Hot Stove

Under the sub title of things I find hard to believe is that Theo Epstein the “boy genius” gave Victor Martinez away to the Tigers. In the game of dollars and cents the Red Sox did not lose, the Sox can compete with any team, other than the Yankees. No, for some reason Theo thought that Saltalamachia (is that the spelling?) should be the full time catcher (at age 25) instead of Martinez. “Salty” was a great prospect initially, until he got hurt and went through severe mental issues when he couldn’t throw the ball back to the mound (but he can throw to 2nd base better than anyone). Anyway, currently we are looking at “Salty” as the starting catcher and Varitek as the backup – wow that’ll really work. The thing is this, not only do the Red Sox lose a good catcher; they lose a number 3 hitter. Assuming they do not sign Beltre that means they lose two of their best hitters, leaving the job of pulling the team’s weight to Youkilis, Pedroia, and Ortiz. Last year the Red Sox had one of the best starting lineups, even when people were hurt they still managed to score runs, but to keep that up they will need some big-market players which means years and dollars that Epstein seems to have trouble with. If this is the way things are going then I do not know how 2011 will play out, but all I can say is it doesn’t look much better than 2010.