By: Ian Tasso, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

Spring Training is finally upon us.

And what does that mean? Plenty of excitement, plenty of worried Sox fans and plenty of questions.

Only this time, it also means plenty of answers.

And that’s because of the 50-some-odd questions I’ve been emailed, texted, sexted, facebooked, i-chatted (and every other form of communication you can think of) over the past week, I’ve taken the top 20 and thrown them all down here.

Ranked bottom to top, here are the top 20 things, you, the fans, want to know as we roll our calendars into April.

So here goes: the first five, starting with 20, counting down to 16 heading into the 2010 season. The rest will be about shortly, don’t you worry. But in the meantime, you can rest easy knowing that at least these five worries have been addressed. We don’t want to overwhelm you with all the answers at once (still a couple weeks ’til opening day). It’s the least I can do.

20. Did Boston win or lose this offseason? (Ben; Tyngsboro, MA)

Considering what their options were, I’d say they won out. There really weren’t any big shiny names out there, aside from Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, both of whom in the Sox opinion were big injury risks and way too expensive.

Instead, Boston took a look at what was available, and made the absolute best with the situation. Instead of worrying about grabbing a high-priced (and probably overvalued) left fielder, they snagged the best pitcher on the market in John Lackey.

Not to mention the severe upgrades on defense Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre supply them. Because as much as we hate to admit it, Lowell is done. Watching him try to move around and field at third base might just be the most painful thing I’ve done in a while.

It’s also important to remember Victor Martinez. His trade in the middle of the season cleared up a lot of Boston’s impeding issues – like what to do with Varitek, where to play Lowell, where to play Youkilis, etc. So if you count that as part of their offseason – which you really should – I’d say they made out pretty well.

19. Can J.D. Drew finally stay healthy for a full – and productive – season? And if he goes down, who goes in? (Bobby; Middleton, MA)

I mean, I’m no doctor. Sure, we’d all hope J.D. could keep his body together for a full 162 games. But just as we know there are nine innings in a game, we all know that’s just not going to happen.

That being said, what I can tell you, is that for all the bashing Nancy Drew takes, he did appear in 137 games last season, his fourth highest total in 11-years in the MLB.

Listen; I take my fair shots at J.D., and quite probably more than I should. But the bottom line is, he’s a five-tool player. He’s not the best at any of those tools, but he has them all, and he does each and every one of them above average. And last season, he quietly totaled the most home runs (24) he’s hit since 2004.

This year, he’s probably going to be batting either sixth or seventh for Boston, depending on how Papi performs. A ton of teams out there would kill for a 25 HR-80 RBI guy near the bottom of their lineup card. But the one thing that always hurts me when it comes to Drew, is he never shows any emotion. This is a city that loves guys like Pedroia, Nixon, Youkilis – the dirt dogs.

I mean really Drew, would it kill you to look like you care out there?

The injuries though, they’re unavoidable with a guy like J.D. He’s going to get nicked up. And when he does, it looks like Jeremy Hermida will be the guy to take his place.

Hermida’s a guy who had a lot of promise when he came into the Bigs, and was the number 11th overall pick in the 2002 draft. Unfortunately, he’s never really realized that potential, though he did post career bests in 2007 with an 18-homer season and a .296 average.

But being thrown onto a great team with a solid lineup could be just what he needs. He’s got some great baseball minds to help mentor him, and if J.D. goes down, don’t be surprised if this kid really lends a hand to Boston in the summer months.

Just don’t be surprised if he doesn’t, either.

18. If Jose Iglesias shows a lot of promise at short…could he find his way onto the Major League roster? (Chris; Winthrop, MA)

Absolutely. The Sox front office, entire staff and whole team has all the confidence in the world in this kid – and he seems to be living up to the hype so far.

Both Kevin Youkilis and Adrian Beltre made sure to comment on Iglesias’s fielding so far this Spring Training, showing that not only does this guy have the hype – but he’s got the skills as well, which is much more important.

The question is where does he belong. And right now, the answer is in the minor leagues. But with Jed Lowrie struggling yet again with injuries and the ability to find playing time, Boston may make a move to Iglesias earlier than expected.

It all depends on how Scutaro does this year for Boston – whether or not he produces, or falls the way of Edgar Renteria. Either way guys, don’t get over excited about Jose – he’s a great fielder, don’t get me wrong, but he is after all just a defensive specialist who won’t put up much shinier numbers than Scutaro either way.

At his best, he’s going to be around a .270-.280 hitter, and pop around 15-home runs. But with the defensive skills he has, and it seems like they may be the best Boston’s seen in some time, perhaps he might be the answer the Sox are looking for at short.

But that’s probably a while away. For now, this is Scutaro’s position to lose. As for the backup spot, it’s a definite possibility that we see Lowrie step down to make way for Iglesias sometime in the late summer.

17. Marco Scutaro had a career year last year – can we expect that in 2010, or more of the .260, less than 10 HR hitter we’ve seen over the past 7 years? (Darren; Topsfield, MA)

This one’s tough. For me, Scutaro’s 2009 season was a bit of an aberration. That being said, it wasn’t like he went off like Beltre did in 2004, slugging almost 50 home runs when he’s expected to only hit 20.

Bottom line is the guy is a career .265 hitter, and last season he finished at .285. Nothing special. He had also never hit more than nine home runs in a season until last year, when he smacked a whole 12 out of the park. And as far as RBI’s, his previous career high was 60 – and he tied that.

So while he may have posted career highs in every single major category, it was only by about 20 average points and three home runs – nothing to write home about.

He was brought in to be a solid replacement for Jed Lowrie, who appears to be on his way out of Boston. Scutaro will most likely hit in the nine hole for Boston most of the year, a bit of a demotion from the two hole he found himself in for Toronto most of last season.

As such, expect nothing more than a little bit better than the average nine-hitter: around a .270 average, 10 or so home runs, and nothing more than 50-60 RBI. Anything more you get from Marco is purely a bonus. His production might jump a little bit because of the protection, but don’t expect anything outrageous.

16. What’s the deal with Dice-K? Is he injured, will he produce, and how well? (Wes; Boxford, MA)

Dice-K might be just as big of a wild-card this year for the Sox as Papi is – only, he’s far less important.

Let’s face it; the Sox have three guys at the head of the rotation that can carry them straight into October and far beyond. Not to mention they have a guy at the end of it in Buchholz that has shown he’s ready to step in and be more than just a bottom-of-the-barrel starter.

So what does this mean for Dice-K? Not nearly as much pressure as in past years.

If he’s healthy – which he isn’t quite yet – he should be able to contribute fairly nicely from the four spot in Boston’s rotation.

But anything more than a 10-7, 11-8 season would just be wishful thinking. Bottom line is the league has figured this guy out, and he’s way to inconsistent with his control to get back to his 18-3 2008 self.

Until we see some improvement, and we’ve seen nothing yet, Dice-K will just be a very expensive end-of-the-rotation arm. He has the tools to be more than that – it’s just that I’ve seen nothing in the past two seasons, or heard anything encouraging this offseason, to expect otherwise.

This article also appears on http://lastcalletin.blogspot.com/

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