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It was announced roughly two days ago that the Red Sox are out of the Mark Teixeria sweepstakes. As soon as I heard the news, I was happy. Like I've been saying since the second the rumor came out in the first place, we don't need Mark Teixeria. When you get to Game 7 of the ALCS, there's not much to improve upon, especially if some of your star players had injuries (Mike Lowell). Teixeria would've messed everything up with the Red Sox. Kevin Youkilis at first is golden (alright, pun intended...). Earlier in the season he broke the record for most consecutive games at first base without an error. Why would you want to tamper with that? Sure he's proven that he can play third (and outfield for that matter) but we already have a gold glover third basemen, Mike Lowell who was the 2007 World Series MVP, and we extended his contract in 2007. Sure Mikey had some offensive problems this year, and he couldn't always make those impeccable backhanded catches when the ball was sharply hit down the third baseline, and then throw it perfectly over to Kevin Youkilis, but he had a hip injury! It can all be salvaged, that's what rehab is for! And for that matter, we already have a designated hitter, David Ortiz. Sure he didn't have a great offensive season, he had that horrible slump at the beginning of the season, but his wrist was hurting, and his knee too for that matter. Hopefully he'll engage in some training program that will make both those areas (which are essential for every hitter) less of an obstacle for him. This upcoming season, I think he's going to have to step up and be the offensive forces of the lineup. And going back to the David Ortiz slump, in my opinion, a home run gets you out of a bad slump. So when the Sox were playing Texas kind of early in the season, I called his grand slam- placement and everything. I can only call a couple of home runs a year, so that was a nice one. Here's the rotation/lineup that I want for next year: Pitchers (not in order) 1. Jon Lester 2. Daisuke Matsuzaka 3. Josh Beckett 4. Derek Lowe (I think we should go after him now that we're out of the Tex sweepstakes) 5. Tim Wakefield * Relievers -Manny Delcarmen -Ramon Ramirez -Hideki Okajima -Justin Masterson -Clay Buchholz ** -Michael Bowden *** -Javier Lopez -Jonathan Papelbon C: Jason Varitek backup catcher: wishfully thinking, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but if I have Clay Buchholz up there, then I don't think that's happening 1B: Kevin Youkilis 2B: Dustin Pedroia 3B: Mike Lowell SS: Jed Lowrie LF: Jason Bay CF: Jacoby Ellsbury RF: JD Drew The actual lineup should look like this 1. Jacoby Ellsbury 2. Dustin Pedroia 3. Big Papi 4. Kevin Youkilis 5. Jason Bay 6. JD Drew 7. Mike Lowell 8. Jason Varitek 9. Jed Lowrie *(Tim Wakefield): Depending on Spring Training, we could always move him to the bullpen like in 2003. **Clay Buchholz: Maybe the bullpen would be better for him to start off in... ***Michael Bowden: I say put him in the bullpen, but treat him like the Justin Masterson of last year. We add him to the roster in September, and we can bring him up when needed earlier. By the way, I think we should keep Tazawa in the minors for the entire year, or maybe bring him up as well in September. Player to keep an eye on for Red Sox Spring Training: Lars Anderson. I predicted Jed Lowrie last year since the beginning, this year I'm thinking Lars Anderson.