Massarotti: What I Want Out Of 2015 Boston Red Sox
BOSTON (CBS) -- As we embark on another baseball season, today on Opening Day, I want the Red Sox to win me back, to begin building something again, to end this tumultuous relationship and to strive for something longer lasting, more sustainable, more meaningful.
Because, as a fan, I am tired of feeling like a one-night stand.
I want Clay Buchholz, who takes the ball today on a pitching staff with no leader, to disprove everything Curt Schilling recently said about him, to strive for both performance and durability, simultaneously, and to make all talk of Cole Hamels look downright foolish and irrelevant.
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Because no matter what you think of Schilling, or of his comment, the big right-hander fired, as usual, with pinpoint control.
I want Rick Porcello to pitch well and to re-sign.
I still want Justin Masterson to end up in the bullpen.
I want Wade Miley to prove he can win in the American League and not just in the canyonesque ballparks of the National League West, where he effectively lived the most pampered existence that a major league pitcher can live.
Which is to say that Miley has pitched against lineups devoid of a designated hitter, with spacious outfields, with no pressure.
I want David Ortiz to remain the ageless Big Papi, for however long he can, because aside from the clutch hits, dramatic at-bats and consistent production, Ortiz remains one of the biggest personalities in the game, on the field and off, and because there just aren't many people like him anymore.
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Even if I do want him to pick up the pace in the batter's box, pace-of-play rules or no pace-of-play rules, at least just a little.
I want Mike Napoli to prove that there is indeed a relationship between sound sleep and quality performance, to become the next spokesman for Holiday Inn Express so that he can once again parade around the city streets shirtless and, well, legless.
I want Dustin Pedroia, who will be 32 this summer, to slug .450 again, to turn back the three-year regression that has been his loss of power, because after he hit that much-talked about home run during the earliest stages of Spring Training, Pedroia did not hit another.
I want Pablo Sandoval to be, at least on the field, Boston's version of Kirby Puckett, a lovable, rotund, weeble of a man who can spray the ball to all fields and perform in the clutch, all while running the bases as if he were a beer barrel with legs.
Because there is just something so endearing about an athletic fat man.
I want Xander Bogaerts to cover the outside part of the plate and play with just a little more passion, because if Bogaerts does that he can be the kind of complete centerpiece player that organizations dream of, so long as his defense remains average.
And because, as the situation with Kris Bryant in Chicago is reminding us, Bogaerts is represented by Scott Boras and the clock is tick, tick, ticking.
I want Hanley Ramirez to keep his head on straight, to remain focused and engaged, because Ramirez has the kind of talent that should make him one of the more complete and feared hitters in the game, and because, like Buchholz, the only thing that has prevented Ramirez from reaching the peak of his abilities is that annoying obstacle that rests above his shoulders, on his neck.
His head.
And, come to think of it, maybe his heart, too.
I want Mookie Betts to become better than Jacoby Ellsbury ever was, at least offensively, because the Red Sox need dynamic young players to build on, because they need to start bearing the fruits of their player development system again, and because he looks like a rare combination of foot speed, bat speed, smarts and hand-eye coordination, which is saying something.
I want Shane Victorino to stay healthy, to disprove those of us who think he is a 40-year-old inside the body of a man actually six years younger, to show that he can be the Victorino of 2013 again and not the Victorino of 2014.
And I want him to understand that yes, we remember that he helped hang a banner here, but no, that does not entitle him to a job if there is someone better or younger or both.
Like, for example, Rusney Castillo.
I want Ryan Hanigan to prove that he was worth giving up Will Middlebrooks for, that he is something better than just an aging backup catcher, that the injury to Christian Vazquez, while disappointing, is hardly the kind of injury that should sink a team, particularly when Vazquez was to hit ninth.
Even if I will miss watching Vazquez play defense this year more than anybody could know because, well, there just aren't many guys who play that way defensively, at any position, let alone catcher, in all of baseball.
Ideally, I want Allen Craig, Brock Holt, Daniel Nava and Sandy Leon to remain on the bench, however impossible that may be, because that would be a sign that the Red Sox regulars are both healthy and productive, which is to say that the Red Sox are, in a word, winning.
And because, short of Craig, I think they are all bench players in some capacity, which is to say that their production will decrease over an extended period of time.
And while we're on the topic, I think the Red Sox should keep Craig until they get the right offer, because Craig could easily be the first baseman after Mike Napoli is gone, or he could be the left fielder, with Hanley Ramirez moving to shortstop, if Bogaerts is a bust.
I want the Red Sox relievers, from Koji Uehara on down, to fit seamlessly together like a succession of gears, ending with Uehara, because everybody in baseball knows that nothing can undermine a team like a bad bullpen, no matter how good the lineup, no matter how effective the starters.
And I want John Farrell, more than anything to earn his money here, to ensure that bullpen anarchy does not result, to prove that the Red Sox were wise to extend his contract even when they did not need to.
And I want, in the end, for the Red Sox to give us a complete baseball season again, no matter how it ends, to give us an honest effort from ownership on down, because there is simply no excuse for the Red Sox to ever finish last, no matter the logic, because the baseball season is just far too important to many of us, and because three of the last four Red Sox seasons have ended in abject failure, controversy or both.
And because on Opening Day, no one wants to even think about that again.
Tony Massarotti co-hosts the Felger and Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub weekdays from 2-6 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti. You can read more from Tony by clicking here.
