Headline of Rob Bradford’s latest column at WEEI: “What becomes of the Red Sox without Adrian Gonzalez.”
Only Red Sox Nation worries about what will happen if they lose the player they never had in the first place. And they wonder why the rest of the baseball world hates them.
Headline and opening Adrian Gonzalez-coveting paragraphs aside, the bulk of the article is devoted to speculating what the Sox might do to fill the middle of their order going forward. I don’t really take issue with any of Bradford’s assessments of Adrian Beltre, Victor Martinez or David Ortiz, but with his references to Gonzalez, Prince Fielder and regret over not getting Mark Teixeira, it seems like he’s sort of assuming that the Sox absolutely have to bring in some giant middle-of-the-order bat or else all is lost.
The Sox, however, are leading the American League in scoring right now and Kevin Youkilis is performing as if he’s (shock!) a giant, middle-of-the order bat. Probably because he is. In the grand scheme of things, then, I’m not seeing why the Sox need to go and get someone else huge.
