By: Dan Massar, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

Defense wins championships.  You mostly hear that statement uttered by football experts and fans alike.  Alabama just won a national title with a powerful defense.

This philosophy can also apply many sports.  The Celtics won the title in 2008 with the best defense in basketball.

And now, the Red Sox are going to try to win it all with defense.  In baseball it’s more specifically defense and pitching and the Sox have loaded up on both this offseason.

The surprising signing of Angels ace John Lackey added another great arm to its starting rotation.  Lackey joins Josh Becket and Jon Lester, and all of them could be aces on many teams around the majors.  Add a continuing to improve Clay Buchholz, a hopefully healthy Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield as the wildcard and you’ve got a tremendous starting rotation.

Defensively the Sox added Mike Cameron to the outfield.  He will take over center and Jacoby Ellsbury will shift to left.  While the signing of a 37-year-old outfielder was a bit troubling, Cameron is still a top outfielder defensively.

And finally, the recent signing of Adrian Beltre to play third base gives the Sox perhaps the premier defensive third baseman in the league.  He’s a two-time gold glove winner and will turn 31 at the start of the season.  Compare that to Mike Lowell who will be 36 in February and has injury baggage at this point in his career and it seems the Red Sox made a smart play on Beltre.  Now it will be interesting to see what happens with Lowell.  It doesn’t seem like he has a future in Boston, but that story will continue to develop.

Offensively Beltre is an interesting story.  He hit 48 homers in 2004 with the Dodgers and knocked in 121 RBI.  Since then he hasn’t hit more then 26 in a season.  Hmmm, interesting.  What could have induced such a break out year?  Some suspect steroids or PED’s but nothing has been proven.  But his season in 2004 is not what’s important for the Sox.  What is important is that he plays stellar defense at 3^rd, hits 20-25 homers, drives in 80+ RBI’s and hits around .270-.275.  Beltre’s coming off an injury plagued 2009 with Seattle in which he only played in 111 games and hit just 8 home runs and drove in 44 RBI.  He will he highly motivated to have a bounce back year in 2010.  Beltre signed a one-year $9 million deal with a $5 million player option for 2011.  The option increases to $10 million with 640 plate appearances.

Defense and pitching are critical in the postseason. Powerful offense can get you to the playoffs but it can’t always capture the crown. The Red Sox are prepared to be a team built for October. The struggle will be getting there.  As of right now they look like a wildcard team again.  If the offseason moves work out, they could also be a very dangerous team to deal with in the playoffs.

 Loading ...

Popularity: 4% [?]