me that there will come a point in my career when everyone in the ballpark will know that I have to steal a base, and I will steal that base. When I got out there, I knew that was what Maury Wills was talking about.” Roberts will forever get a warm welcome at Fenway and now has a job with NESN, filling in for Jerry Remy on occasion.

Doug Mientkiewicz

Current Occupation: First baseman, Dodgers

2004 Stats: (With the Sox) 49 games, 119 plate appearances, .215 average, .286 OBP, .318 slugging, home run, 10 RBI, 18 strikeouts, 10 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Defensive first baseman

LDS —

3 games, 4 plate appearances, .500 average, .500 OBP, .500 slugging, RBI

LCS —

4 games, 5 plate appearances, .500 average, .500 OBP, .750 slugging, strikeout

WS —

4 games, 1 plate appearances, .000 average, .000 OBP, .000 slugging.

Subsequent Teams: Mets 2005, Royals 2006, Yankees 2007, Pirates 2008, Dodgers 2009

Performance After 2004: 395 games, 1219 plate appearances, .270 average, .353 OBP, .405 slugging, 22 home runs, 129 RBI, 146 strikeouts, 128 walks

The Memories —

Dougie Baseball caught the underhand toss from Foulke for the final out in Game 4 against the Cardinals. He was the reliable late-inning defensive guru at first base to replace the sometimes adventurous meanderings of Millar. Part of the Garciaparra shuffle at the deadline as he came over from the Twins.

The Line —

I am keeping the ball … wait, what?! Mientkeiewicz caused a ruckus with the Sox after the World Series when he elected to keep the ball after the final out. A spokesperson for Major League Baseball said the ball belonged to Mientkeiewicz, as per normal baseball standards. Mientkiewicz let the ball tour with the World Series trophy during the winter of 2005 and eventually reached an agreement with the Red Sox to allow the ball to go to the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Gabe Kapler

Current Occupation: Outfielder, Rays

2004 Stats: 136 games, 310 plate appearances, .272 average, .311 OBP, .390 slugging, 6 home runs, 33 RBI, 49 strikeouts, 15 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Backup outfielder

LDS —

2 games, 5 plate appearances, .200 average, .200 OBP, .200 slugging

LCS —

2 games, 3 plate appearances, .333 average, .333 OBP, .333 slugging

WS —

4 games, 2 plate appearances, .000 average, .000 OBP, .000 slugging, strikeout

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005-06, Brewers 2008, Rays 2009

Performance After 2004: 303 games, 734 plate appearances, .265 average, .328 OBP, .430 slugging, 19 home runs, 91 RBI, 108 strikeouts, 59 walks

The Memories —

Kapler was in right field for the final pitch of Game 4 against the Cardinals. Played in a career-high 136 games for the Sox in 2004.

The Line —

During the 2004 season Kapler was deciding whether or not to play on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. He consulted a Boston rabbi who reportedly told him: “Do it! We need all the help we can get!” Kapler played. Kapler went into semi-retirement in the 2007 season and managed the Sox’ Single-A affiliate, the Greenville Drive, for a year, coaching some of the rising prospects in the Sox organization, including Josh Reddick.

Doug Mirabelli

Current Occupation: Realtor, Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty; manager, St. Francis High School baseball team in Traverse City, Mich.

2004 Performance: 59 games, 182 plate appearances, .281 average, .368 OBP, .525 slugging, 9 home runs, 32 RBI, 46 strikeouts, 19 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Backup catcher

LCS —

1 game, 1 plate appearance, .000 average, .000 OBP, .000 slugging

WS —

1 game, 3 plate appearances, .333 average, .333 OBP, .333 slugging, strikeout

Subsequent Teams: Red Sox 2005, Padres 2006 (for about two months), Red Sox 2006-07

Performance After 2004: 171 games, 481 plate appearances, .208 average, .283 OBP, .363 slugging, 17 home runs, 59 RBI, 148 strikeouts, 40 walks

The Memories —

Never the greatest hitter, “Duck Boat” Mirabelli occasionally got a hold of one with his long swing and push it over the Monster. Caught Wakefield in Game 1 of the World Series as his personal catcher and singled off Walt Williams in the third inning.

The Line —

Mirabelli may be the only backup catcher ever to get a police escort through Boston when he was reacquired by the Sox in 2006 from the Padres to catch Wakefield that night. Ended up with a little controversy when there was some “miscommunication” between him and Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne about the authenticity of Schilling’s bloody sock in Game 6 against the Yankees. Mirabelli would later insist that the sock indeed had blood on it.

Pokey Reese

Current Occupation: Free agent

2004 Stats: 96 games, 268 plate appearances, .221 average, 271 OBP, .303 slugging, 3 home runs, 29 RBI, 60 strikeouts, 17 walks

2004 Postseason Role/Stats: Defensive utility middle infielder

LDS —

3 games, no plate appearances, run

LCS —

3 games, 1 plate appearance, .000 average, .000 OBP, .000 slugging, strikeout

WS —

4 games, 1 plate appearances, .000 average, .000 OBP, .000 slugging

Subsequent Teams: Signed with the Mariners in 2005 but never played after suffering an injury; played in the Nationals’ system in 2008 but was limited by injuries.

Performance After 2004: None

The Memories —

Reese and Mientkiewicz were the defensive right side of the infield for the Red Sox as they would consistently come in late in games down the stretch and into the postseason to spell Millar and Bellhorn. Helped transform the Sox’ fielding from “somewhat atrocious” to “fairly respectable” late in the season.

The Line —

I bet you still see some “Pokey Woulda Had It!” bumper stickers around Boston. Reese was never much of a hitter, but he did hit two home runs in one game in May, an inside-the-park job and a normal Monster pop fly-turned-homer. He left the Red Sox in spring training of 2005 and hasn’t done much since.

Where Was I? On the final pitch of the final game I was sitting on a stool at a now-defunct bar called Atomic Burrito in Charlottesville, Va., watching the game and listening to a band called Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees. I was a kitchen manager in downtown Charlottesville at the time and did not have television in my apartment. So, I ended up listening to the late night games (since we got kicked out of the bar) on my radio, rocking back and forth on a dining room chair with my border collie, Kira. When Mientkiewicz caught the ball I was mobbed by all my fellow transplanted New Englanders, some of whom were crying, others trying to pull my pants down, walk-off style.

Jed Hoyer, the Red Sox Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager, was today named the Executive Vice President/General Manager of the San Diego Padres.

“Jed has been an immensely valuable member of our baseball ops team since joining the Red Sox in 2002,” said Red Sox Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein. “His combination of analytical ability, feel for the game, interpersonal skills and creativity helped make us tick, and he played a role in virtually every major decision we have made. His loyalty and friendship will be missed, and we know he will continue to make us proud.”

“John Henry, Tom Werner and our entire ownership join Theo in expressing our gratitude and best wishes to Jed as he takes on this exciting new challenge in his already bright career as a baseball executive,” added President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “Throughout the eight seasons that he spent with us, his insight, hard work and great judgment were integral to the team’s success. In Jed, the Padres are catching a rising star and we will miss him both professionally and personally.”

A native of Plymouth, N.H., Hoyer started with the Red Sox baseball operations department in 2002 and was named Assistant to General Manager Theo Epstein following the 2003 season. He served as Assistant General Manager for the 2006-08 campaigns, with a 44-day stint as co-General Manager in the offseason following the 2005 season. Hoyer, 35, was promoted to Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager on January 12, 2009 with his primary duties focused on assisting Epstein in all player acquisitions, contract negotiations and player evaluations. During his tenure in Boston, he was actively involved in building the Red Sox roster, as well as Major League scouting, quantitative analysis and advance scouting. The club reached the playoffs six times (2003-05, 2007-09), earning two World Series titles (2004 and 2007) in his eight seasons with the Red Sox.

Hoyer is a 1996 graduate of Wesleyan University where he played shortstop and pitched for four seasons, helping the Cardinals to the championship game of the Division III World Series in 1994. Honored with the Ahrens Award as the school’s top male athlete his senior year, Hoyer later served as an assistant baseball coach at Wesleyan for two seasons.

Ben Cherington, now the club’s only Senior VP/Assistant GM, will transition from his role overseeing scouting and player development to a more traditional Assistant GM role focusing on Major League roster construction, professional player evaluation, and contract negotiations. With Cherington’s change in duties, Jason McLeod and Mike Hazen will have full autonomy in their roles as Scouting Director and Farm Director, respectively, and will report directly to the General Manager.

Red Sox players start the celebration in St. Louis after winning the 2004 World Series. (AP)

Five years ago, a total lunar eclipse — the first ever during a World Series game — occurred in the night sky shortly before midnight at Busch Stadium, shortly before Keith Foulke prepared to launch what would be the final pitch of the 2004 season to Edgar Renteria.

A swing and a soft ground ball later, the ball would find its way back into the glove of the Red Sox closer, and he lofted it over to first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who eagerly awaited the underhand toss. Sealing it in his glove with one foot on the bag, Mientkiewicz threw his arms up, lifting his right index finger in the air, while Foulke turned in jubilation toward Jason Varitek, catching him in an elated leap of triumph. The Red Sox, on the strength of a 3-0 win in Game 4, were World Series champions for the first time since 1918 after sweeping the Cardinals.

When Mientkiewicz caught the ball — a ball he later would refuse to give to Red Sox management — every citizen of the diehard, passionate and avid fan base known as Red Sox Nation erupted into a frenzied state of mass hysteria. In Boston, delirious fans jumped into ponds, ran up and down Yawkey Way riding on broomsticks like they were Bette Midler in “Hocus Pocus,” and flipped over cars.

They were unfazed by the armored Boston Police officers who looked ready to pounce on the first fanatic to get in their way. They did not care about midterms, deadlines or their Yankees-fan bosses’ threats that they would be fired if they did not arrive on time for work the next morning. This was the party they anticipated for decades. It was here at last.

Many laughed, many cried. Some screamed and others shouted. There were sighs of relief and howls of joy. “Dirty Water” blasted through stereos and “Sweet Caroline” echoed its “So good!” feeling in the exhilarated atmosphere. Bill Buckner received a full pardon.

College students climbed up lamp posts, hollering at the top of their lungs. People of all ages danced better than Patrick Swayze throughout Kenmore Square. And the celebration was not limited to those in America, but those in all corners of the globe. Those lying six feet under were given recognition for their loyalty as well, as many greeted their loved ones with World Series memorabilia.

This was the moment every member of the Nation had long awaited. Eighty-six years after the Red Sox had won their fifth World Series championship, the title was returning to Boston. They had accomplished the seemingly impossible. They were not just another championship team. They were the team. The best. The world’s greatest.

No team had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in any playoff series to win four straight. This team did. The fans had suffered long enough. Those who died waiting, it was said over and over, were finally able to rest in peace.

Boston Red Sox, 2004 World Series champions: Could it get any better than this?

In the aftermath of Renteria’s final out, Red Sox players stormed the field in a celebration that would carry them all the way back to Boston. In the clubhouse, showering under the ice cold spray of bottled champagne, Johnny Pesky was at last able to receive the trophy he had whole-heartedly desired since his Red Sox team lost the 1946 World Series in St. Louis 58 years earlier. Curt Schilling gave a toast to the “greatest Red Sox team ever.” Shortstop Orlando Cabrera labeled the team a dynasty.

And Manny Ramirez, the World Series MVP, the disgruntled outfielder who was almost packaged in an offseason trade that would have sent Alex Rodriguez to the Sox and Manny to the Texas Rangers, offered one of his more profound statements, saying, “God sent me back here for a reason, and that’s why I am here.”

Theo Epstein, the engineer who built the band of lovable idiots, took part in the festivities as both a fan and a proud employee of the franchise. “A whole lot of people can die happy now, and a whole lot of people can live happy now — and we plan on doing it,” he said.

Terry Francona, in his first year as the team’s manager, got his wish to see his eccentric group of ballplayers jump onto each other like kids bouncing on a trampoline. Reliever Curtis Leskanic fell to the ground and attempted to make a snow angel in the grass in honor of how the Patriots celebrated a playoff victory.

Emotions were high throughout the Nation. Kevin Millar, who drew the leadoff walk off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the ALCS, reflected after the game that it was an “amazing feeling.”

Fans who had lived through a lifetime of letdown and disappointment were finally rewarded. There were converts from the dark Yankee Universe who finally were able to validate their reasoning for crossing over. And there was 18-year veteran Ellis Burks, who was at last able to end his career by bringing home a championship.

Already, people were talking about the parade. Already, fans were preparing to hate on the Yankees (as Manny Ramirez did when he held a poster reading “Jeter is playing golf today. This is better!”). And Derek Lowe already was anticipating returning to Yankee Stadium without having to hear the “1918″ chants (though that would be the last night he would wear a Sox uniform).

Lowe’s jersey that he wore during his win in Game 4 would be immortalized in the Hall of Fame along with Cabrera’s glove, Schilling’s and Foulke’s spikes, Pedro Martinez’ cap, and several other treasured artifacts.

Not since the Boston Tea Party, it seemed, had the city exploded in such a fervent and zealous outburst. Red and navy shirts and jerseys streamed across the Boston Common and alongside the Charles River. It was a declaration of independence from the so-called Curse of the Bambino. The Sox were finally champions.

These are the images and the sounds that will forever be etched in the memories of Red Sox fans around the country. It was a night that no Sox fan will ever forget. Whenever someone asks a citizen where he or she was on Oct, 27, 2009, at 11:40 p.m., the answer will be an easy one. Everyone can distinctly remember what they were doing. Whether they celebrated from the comfort of their home, from the streets lining Beantown, or at the park in St. Louis, Red Sox fans will surely remember the moment that their prayers were answered and their faith rewarded.

The championship drought was over. Red Sox fans could ask for nothing more than the opportunity to soak in that moment of glory.

Outfielder Carlos Beltran is unlikely to be dealt from New York. (AP)

A recent story in the Boston Herald suggested that Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran could be an intriguing contingency plan for the Red Sox this offseason should Boston fail to re-sign left fielder Jason Bay. If Bay were to depart, the report suggested, the Sox could entertain the idea of trading for Beltran — one of the best defensive players in the game, and a middle-of-the-order hitter to boot — and moving Jacoby Ellsbury to left field.

However, it appears that there is virtually no chance that such a deal could happen. While Beltran — who has two years, each at $18.5 million (though with $5.5 million of each season’s salary due in deferred, interest-gathering payments), left on his seven-year, $119 million deal — would undoubtedly be both affordable and attractive to the Sox or just about any other team seeking an outfielder, there is virtually no chance that he will be dealt.

A major league source said that the Mets would not even entertain the idea of trading Beltran. The Mets are instead giving every indication that they will be active in adding pieces this offseason (New York is expected to get involved in the market for Bay and/or Matt Holliday). Given that likelihood, it would not make sense for the team to deal one of its best players.

Beltran is coming off a season in which he missed 2½ months with a bone bruise on his right knee. When healthy, he performed at an elite level, hitting .325 with a .360 OBP, .496 slugging mark, 10 homers and 11 steals (in 12 attempts) while playing in 81 games.

While it would not appear that there is a scenario in which Beltran would be dealt to Boston this winter, the Sox had pursued him aggressively in the past. Most notably, when he was on the trade block as a member of the Royals during the 2004 season, the Sox had a standing offer to deal Kevin Youkilis and Kelly Shoppach for the center fielder.

Instead, Kansas City elected to deal Beltran as part of a three-way deal with the Athletics and Astros. The Royals ended up receiving catcher John Buck and corner infielder/outfielder Mark Teahen in the deal.

Kikuchi features a fastball that sits at 89-92 mph and that touches the mid-90s. That, combined with a potentially plus-curveball, made him a talent who intrigued teams in the U.S. and Japan alike.

Kikuchi, 18, could have signed as an international amateur free agent with an MLB team. He is more highly regarded than countryman Junichi Tazawa, who signed a $3.3 million major-league deal with the Sox as an amateur last offseason.

He announced his decision in a press conference in Japan.

Wakefield reiterated that he is still setting the goal of winning 200 career games, while also setting the mark for most victories by a Red Sox’ pitcher, currently owned by Roger Clemens and Cy Young (192), which he is shy of 17 of tying. The 43-year-old said that he had no regrets on how he or the team handled the injury, which limited Wakefield to four starts after the All-Star break. Wakefield also said that his arm felt fresher, even before the injury, than the last few seasons.

It was assumed that if the surgery went well the Red Sox would pick up the 43-year-old’s $4 million option for the 2010 season. The Red Sox have five days after the conclusion of the World Series to exercise the option.

“Wake is someone that is in our plans and we hope makes starts for us next year and is a member of the rotation,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein during a press conference the day after the conclusion of the Red Sox’ season. “We haven’t sat down and finalized anything. Obviously we want to see how the surgery goes and then both sides will sit down and talk.” 

Wakefield has said that doctors told him that the procedure would not hinder his preparation for next season. The disc had pressed on a nerves in the pitcher’s back, causing weakness in his right leg.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein joined the Dennis & Callahan Show Thursday morning and touched on his team’s approach to the offseason, the value of J.D. Drew, the future of Daniel Bard as a closer. and some of the organization’s philosophies. 

Here is what he said (click here to listen)…

(On watching the postseason) It does kind of remind you that the offseason is almost upon us and there are some long phone calls. But I’ll tell you what, it’s hard watching games when you’re rooting for both teams to lose.

If we had to make long-term decisions the next day we probably wouldn’t make great decisions. 

A lot of time if you focus on why you lost a certain playoff series, and what went wrong in that series, you’re not going to make quality decisions. If you look at the season as a whole, what went wrong and what went right in the season and take a look at the big picture and where you are as an organization, where you are in your long-term plans you make better decisions. It’s not as much fun. Having that visceral reaction is sometimes more satisfying, but you have to take a step back.

If you would have told us that Bay would have a big season, Drew would have a big season, Ellsbury would have a big developmental season, a big step forward, Youkilis would have another big season, we would trade for Victor Martinez at the trading deadline and he would be huge for two months, we’d have food performance at the front of our rotation with Beckett and Lester, Buchholz would come in July and become a really good pitcher for two months. All these things went right and we won 95 games I would say, ‘Let’s go, let’s start the playoffs tomorrow.’ I just feel like we didn’t show up in those three games. It wasn’t like we weren’t a team without any issues whatsoever. We had our issues and they manifested and cost us a little bit. We went through mysterious and frustrating stretches where we didn’t hit at all on the road. That happens.

(The premise that it is harder to retain a player once they hit the free agent market) That could happen here. Clearly if a player reaches free agency usually the team that over bids is the one that lands him. That’s not necessarily the case here, but it sure could be. We have to prepare for that contingency if he leaves. I don’t think the negotiation is over by any means.

Certainly there’s a good feeling involved. He wants to be here, and we want to keep him and take a shot it. If it works out, great. If not we’ll move on.

(On the lack of performance on the road) This year for some reason we really underperformed on the road. There are players who don’t have the pop to go out regularly on the road but do at Fenway, and those guys perform a lot better at home than on the road. But there are other players who don’t particularly don’t have characteristics that would make them better players at Fenway that also underperformed on the road. Maybe there’s something to it where we can’t have to many guys who have swings built for Fenway Park, but I think mainly it was just a fluky year almost every player just happened to play better at home than on the road.

(On the personality of the team) We can’t build a team on sort of psycho-babble. We try and get 25 high-character guy. The bottom line is this team had a great personality. It was calm outwardly on the field, very  professional, but behind closed doors they had a ton of fun. There were a lot of leaders who showed up hard to play every single day. We won 95 games in a really tough division and if we had performed better in the playoffs nobody would be talking about our personality.

I couldn’t care less whether they’re emotional and display their personality on the field, or in order to play well they keep their emotions under check. I couldn’t care less as they play well and they’re good teammates to one another.

(On perception of J.D. Drew) There’s always been a descrepency between how valuable a player he is and how he’s viewed by a certain element of the fan base, and the media in particular. There’s been a lot of strides in the game in terms of how people properly value players based on more meaningful statistics. Drew is sort of a touchstone so to speak for that because you actually look at the underlying performance and things that really matter as far as winning games and not winning games, he’s been over the length of the contract one of the 10 most valuable outfielders in baseball. Over the last two years I think he’s been one of the top two or three in the league, and this past year, again, one of the top two or three most valuable outfielders in the American League. And yet if you simplify the game down to what somebody’s batting average was, how many home runs they hit or how many RBIs they had, which is what we all grew up doing but by today’s standards is a pretty primitive way to look at the game.

From a straight objective standpoint, what he contributes offensively and what he contributes defensively, and add in baserunning so it’s the total value of the player, on a rate basis he was outstanding and there aren’t too many outfielders who compare to what he did.

(Is Drew worth the contract?) What he’s done the first three years of that contract, just looking at straight free agent dollars — obviously you can’t compare him to an arbitration market, or a pre-arb player — what he’s done qualitatively and when you even factor in the amount he’s played over these three years, yeah, he’s come out to a tick more than $14 million per year.

(On Drew not driving in runs) This year it was sort of freakish how well he performed offensively and how few runs he drove in in the lineup. Start with the basic premise that that type of player is always going to be better at scoring runs than driving in runs in because while he does have a high slug, his on-base skills, those are his strengths because he’s on base a lot and he’s a terrific baserunner. He’s going to score more runs. When somebody who tends to walk a lot tends to drive in fewer runs than somebody who puts the ball in play a lot. In Drew’s case he’s an extreme because he walks at a tremendously high rate. Ted Williams has been criticized over and over again, hey runner on third and less than two outs you have to expand the zone and swing at something that’s a ball just to drive the runner in. Well, Williams wouldn’t do that. He would take his walk and he was criticized for it. Wade Boggs was criticized for it. J.D. doesn’t do it. Some hitters come out of their approach and put the ball in play in RBI situation and drive in runs and some hitters don’t do that. Drew is the type of hitter who doesn’t do it, and to be honest with you as an organization we don’t mind if guys don’t come out their approach. It might cost you not driving in runs here or there but in the long run, staying in one’s approach which is getting in a hitters count, getting a pitch you can drive and then driving that ball, and if not then taking your walk, in our mind that’s more fundamentally more important. 

There’s labels that tend to happen. People who don’t like Drew will call him uncaring or apathetic or aloof. People who like him will say he has ice in his veins. Then these narratives may or may not even be true, so people who don’t like a player like that will say, ‘He doesn’t care. He doesn’t come through in the clutch.’ They just start these broad labels that aren’t necessarily true. Can you think of a hitter who has had more big hits, more big home runs for us the past three season in the postseason in the last three seasons than Drew? He has more postseason RBIs the past three years than any player that we have. So this narrative sort of takes a life of it own and it’s not always true.

(On not valuing such stats as RBI as some others) If we both grew up in schools that taught us the Earth was flat and then all of a sudden when we went out to get a job as a surveyor and the first thing they taught us in school and the first thing they taught us in school was that the Earth was round it would be tough for you to accept that but over time you would start to operate in which the world is round and make better decisions based on that and that’s sort of the way the game is evolving. I actually don’t believe in extremes. I believe that you have to balance it and don’t look exclusively at any one set of numbers. You have to balance in the human element. You have to balance in scouting with objective analysis. But for something that fundamental like using numbers … if you’re using numbers to access offensive performance than don’t use numbers that don’t correlate to scoring runs which then correlates to winning. You might as well use the numbers which best correlate to scoring runs which correlates best to winning.

(On referencing Ortiz in the post-season press conference) I stated a reality is that to be the team we needs to be, David Ortiz is our DH, he needs to be a force. We’re a different team when he is a force, when he’s hitting all kinds of pitching and hitting the ball to all fields and being a really tough out and driving the ball. That’s just the reality. I’m not trying to send anybody a message. I don’t send messages to the players through the media. I talk to our players a lot about things, but I don’t send messages through the media.

(On whether Daniel Bard is ready to be a closer) I think he has the physical ability to do that and I think we saw as he developed over the course of the year he has the mental make-up to do that as well. At the same time I think he’s a work in progress. This is somebody who performed really well at the highest level but is still working on some fundamental parts of his game. He’s still tweaking his breaking ball. He’s got a good breaking ball but it probably isn’t where it will be eventually. This is somebody who is still really a work in progress and while he may have the ability to do something it might not be the best thing for the long-term and his career if we force him into something.

Yet sometimes, hitting coaches’ most important observations have less to do with the technical details of hitting than they do with the psychology of hitting. The 2009 season represented a case study in that notion for Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and hitting coach Dave Magadan.

Ortiz had a startling tale of two seasons. Through the end of May, he was hitting just .185 with one homer, a .284 OBP and .570 slugging mark, statistics more befitting a pitcher than a player with a reputation as one of the most feared sluggers in the game. Many were inclined to suggest Ortiz was done, and it would have been difficult to dismiss such gloomy forecasts.

Starting in June, however, Ortiz hit .264 with a .356 OBP and .904 OPS, blasting 27 homers and driving in 81 runs in the process. It was not quite vintage Ortiz, but it was not far off.

Ortiz insists that the hairpin turn that he achieved in 2009 was almost entirely about a changed mental approach to the game. And for that, he suggested, Magadan had helped immensely.

“I said, ‘[Expletive] it – I’m going to play like it’s Little League.” I’m serious about this. One day, I woke up and I went, ‘Okay, I guess I’ve got nothing to lose anymore. I’m way behind what I’m normally used to. I’ll go to the field today, and not do [expletive]. I’m just going to act like I’m in Little League,’” Ortiz said late in the regular season.

“I really got that, I guess, one day from Magadan. He told me one day, ‘You’re listening to everybody. Any time you have a bad swing or had a bad game.’ He said, ‘We know more about your swing than anyone else. We watch you take 3,000 swings a day. Just stay away from everything. Just go and see the ball and hit it.’”

Magadan had spent ample time dissecting Ortiz’ slump, and saw that the Sox designated hitter simply wasn’t himself. There was a great deal of guesswork at the plate, as Ortiz seemed to be anticipating off-speed pitches – a fear that may have been the byproduct of Manny Ramirez’ departure, with Ortiz left to worry that opposing pitchers wouldn’t throw him anything to hit.

Ortiz spent the first couple of months of the season lost at the plate. It was obvious in both his approach and statistics.

“He dug a big hole for himself at the beginning of the year,” said Magadan in late-September. “A lot of people were writing him off. We all still felt that he had a lot left in the tank.”

And so, Magadan tried to engage Ortiz in a fashion that would allow the slugger’s natural talents to come to the fore. That is where the conversation about Little League became not merely useful but essential.

Magadan did not recall the precise date of the conversation with Ortiz. But he did recall that the moment came in the deepest throes of the two-month, season-opening slump.

“It was probably when he was in the midst of his one homer, hitting a buck-eighty time,” said the Red Sox hitting coach. “He was beating himself up. Sometimes you have to just say, ‘Hey – go out there and have fun. Don’t try to force the issue.’ Simplify the game. Don’t try to make it more difficult than it is. Have fun. Just go up there trying to hit a ball hard.”

By and large, Ortiz was able to do that over the final four months of the 2009 regular season. He had worked with Magadan to make subtle technical adjustments in the past, but in this instance, his job had far less to do with the details of a swing than with the thought process that entered into one. Ortiz’ season was salvaged, in no trivial part by a bit of perspective offered from his hitting coach.

Dave Magadan will visit the WEEI.com Virtual Press Box on Thursday, Oct. 22, at noon. For details of his chat, visit the Full Count Blog.

]]> http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2009/10/22/how-a-hitting-coach-and-little-league-saved-ortiz-season/feed/ http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2009/10/22/report-naming-of-hoyer-as-padres-gm-imminent/ http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2009/10/22/report-naming-of-hoyer-as-padres-gm-imminent/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:53:35 +0000 Alex Speier http://fullcount.weei.com/?p=19602 The San Diego Union-Tribune, citing a source, is reporting that the selection of Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer as the next G.M. of the San Diego Padres is “imminent.” Hoyer has been perceived for some time in baseball circles as the front-runner for the position.

Padres CEO Jeff Moorad declined to comment on Hoyer’s candidacy for the article, though his comments were in keeping with the notion that the Padres hope to name the successor to Kevin Towers — who was fired at the end of the 2009 season after 14 years as the San Diego architect — before the start of the World Series.

“We’re still working on it,” Moorad told the Union-Tribune via e-mail Wednesday night. “We have a couple follow-up discussions scheduled for (Thursday), then are likely to move toward a decision.”

Hoyer did not return an email seeking comment.

Hoyer, 35, has been with the Red Sox since 2002, when he was hired as an intern. He was named Assistant to the General Manager in 2003, served briefly as the co-G.M. of the Sox (along with Ben Cherington) from Dec. 2005-Jan. 2006, before being named Assistant G.M. with Theo Epstein’s return to the organization in 2006.

Hoyer is perhaps best known for having spent his Thanksgiving in 2003 at Curt Schilling’s house, helping to convince the pitcher to waive his no-trade clause and agree to come to Boston. Hoyer also played significant roles in the deal that brought Coco Crisp to the Red Sox from the Indians (a deal whose groundwork was laid while Hoyer and Cherington were co-GMs) and the contract extension for Dustin Pedroia, among others.

The Padres GM opening is considered attractive for several reasons. In addition to the fact that San Diego is considered one of the top places in the country to live, the Padres play in a ballpark that allows for the creation of a significant home-field advantage, both the area and park can be used as selling points to free agents, and the payroll features few to no dead-weight contracts.

Moreover, Hoyer’s former Boston colleague Josh Byrnes — formerly the Red Sox assistant G.M., now the G.M. of the Arizona Diamondbacks — had an excellent working relationship with Moorad. As CEO of the Diamondbacks, Moorad signed Byrnes to an eight-year extension (through the 2015 season) that provided as much job security as virtually any employee — player, manager, coach or executive — in the industry.

Though there had been some rumors that fellow Red Sox assistant G.M. (and former co-G.M.) Ben Cherington was also under consideration for the position, Cherington said that he has not had any contacted with the Padres about the vacancy. All the same, he expressed enthusiasm about the possibility that his longtime colleague might soon be in charge of San Diego’s baseball operations.

“If there is anything to the rumors about Jed,” Cherington wrote in an email, “I think the Padres would be getting a great guy.”

Gammons suggested that the Dodgers were probably unconcerned about the fact that Ramirez was showering in the ninth inning while his team was suffering its walk-off loss to the Phillies, but he did suggest that other incidents — including a failure to hustle after a Shane Victorino triple in the sixth inning of L.A.’s 5-4 loss on Monday — were of greater concern.

“I don’t think [showering during the ninth inning] plays badly in the clubhouse. Some of the younger players have been laughing with me for a year about, ‘Manny’s a leader.’ Please. Manny is Manny. He wasn’t a leader. Casey Blake is the guy Matt Kemp and all of them follow everywhere. I don’t think it bothers them,” said Gammons. “I remember in 1986. When the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs, Keith Hernandez was sitting in front of his locker in his underwear drinking a beer.

“I don’t think it bothers them that much. Manny kind of goes his own way. It bothered me more on the ball that Victorino hit down the line that Manny kind of sauntered over and lobbed the ball in. To me it was a little bit of lack of respect for the situation, not unlike the whole business of not running a ball out when John Lackey had a no-hitter in Fenway Park.

“What’s interesting is there’s no doubt in my mind, considering all that will be hitting the gossip pages of L.A. over the next few months in the McCourt divorce, there’s no doubt in my mind that if there weren’t a player option, there’s no way the Dodgers would pick up the option of Manny Ramirez. They would say, ‘Good bye, good riddance.”

Gammons, who also conducted the ESPN interview in which Alex Rodriguez admitted in February that he used steroids, suggested that Rodriguez’ dominant postseason (in which he is hitting .407 with a 1.469 OPS, 5 HRs and 11 RBIs in 7 games) is the byproduct of a great player who is suddenly unburdened of the weight of “the need to pretend that he was perfect.”

“Alex said to me several times during the year that once he was basically stripped naked in that interview, sweating and hyperventilating and all the rest and had to admit that he wasn’t perfect, he went back to being a normal human being. That need to pretend that he was perfect I think drove him half-crazy,” said Rodriguez. “Now he’s just another guy. Plus, I remember him saying this to me in April, he said, “You know what? The steroids or whatever, if the Yankees win, it will all be forgiven. It’s not about me, it’s about the Yankees.’ It’s a lot easier to go play when you’re thinking about the team and not yourself. I think he stopped thinking that everyone in the world was watching him, and I think it’s helped a lot. It’s been a remarkable transformation. It really has.”

Josh Beckett (team option): His $12.1 million option for 2010 vested when he made his 28th start of the season on Sept. 7.

Alex Gonzalez (mutual option): The club has until five days after the World Series to make a decision about whether to exercise its $6 million option for next year. If it declines the option, it must pay a $500,000 buyout. Since it is a mutual option, if the Sox do pick up the option, Gonzalez would then have two days to decide whether to accept or decline the chance to return to Boston on that one-year, $6 million deal. If he declines the option, he also voids the buyout.

Victor Martinez (team option): The Sox have until five days after the World Series to make their decision on Martinez’ $7 million option for next year. Insofar as G.M. Theo Epstein has already proclaimed Martinez the team’s primary catcher for 2010, it would appear that the catcher/first baseman need not concern himself with the possibility of a $250,000 buyout.

Takashi Saito (team option): Based on his 2009 earnings, the Sox could have retained Saito on a one-year, $6 million deal with a potential $1.5 million in incentives for 2010. Instead, the team attempted to outright him, resulting in the right-hander declaring himself a free agent, thereby removing the possibility of an option. Saito remains open to the possibility of returning as a free agent. Indeed, the attempted outright assignment was done precisely so that Saito could become a free agent who was could re-sign with the Sox this offseason.

Jason Varitek (team and player options): The Sox have until five days after the World Series to decide whether to exercise their $5 million club option on Varitek for next season. If the Sox decline their option, then Varitek would have five days from the time of being notified of the club’s decision to decide whether or not to exercise a one-year, $3 million (with the possibility of another $2 million in incentives) player option.

Billy Wagner (team option): The Sox formally agreed not to pick up Wagner’s $8 million option for the 2010 season at the time that he agreed to waive his no-trade clause. Instead, the team is on the hook for his $1 million buy-out. The real intrigue with Wagner revolves around whether he will be offered arbitration, and if he is, whether he will accept it. As Wagner told Rob Bradford, he anticipates that the Sox will make the offer and he will decline it in order to become a free agent and pursue the opportunity to close elsewhere.

Tim Wakefield (team option): The Sox have until five days after the World Series to exercise their recurring $4 million option on Wakefield. Barring any setbacks following his “successful” surgery today, the Sox would appear likely to retain the services of a player who likely ranks as one of the top two free-agent bargains in Red Sox history.

“Wake is someone that is in our plans and we hope makes starts for us next year and is a member of the rotation,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein during a press conference the day after the conclusion of the Red Sox’ season. “We haven’t sat down and finalized anything. Obviously we want to see how the surgery goes and then both sides will sit down and talk.” 

Wakefield has said that doctors told him that the procedure would not hinder his preparation for next season. The disc had pressed on a nerves in the 43-year-old’s back, causing weakness in his right leg. Wakefield managed to pitch four times after making the American League All-Star team, but was left off the Red Sox’ American League Division Series roster. He finished his 17th major league season going 11-5 with a 4.58 ERA in 21 starts.

Infielder Nick Green was also supposed to talk to the Red Sox’ team doctors regarding whether he would need surgery to correct the slipped disc in his back which kept him out of action for the season’s last few weeks.

Next time they get together, apparently, they will have quite a topic to discuss.

Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez is again at the heart of some controversy for his actions during the National League Championship Series between his (and Torre’s) club and the Phillies. On Monday, Ramirez was removed from the game for defensive purposes in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Dodgers leading 4-3. Rather than remain on the bench, Ramirez — as first reported by FoxSports.com — went into the clubhouse and showered. By the time he had emerged, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins had ripped his two-run, game-winning, walkoff double to the gap in Philadelphia, and the Dodgers had gone from tying the NLCS at two games apiece to standing on the brink of elimination, down 3-to-1 in the best-of-seven series.

“When I came out, they were turning the TVs off and everybody was coming in,” Ramirez told reporters.

Torre shrugged off the incident. Though he did concede that “it probably doesn’t look good,” he also said that it wasn’t unusual for his slugger to behave in this manner.

“Manny has so much confidence, and when we get a lead late in the game, and I’ve taken him out, whether it be for defense or we have a big lead, when we go up to shake hands after the game, he’s in his street clothes. So it’s really nothing different than he’s done before. I don’t think it’s disrespect of anything,” said Torre. “He wasn’t going anywhere until the game was over, and we can’t put him back in the game. But that’s not something I thought was unusual since individuals are all different anyway. But he’s always done that, so it’s nothing that last night was going to be any different.

“As we say, Manny is Manny. He’s a cool customer. But he certainly didn’t have any lack of respect because of that. I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn’t look good. But it’s nothing different than he had done before.”

Of course, the Dodgers will forgive Ramirez his ablution if he can help the team erase its deficit. In 2007, in his final playoff run with the Sox, it was Ramirez who suggested that “it’s not like it’s the end of the world” if the Sox were to be eliminated from the playoffs when down 3-to-1 to the Indians in the ALCS. The Sox embraced that notion, and outscored the Indians, 30-5, over the next three games en route to a World Series victory.

If the Dodgers are to do the same, then Ramirez will likely have to be a major factor. Thus far, he is hitting .250 with a homer and three singles in the first four games. Interestingly, he has yet to walk in the series, a sign that either the Phillies are not backing away from challenging him or that Ramirez is being unusually aggressive in his plate approach this postseason (or both). In that context, it is also worth noting that during the Dodgers’ first-round sweep against the Cardinals, St. Louis walked Ramirez just once, thus ending a streak of eight straight postseason series in which Ramirez had walked at least twice; his still-active streak of 16 straight postseason series with at least one walk (dating to the 1997 ALDS) is also in jeopardy.

The greatest game of the greatest series.

There is no disputing the significance of Games 4 and 5 of the 2004 American League Championship series to Red Sox fans everywhere. Winning those two games against the Yankees provided the momentum for the greatest comeback in modern sports history.

And every Red Sox fan has Oct. 27, 2004 committed to their memory for their rest of their lives as Game 4 completed a World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, ending 86 years of heartbreak.

But when it comes to epic moments on the greatest stage baseball has to offer there is still one game - one night - that will live on in the hearts of baseball fans everywhere.

It was 34 years ago that Game 6 of the 1975 World Series was played between the favored Big Red Machine and the underdog Red Sox. With the Reds heading back to Boston up, 3 games-to-2, they needed just one win to end a half-decade of near-misses.

The weather would provide a dramatic and appropriate metaphor. Three days of rain delayed the contest, which began on a crisp New England autumn night and ended in the early morning hours of Oct. 22.

But it was not only how it ended on Carlton Fisk’s tantalizingly dramatic home run off the left field pole that made this game a classic. It was everything that led up to that moment at 12:34 a.m. that made Game Six the greatest game ever played in the eyes of baseball fans around the globe.

Now, there’s a book out that details that night. “Game Six-Cincinnati, Boston and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s Pastime” by Mark Frost not only addresses the game but the personalities in and around the game.

“This was epic drama on a stage I’d never witnessed before,” Frost said. “That feeling stayed with me all these years. It’s an attempt to bring back to life that entire evening, one of the greatest stories in American sports.”

The book starts off describing the background of Reds skipper George ‘Sparky’ Anderson, who the author believes was actually the key difference in the series.

“I think Sparky was probably the difference in the series,” Frost said of Anderson, who was matched up against Red Sox skipper Darrell Johnson. “Those two teams were so evenly matched and played each other to a dead standstill after six games. By consensus, I think many people believe it was the greatest series ever. I think the edge that may have won that series for Cincinnati was their manager. I think he was a clear, strategic thinker who was probably a better fit for that team than any manager before or since.”

To Frost, it was the personalities on both teams and in the press box that made writing this story so fascinating. It was a game and a series that changed the way the game was covered by the media, watched by the fans and played by its stars.

“I didn’t think that anybody had really done the story of who all these people were,” Frost said. “Sure, we’d heard about the game before. I never read a book that got deeply inside all those players. What was going on between them and their manager, what going on in the broadcast booth, what was going on in the country at that time.”

And what was happening at that time in America was a serious recession, national malaise following Watergate and the end of the Vietnam War.

This game, along with the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics, went farther than anything to give Americans hope in their sporting culture.

“It was a very important moment in the history of baseball,” Frost said. “This was the last series played before the start of free agency. A lot of changes were in the wind. I just felt by telling the story of this one game you could almost tell the story of baseball in this country. That was an interesting challenge to take on.”

Frost said that interviewing stars like Carlton Fisk, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench made it a labor of love.

“All these guys are at a age where, in their late 50s, mid 60s, they’re interested in seeing where their careers fit in the history of the game,” Frost said. “They’re interested in looking back and seeing what that game, the series meant to them.”

Frost’s book is available through Hyperion Books.

In his third season with the Sox, Boston finished third in the A.L. in runs and second in the league with a .352 OBP, .454 slugging mark and .806 OPS. In fact, the Sox have ranked in the top three in the A.L. in each of those categories in each of his three seasons with Boston.

Before he joined the coaching ranks, Magadan spent 16 seasons in the majors with the Mets, Marlins, Mariners, Astros, Cubs, A’s and Padres. He compiled a career .288 average with a .390 OBP. After retiring, he entered the Padres system, first as a minor-league hitting coordinator and then on San Diego’s big-league hitting coach from 2003-06.

Saito is open to re-signing with the Red Sox, though the pitcher plans to talk to other clubs as well. According to a baseball source, the Sox have expressed some interest in bringing the right-hander back, though there have not been any discussions of specific contract terms. In 56 appearances that spanned 55.2 innings, Saito finished the year with a 2.43 ERA, the eighth lowest by an American League reliever with 40 or more appearances.

Iglesias’ homer was a two-run blast, coming in the fifth inning of Mesa’s 12-5 loss to Surprise against Mets’ prospect Josh Stinson.

Iglesias, the youngest player in the AFL, will share time at shortstop with fellow Red Sox prospect Casey Kelly. Kelly started his first game for Mesa Saturday night, hitting eighth against Peo Saguaros. 

In other AFL news, 2009 top draft pick Stephen Strasburg pitched 3 1/3-innings of scoreless ball, allowing just two hits, in his debut for the Phoenix Desert Dogs, Friday. The Washington Nationals’ top prospect threw 50 pitches — 32 strikes — while having his initial offering reach 99 mph.

“It was a great feeling,” the 21-year-old told MLB.com. “It was great to have a lot of my family come in from San Diego to watch this. It’s been a long time since they were able to watch me pitch. This was the first time for me to be pitching in an actual [pro] game. I was extremely excited to be out there, and I can’t wait to get out there and do it again.”

In case you forgot, Strasburg signed a $15.1 million contract with the Nationals just minutes before the Nationals were set to lose his rights, on Aug. 18.

“The prognosis is good,” Lowrie wrote in an e-mail. “With rest, strength and conditioning it should be 100 percent.”

Lowrie hit .147 with a .475 OPS in 32 games this season. Sox general manager Theo Epstein said at the conclusion of the season that the team believes in the young infielder’s talent, but until he proves the ability to remain healthy over the course of a big league season, the team will need other options as short. All the same, the Sox still consider the best-case scenario for their shortstop position in 2010 to be Lowrie’s emergence as a healthy and productive big leaguer.

“Lowrie is an important factor for us,” Epstein said on Monday. “This is a young player we really believe in who has been hurt as a big league player. We’ve not seen the type of player he can be yet at the big league level because he’s been playing hurt the entire time. At some point, the player has to get healthy to be able to show what he can do and to be able to help the organization.

“I don’t think we can hand a job to him because he hasn’t proved his health yet at this point. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here at this time next year, hopefully with champagne and not having one of these post-mortems, but looking back and saying, ‘Wow, he really got healthy and proved himself in winning that job or playing his way into a meaningful role,’ ” Epstein continued. “Now it’s on him. He’s got to get himself healthy and make an impact. We can’t stake our season on the hope that he’ll be healthy. We have to have other options.”

Rodriguez played first base for the Scorpions, though it is unclear whether that would be his most likely position in affiliated baseball. He exhibits more speed (and less power) than players who usually stay at that position.

“He’s not a prototypical first baseman. He’s kind of lean and wiry. He’s just not a big, burly power-hitting first baseman,” said Yuma President Mike Marshall, who spent several years in the majors with the Dodgers, as well as portions of 1990-91 with the Red Sox. “He’s a guy that hits for average. Everywhere he goes, he hits .330, .340. He’s a gap hitter [with] a lot of power to right and right center. He uses the whole field and has occasional power, but he’s more of a hitter. You think of a power hitting first baseman – he’s not that. He’s an average, RBI, stolen bases gap hitter with occasional power. He really handles the bat well. Doesn’t strike out much. He looks kind of like [current Dodgers first baseman James] Loney from the right side.”

At 22 (he turns 23 on Jan. 1), Rodriguez is unusually young for a prospect signed out of an independent league. He spent a couple years in the Yankees’ farm system (after signing with the Yankees as a catcher) and performed well as an older player in the Dominican Summer League, where he finished among the league leaders in average in both 2005 and 2007. But he was hampered by an arm injury and released in ‘07.

Rodriguez returned to Colombia, where he was one of the better hitters in the Colombian winter leagues. There, as was the case in the GBL, he showed an ability to hit well against much older competition. He shows a consistent ability to put the barrel of the bat on the ball, and his athleticism, solid performance and the low cost of acquiring him convinced the Sox that it was worth taking a shot at signing him. Marshall suggested that Rodriguez “absolutely” could represent a diamond-in-the-rough with big-league potential, though Marshall qualified that assessment.

“I don’t know his past, but I know that he’s young enough to be able to move up through the ranks,” said Marshall. “This isn’t a rookie league or an A-ball league anymore. There’s Double-A, Triple-A and big league guys all over the place. The same is true when he goes back to Columbia. Do you project him as a big leaguer? I don’t know. That’s a tough thing. The position he plays right now, sometimes they want a little more power. I will say this – he was a top five hitter in this league.”

The Sox will follow Rodriguez during his winter league season in Colombia to consider whether he will compete for a job as a first baseman or outfielder. Rodriguez will come to spring training on a tryout basis, giving the Red Sox time before deciding if they want to sign him to a contract for the 2010 season.

The Sox have been increasingly aggressive in recent years in trying to acquire top independent league talent, as evidence by the acquisitions of outfielder Daniel Nava (who hit .352 with a .458 OBP and .533 slugging mark this year as a 26-year-old splitting this year in High A and Double A ball) and relievers Robert Coello (2.05 ERA as a 24-year-old in High A Salem) and Derek Loop (4-3, 1.89 as a 25-year-old for Salem and Portland this year).

Wakefield has said that doctors told him that the procedure would not hinder his preparation for next season. The disc had pressed on a nerves in the 43-year-old’s back, causing weakness in his right leg. Wakefield managed to pitch four times after making the American League All-Star team, but was left off the Red Sox’ American League Division Series roster. He finished his 17th major league season going 11-5 with a 4.58 ERA in 21 starts.

It is expected if the surgery goes as planned that the Red Sox will pick up the pitcher’s $4 million team option. “Wake is someone that is in our plans and we hope makes starts for us next year and is a member of the rotation,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein during his Monday press conference. “We haven’t sat down and finalized anything. Obviously we want to see how the surgery goes and then both sides will sit down and talk.”

In other Red Sox medical news, infielder Nick Green, who battled a slipped disc in his back in the season’s final month, will be examined next week with the possibility of undergoing surgery.

On whether Ryan Westmoreland’s broken collarbone affected the outfielder’s prospect status:

Not at all. It’s unfortunate that Ryan has had to deal with two injuries since he signed but he went out and had a very productive summer before crashing into the outfield wall and injuring his clavicle. Baseball America recently rated him the #1 prospect in the NY Penn League.

When Dustin Richardson was scouted, did you view his future as being that of a starter or reliever?

Our scouts who saw him [in 2006] in the Big 12 (Jim Robinson and Dave Finley) thought he could have a productive career in a relief role and that’s how we saw him when he entered the system. He is in the Arizona Fall League now and has definitely put himself in contention to get a serious look from the ML staff in spring training.

Do you view Casey Kelly’s future as being as a shortstop or pitcher?

Casey is a talented two way player and I believe he has a bright future on the mound. Seeing what he was able to do this year in his first year pitching at the professional level confirmed that thought.

How do you assess Michael Almanzar’s struggles this year?

Michael, like most young Latin players, is still in the early development stages of his career. He has developmental goals that we have laid out for him and now it’s a matter of letting him play and mature. He was still very young for the leagues he was competing in.

What would you recommend to someone trying to find an internship in baseball ops or scouting?

The Winter Meetings can help if you can get a face to face interview. That is hard to do at times as there are plenty of other candidates looking to do the same thing. I would start by sending a resume to all 30 clubs with your interests & ability.

Do you draft for need or do you take the best player available?

Our focus will always be on selecting the player who we feel can bring the most impact to the organization.

Why did Jason Thompson (an 11th-round pick) get only one plate appearance in the GCL after signing?

Jason signed late…near the August 15th signing deadline…then was battling a sore hamstring shortly after arriving so he didn’t get much time on the field. The good news is he was able to get plenty of ab’s in the recently completed Instructional League.

What impressions did you have of Jose Iglesias from Instructional League?

I only got a limited look at our Instructional League team due to post season scouting commitments. Saying that, I was impressed with the entire group down there. I have yet to see [Iglesias] but will get my first look shortly out in the Arizona Fall League.

How do you see Madison Younginer (7th rounder) and David Renfroe (3rd rounder) panning out?

Both Madison and David have very big upsides due to their athleticism and physical tools. Like a lot of 18 year old kids, they are still unpolished and have plenty of development ahead of them but we certainly like their potential for impact.

Is there any chance that Casey Kelly could be in the majors by next September?

I think that would be a lot to ask of Casey considering he hasn’t had a full season of pitching under his belt. He is advanced for his age but as with all of our pitchers, there will be a plan laid out for him in terms of innings, usage, etc.

What type of prospect is Eammon Portice, who led the Carolina League in strikeouts (141 in 128.1 innings)?

Eammon is a versatile guy that provides a different look as he has a deceptive delivery and will use different angles. As you mentioned, he has swing & miss stuff as evidenced by his strikeouts and has put himself in position to be considered in the future.

I wonder how (or if) your perceptions of age versus level change when it comes to position players that convert to pitchers? I have an ulterior motive as I have a son (in a different organization) who took up pitching at 22 after four years of college and one professional year as a shortstop. He spent this season in the SALLY league as a 24 year old (his second season as a pitcher after having not pitched since middle school). The “prospect” evaluators expect a certain progression pace. Do the front offices expect the same in this type of situation?

I think most evaluators (both scouts and front office) weigh all factors when writing reports. A “prospect” is determined by what is perceived to be his ML value no matter the age. A 24 year old in the SAL may not get as much love from Baseball America but if the stuff & ability are there, the scouts and front offices will take notice. As for progression, you would hope he could be at the higher levels sooner as his 6 year free agent status will come into play.

How did you get your start in baseball operations?

After my brief minor league pitching career, I was fortunate enough to get an internship with the Padres back in 1994. Kevin Towers was the Scouting Director at the time and I begged him to let me do anything for him (file reports, help with tryout camps, etc). Fortunately, I was able to hang around long enough and eventually ended up coaching in the minor leagues for San Diego before moving back to the front office. Kevin & Theo took me to lunch one day in 2001 and talked to me about becoming a scout. The rest as they say is history…

Can you provide a scouting report on yourself as a pitcher? How did your stuff grade?

Lol…you really want to know that? Hmm…I was the ultimate “projection guy”. 6′3″ 190 lbs, 87-90 with limited life. Best pitch was probably my straight change up. The development in terms of velocity and a breaking pitch just didn’t come along. Hey, what can you expect out of a 44th round draft pick?

Roman Mendez and Manuel Rivera, the ace twins of the Gulf Coast team… starting in full season ball next April?

That is still to be determined but they certainly have earned a hard look. With all of the younger players we’ve been drafting and the stellar work by Craig Shipley and his staff on the International side, there will be some hard decisions to be made. That’s a good thing…..

Does performance affect draft status?

It depends on what aspects of performance you’re looking at. Obviously, it’s much easier to track college performance and we ask a lot of questions of our scouts about certain players performance in a given year.

What organizational goals did Jason Place reach in Salem to earn his promotion to Portland, and how do you view his overall development during his time with the seadogs? Do you feel he can cut down enough on his strike out rates to have an eventual impact on the major league level?

‘Without getting into specifics, Jason has made incremental improvements on a yearly basis in terms of how he controls his ab’s to development with swing mechanics. The tools we saw in Jason as an amateur are still there now in terms of bat speed, raw power, and defense. Obviously, he has had his struggles with the strikeouts and that has been a large part of his development plan. He is still only 21 yrs old and hung in there at the AA level this year which he will most likely repeat next year. The tools are in place but there is still honing that needs to be done.

Can you name one positional player and one pitcher who you expect to be the 2010 breakout prospects in the Red Sox system? Thanks.

Wow…that’s a tough question to answer Bill because I think there are multiple candidates. It also depends on what’s categorized as a “breakout player”. Is it someone whose not considered a prospect at this time? Is it a Ryan Westmoreland who will play in his first full season league? I hate to back out of this question but my hope is we’ll be arguing come next September on who should be those players due to multiple nominees.

A lot of time is spent on high draft picks and they are seen by multiple evaluators but few make it to the majors. What are some of the common factors that come up as to why they didn’t make it?

Well first of all it is really, really hard to play in the Major Leagues. There are only 750 spots for the thousands of professional ballplayers under contract. I don’t have the exact figure in front of me but I believe it somewhwere around 10% of all drafted players that get to the ML’s. As to factors for not making it, a lot of times it’s just plain ability. Sometimes I need to remind myself how talented these guys are even when they’re struggling.

Mark Wagner had a pretty nice bounce back year after an awful 2008. Given his impressive offensive numbers before ‘08, and his consistent ability to throw out runners, is he being looked at as a possibility to back up Victor Martinez next year?

Wags has definitely put himself in position to get a good look from the ML staff come Spring Training. Ultimately, Theo will have to make the decision on our backup catching situation.

Do you see a player like Anthony Rizzo having a place on the major league team in the future? What exactly does he have in terms of tools that could make him valuable to a big league club?

First of all, Anthony is an outstanding kid with great makeup. To come back the way he did after missing the majority of last season was truly inspirational. As to his on field ability, he has a fluid left-handed swing with a mature hitting approach and a chance to hit for avg or better power from the 1b position. He also is a sound defensive player. He’s still very young considering he missed an entire year.

When do you project Luis Exposito Making it to the MLB?

A lot of that depends on what our catching situation is at the ML level. This was a big year for Luis and like Wags, he has put himself in position to get a good look from our staff in the spring.

Any power hitting prospects we should be looking out for moving up anytime soon?

If moving up means at the ML level, Lars is probably the closest. This wasn’t the year Lars was expecting of himself but I expect him to bounce back in 2010. Exposito also has plenty of power though I wouldn’t consider him to be ML ready. As to those who have already played at the ML level, Josh Reddick would be the guy.

I have read some interviews this summer with Lars and it strikes me that this guy is almost too cerebral and as a result, he struggles with his confidence. Is that a worry ….that this guy has too much going on upstairs?

I wouldn’t call Lars cerebral as he is a diligent hard working kid who is fun loving in the clubhouse. If anything, I would say he tends to over analyze and he has been that way since HS. He expects a lot of himself and going through a rough patch as he did this year, there was a constant sense of “searching for the answer” instead of just playing and letting his natural ability take over. He would’ve been a junior in college this year had we not signed him and with the attention he’s received, he hasn’t had much time to mature on his own as others his age would.

That said, it would not come as a surprise if the Sox were to attempt to outright Saito in the coming days for the purposes of making him a free agent, since doing so would give the club its best opportunity to re-sign the pitcher as a free agent. Here’s how:

For the team to attempt an outright assignment, Saito would have to be placed on and clear outright waivers. Assuming that he went unclaimed, Saito — as a player with 3+ years of major-league service time — would have the right to elect free agency. The pitcher unquestionably would exercise that right. That, in turn, would make him an unrestricted free agent, eligible to re-sign with any of the 30 MLB teams, including the Red Sox.

The Sox hold a $6 million option (with an additional $1.5 million in potential incentives) on Saito for the 2010 season. As WEEI.com reported earlier this month, a clause in Saito’s contract required the Sox to release the pitcher if they did not exercise their option. If the Sox simply release Saito without outrighting him, however, they would be ineligible to re-sign Saito until May 15. Free agency resulting from an outright assignment, on the other hand, would put the Sox on a level playing field with the other 29 teams in bidding for the pitcher’s services.

Saito went 3-3 with a 2.43 ERA in 56 appearances for the Sox this year, striking out 52 and allowing 50 hits in 55.2 innings. The Sox signed him to a base salary of $1.5 million with numerous incentives last offseason, and those incentives ultimately increased the value of both his 2009 earnings and his 2010 option to $6 million.

Though the Sox almost certainly will not exercise the pitcher’s 2010 option, the possibility remains that the team could seek to re-sign Saito for a lower base salary. The right-hander, who will be 40 next season, said that he would like to return to pitch in the majors again in 2010, and that he would like to return to the Sox.

“Since it’s something I can’t control, I can’t say much, but I’m hoping to come back to America and pitch again, and [would like] especially to come back to the Red Sox,” Saito said in late-September.

“[Bay] provides the kind of power that the Red Sox need. But he’s basically a designated hitter playing outfield. That’s the assessment of most of the general managers and scouts that I’ve talked with. He’s so defensively challenged that he’s going to go very quickly to being a DH. If you’re the Red Sox, do you lock yourselves into a five-year deal with a guy who probably projects to DH after Ortiz leaves? I seriously doubt it,” said Olney. “I do wonder whether Seattle or San Francisco or some other team, maybe the Cardinals if they don’t re-sign Holliday, if some other team will step up and be so desperate to land a power hitter like him – because let’s face it, the free-agent market stinks – will there be another team that gives that fifth year? If that’s the case, I think the Red Sox aren’t going to move.”

Olney also said that he did not expect the Yankees to be involved in bidding on the premier free-agent outfielders — Bay and Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday — this offseason, given the anticipated arrival of heralded outfield prospect Austin Jackson and the potential need to move Derek Jeter to left field in the coming years.

“I think they’re absolutely not going to pursue one of the high-priced free-agent outfielders. I think what they’re going to do is make an offer and try to get Johnny Damon to come back for one year. Short of that, they’ll probably try to do something with [Hideki] Matsui,” said Olney. “They’ve got this terrific young outfielder in Austin Jackson coming up in the next two years. They’re going to have to make a decision, probably, to move Derek Jeter, and I think LF is probably going to be the most likely spot for him.

“I think the Red Sox’ primary competition for Jason Bay is going to come from Seattle and San Francisco. I really get the sense that the Red Sox internally are going to set a price for Jason Bay and they’re not going to go beyond what they’re comfortable with.”

Some other highlights from the interview are below. To listen to the complete interview, click here.

Are you surprised that the ALCS is Angels-Yankees, with the Red Sox at home?

I am. I picked the Red Sox to win, and obviously that was wrong.

As the series went along and the season went along, I was sort of reminded of the 2005 Yankees, with Ruben Sierra in right field and Gary Sheffield in left field, the sort of older, slower, defensively challenged group of guys. I think that was exposed by the Angels. Certainly something I underestimated was how well John Lackey was throwing at this time of year. He had a lot of life on his FB in Game 1, and I think that set the tone.

Are the Yankees afraid to let Joba Chamberlain start in this series?

He’s clearly shown that, for now, for whatever reason, he’s absolutely suited to come out of the bullpen.

In the last game of the regular season, he came out of the bullpen and suddenly he was the old Joba – the fire-breathing Joba. He was attacking the strike zone with fastballs.

I think at this point they’re, “Well, okay, that’s what works for him, and this is how we’re going to go.”

If the weather messes with their plans for CC Sabathia in Game 4, Chad Gaudin will go in Game 4, and Joba’s just going to stay in the bullpen.

The Yankees appear to have gone from a high-priced collection of talent to being a good team.

The guys they brought in deserve some credit for beginning to change the culture: AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia and Nick Swisher.

For years, there was a cold war going on between Derek [Jeter] and Alex [Rodriguez]. It’s probably too strong of a way to put it, but there was a lot of tension there.

I would give credit to both sides to make an effort to change. Alex certainly changed the way he goes about his business. He doesn’t make himself as available. He’s focused more on baseball. I think you saw, during the postseason, Derek acknowledged Alex and is working with him more than in the past.
I think the culture is really different.

Is the New York media making a big deal about A-Rod being seen having dinner with Kate Hudson in Miami last night?

No. But you know how these things go.

It will probably become a big deal if he goes hitless.

He’s as locked in as ever this postseason. You can always tell that by how he’s driving fastballs. In that series against MN, he hit the ball to CF and RF. That tells you he’s not anxious at the plate.

He’s swinging the bat as well as I’ve ever seen him in the postseason. And he has really good numbers in his career against Angels starters, Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders in particular.

You said that the Sox reminded you in the playoffs of the ‘05 Yankees - a slow team that was beaten by the Angels. What can they do this offseason?

It’s a tough team to makeover because of the existing contracts. Lowell is under contract for 2010 and so is David Ortiz. I think they’re going to need to do something. They may not be able to go out and get the perfect solution now, and that would be someone like Prince Fielder.

They made some trades. Their depth in their farm system is not what it was a year ago because some of the guys have been promoted, some of them have been traded. So they’ll probably have to go for, especially if they don’t sign Holliday or Jason Bay, a Grade B solution.

I would not be surprised if they make a decision one way or the other to moving out, say, Mike Lowell, or telling Mike Lowell he’s going to have a very reduced role for next year. To me, he’s the most vulnerable guy, given what their strengths are and what they’re going to need.

McLeod joined the Red Sox in 2003 as director of scouting administration, and was promoted to head of the team’s draft efforts following the 2004 system. In the six drafts since McLeod joined the organization, the Sox have added several key big-league contributors, including Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Daniel Bard.

The draft has also helped the Sox to build what is regarded as one of the top farm systems in the majors, thanks to prospects such as Casey Kelly, Josh Reddick, Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Ryan Westmoreland and Anthony Rizzo. The team’s first-round pick in 2009, centerfielder Reymond Fuentes, was named the third best prospect in the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League after hitting .290 with a .331 OBP as an 18-year-old.

McLeod is believed to be the first MLB official of Samoan descent. His mother’s cousin, Eli Faleomavaega, is the current Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from American Samoa, which was recently devastated by a tsunami.

Please join WEEI.com and McLeod in extending support to the victims of the tsunami. For information about how to do so, please visit the website of Congressman Faleomaveaga or the Red Cross.

We look forward to seeing you at noon!

Kikuchi is deciding whether to pitch in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league, or to bypass the Japanese draft to sign with a Major League Baseball team as an amateur free agent. His case is viewed as similar to that of Junichi Tazawa, the right-hander who signed with the Red Sox last December after pitching in Japan’s amateur Industrial League, though Kikuchi’s potential jump from high school directly to the United States is considered in some ways even more dramatic than was Tazawa’s.

The other MLB teams that are scheduled to meet with Kikuchi, according to the report, are the Dodgers, Rangers, Giants, Mariners, Mets, Yankees and Indians. NPBtracker also offered a scouting profile of Kikuchi. To read it, click here.

We wrap up the season with Terry Francona, I just thought it might be three or four weeks from now.

Yeah, I’m used to doing this either in my office or from the road. Not from home. I don’t like it.

Tito, how are you dealing with this?

It’s hard. Every year is a little bit different. A couple of years we’ve been fortunate enough to be celebrating, a couple of years we’ve been heartbroken. This year is a hard one to figure. There are a lot of ways to spin it, I think perspective is the hardest thing to achieve early on, from fans, media, myself. You know, the one thing we talked about when we were down to New York, down to Cleveland was we thought we were good enough to win, but if you put yourself in a position where if you make a mistake, you go home, well, you know what happened. We played a good game the other day, for the most part. We scored off a good pitcher, we had a two-run lead going into the ninth. We made some mistakes and when you get yourself into a situation like that, if you make a mistake, you end up going home.

You know what it’s like in this town, the other team never plays well, your team always played poorly. How much credit does the starting pitching for the Angels get for those two games in Anaheim? How much blame does your offense get?

Well, we probably always look at ourselves more than the other team. That’s human nature. [John] Lackey and [Jered] Weaver pitched great games. We feel like, regardless, once you get to the playoffs you have to find ways to score. We didn’t. We always take that responsibility. Again, perspective is the biggest word and it’s going to be difficult for people to find that. [Jon] Lester pitched great. There are some things that happened in that game … For me probably the biggest one is Bobby Abreu. He had an at-bat, a couple at-bats where he never flinched. He took a 94-mile-an-hour fastball that was two inches out of the strike zone and never flinched. That’s pretty good hitting. We’re trying to give up a run to get out of the inning because Torii Hunter was coming up next. Bobby had that great at-bat and then Torii took Lester deep. That was the game. So there are some things that happen during the game that I don’t think people necessarily remember that can really swing a game.

Going back to Game 1, I would love to know what the approach was for Bobby Abreu. Was Lester pitching around Abreu? Or was that a just a very discriminating eye by Abreu?

We’re not pitching around him. Now, we respect what he can do. I think if you go back and look at his at-bats, he took some pitches that most hitters don’t take. He got to a 3-2 count with Lester, Lester threw him a 94-mile-an-hour fastball that was a borderline strike. Bobby never flinched. Bobby Abreu was as locked in, and when I say that I don’t mean he was just getting hit after hit, he never offered to pitches that were an inch or two off the plate. To me, with some of the stuff we were throwing up there, that’s an amazing feat.

We were looking at first-time through the lineup in those first two games, your team was 1-for-25 with two walks. Is there such a thing as being too patient or were they just making pitches …?

What happens when you go through the lineup the first time and you don’t have any success, guys are trying to be patient because that’s what we do. And what happens sometime is they understand that and they execute strike one and now we’re hitting in the hole. That happens from time to time, that’s just the way the game is. That’s why sometimes when the game’s over you tip your hat to the opposing team and you feel like you should have done some things better. That’s the way the game is. When you work ahead, you’re going to have success. We didn’t want to be too aggressive, we wanted to be patient. What ended up happening is that we were hitting 0-1 a lot. We ended up expanding the zone because they were good enough to make it expand. It kind of goes both ways.

What went into the decision to intentionally walk Torii Hunter and pitch to Vlad Guerrero in Game 3?

There are a lot of things that happened. For me, nobody will be able to tell me that was the wrong move. Not that they won’t be able to tell me, they won’t be able to convince me, I’ve been told a lot. Vlad hadn’t done much in that series. I felt like we executed pitches and if you go back and look at the executed pitches we did throw to Vlad, we broke his bat, and struck him out. Torii Hunter is swinging with a lot of violence and makes me nervous. I thought it was the right thing to do. The first pitch to Vlad wandered out over the middle and he kind of threw it up into center and it did the job. I would do that again every single time because I know it’s the right thing to do.

Were you concerned that it limited Jonathan Papelbon’s options with the bases loaded?

Yeah, sure. It certainly is a factor. It wasn’t enough of a factor to make me not want to do it. If Pap makes a pitch to Torii Hunter and Torii does something to help them win the game, I would want to shoot myself. Again, I wasn’t happy that Vlad got a hit. Again, I would do it every single time if it was the same situation.

I know you don’t deal in absolutes, but do you feel like in the situation you had there, it was an absolute time to load the bases?

Michael, I just said that. I don’t know what else you want me to say. Again, every situation is different. We had a situation down in Tampa earlier in the season that we elected not to. I wasn’t comfortable with his ability at the point in the game where he was. I thought I was putting him in an unfair position. I thought Pap would be able to execute a pitch easier to Vlad than to Torii Hunter. I thought with Torii Hunter if you make a mistake, Pap was missing up a lot. You miss up to Torii Hunter and he might hit it on that street. We don’t have a lot of time to think about it, but again, you can’t convince me that was the wrong thing to do. You can try, but I feel strongly about that.

Did you feel the running game of the Angels, their vaunted running game was as big a factor as some feared?

It concerned us, I think justifiably so. Not just stealing bases, but going first to third, but the fact that they can run. Even when a guy like Vlad hitting, they’re not afraid to put runners in motion. If you vacate, which you have to, Vlad hits the hole, whether by luck or execution, it works. When they’re on second base you have to hold them or they’re going to run. So just the fact that they didn’t steal a ton of bases doesn’t mean that it doesn’t play into the game.

Was there any point in that game, before the blow up, that you said to yourself, “It doesn’t look like Pap has it today”?

When he came in in the eighth, he actually made a a terrible pitch to [Juan] Rivera. We got the base hit to right that drove in two runs. When we got the add-on run I was actually thrilled because of everything we talked about. The running game, Pap’s not real quick to the plate, it takes away the stolen bases, it takes away the sac bunt. So that run, for me, was huge. In fact, if you replay the inning, as much that happened, we’re still sitting on a win if we can get that last out. I thought that last run we got was huge. That’s why we pinch-ran, that why we did what we wanted because we did want to get a tack-on run.

When you play a series you come out of it with more respect for a certain guy. That guy for me was Eric Aybar. Do you agree with that?

Well, I don’t know. I had respect for him going in. We studied them pretty extensively. We thought we could beat them, it doesn’t mean we don’t respect the way they play. They have a lot of balance, they have a lot of different ways to beat you. Again, you have to remember, in a three-game series, whoever does something is going to stick out for you. If Eric Aybar goes 0-for-10, you might say, “I don’t think he’s very good.” Well, he is. [Kevin] Youkilis didn’t hit much. Youk hit the ball three times in the last game as hard as you can hit it. Those things happen sometimes. over the course of 162 games, those things even out. In a short series, they don’t always even out.

Do you undertake exit interviews, for lack of a better term? Without getting into specifics, if you do, what are the things you talk to players about?

Some are formal, some are informal, some are done before the season is over, some will be done in the next few weeks. Some are not done exclusively by me, some are done with John Farrell and the pitching staff, some are done with the medical staff, some need to be done by me and Theo [Epstein]. We pretty much try to communicate with everybody.

I read Clay Buchholz’ comments in the paper, “I’ll never assume anything again. I’ll go into this offseason working as though I have to earn a spot on this team.” You probably like to hear those words.

Yeah, that’s good to hear. Now, I don’t pay much attention to the paper, but I understand your point. He assumed a little bit a couple years ago. He was young, when we were that age we made mistakes. And Clay probably learned the hard way. But he’s got a chance to be a pretty special talent and he seems to be growing up. Now, again, he’s got some more to go. The game got going for him a little fast the other day. Torii Hunter took off and if Clay steps off, Torii’s in the middle of “no man’s land” with a huge base-running blunder. Now, because Clay balked, nobody remembered that. So, there are things that happen in the game that seem to get lost in the shuffle that are huge plays.

In 2008, you were one win from going to the World Series, you just tweaked the team. In 2009, you lose in the first round. Is this a tweak situation? Do you expect to have the same guys back next year?

I don’t know. What I do know, we won 95 games this year, I don’t know how many we won last year, I think the same. Again, we exited real quick in the playoffs and that is distressing to all of us. If we make moves as a reaction to that, that would be a mistake. The moves we make, and Theo is great at this, will be made to try to make us be good not only for the short term but not forgetting the long term. That’s the one thing he has his hands full doing and I probably get to see it first hand because I’m there, it’s not easy. When you don’t have the ability to step back and “reload” or however you say it, it can be challenging. I think he’s done an amazing job of, at times, cutting ties with some pretty popular people. I don’t know if I’d have the ability to do that. He’s done a great job of balancing the present and the future and it’s going to be another challenge this year.

I know you guys talk continuously, but when Theo is about to make one of those major moves, say trade Nomar Garciaparra away for the sake of discussion, is it better for you to not know what’s going on?

No, no, no, I definitely appreciate knowing. I think he understands that. I’m there every day and if I don’t understand what’s going on in the clubhouse he has the wrong guy. So, we do a lot of talking about that kind of stuff.

As a manager dealing with grown men, is there a point where you say, “That is crossing the line, we don’t want you talking about this or saying this to the media.” Does that exist?

Oh, sure, every so often, I call Pap in and tell him to shut up. He’s great, he says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like this, or I did this.” Or he’ll just come in and say, “I messed up.” We do that from time to time. It’s how we operate.

Papelbon likes the attention, he has a big personality. Do you think that had anything to do with his on-field performance this year?

No, I don’t see how it possibly could. As long as he works hard and he’s ready to pitch. He was out there at the end and he didn’t pitch very well. That might stay with him for a while. It doesn’t have anything to do with the interviews he does on Comcast or whatever. He’s a good-hearted kid, he works hard, he made some bad pitches. I’m sure, being in this town for six years there will be a huge reaction to that. He’s one of the best in the business and just didn’t do a good job in his last game.

Will you go to the Arizona Fall League and look at Casey Kelly or Jose Iglesias, or just wait until they get to the major league camp?

You know what, I may just do that. I know Theo says I’ve always had an open invitation to do it, but in the past we’ve really never had the time to do it. So, I may try to take advantage of that, go out there and watch those guys. And maybe even get a chance to go to dinner with them, get a chance to get to know them a little bit. I think that can be an advantage.

You’ve got some babies in this organization, 18, 19, 20 years old.

Yeah, it’s exciting. They’re a few years away. Most of our guys are here right now, so there is a little bit of a gap. But there are kids coming, they are exiting. Potentially really impactful players like we have now, but a little on the younger side.

When the season ends so quickly, do you get the urge to e-mail and text these guys to just talk?

Well, I actually have with a few of them. The way it ended was so abrupt that we had a short meeting. The losing manager has an obligation to get to the media room “right now.” We gathered everybody up, had a short meeting and moved on. And then the next day, guys were packing, some decided not to. So there were a few guys I missed that I wanted to talk to. There are some things I wanted to tell some guys, some “thank yous” things like that. But there is some time where guys need to be away from me. I understand that. Then the process starts over again. The trainers and medical people make sure that the guys have their programs and our guys know what to do. I’ll be in touch when the time is right, but they need some time away to take a breath.

How would you describe your interest in the ALCS and NLCS now?

Zero. This was such a tough ending for me this year that I don’t think I can watch it. I wasn’t ready to be done. There is no getting around it. This was a tough one. I felt, like in the past, we have the ability to come back and beat teams. We have the ability to get down, but we have the ability to come back and I felt like “here we go again” but it didn’t happen and it crushed me. I’m going to have to deal with that for a while.

Several of your coaches, Tim Bogar, Brad Mills and John Farrell, are up for manager jobs. Do you expect changes in your staff this offseason?

The only way there will be changes is if someone becomes a manager. Which, I guess, that’s a good thing. I love the staff, I think we have the best staff in baseball. They’re hard-working, knowledgeable and passionate. That’s why you’re seeing these guys getting interviews. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Demarlo Hale’s name creep in there, too, with one of these teams. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these guys gets a job. And if that happens, we will have to go find a coach, which is tough for me, but also very rewarding at the same time. It’s a good problem to have.

It would be bittersweet if Brad Mills gets a job.

He’s one of my best friends in the whole world, not just in baseball. We’ve been together a long time. What he means to me is a lot. I know he wants a chance to manage and I think he’s very, very deserving. The situation in Houston is really intriguing.  He’s been with Ed Wade before, 10 years ago. I think we’ve all done some growing up since then. I think Ed is going to enjoy interviewing Millsy and I think Millsy is going to have a good interview. Now, saying that I think Tim Bogar is going to interview well, too. It’s really a unique situation.

Do general managers call you about Bogar and Millsy?

You know what, there is kind of a protocol that people have to follow, but again, I’ve known Ed for a long time. I’ve already talked to him and Theo knows I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t have a problem. I guess the guys you know, you talk to. I know the guys in Cleveland real well, and I know Ed. We’re not breaking the rules they’re just trying to find out who’s capable of managing their team.