Because It's Never to Early to Start Making Predictions About Next Year

Now that I've had a little time to digest the fact that the season is actually over and there will be no Red Sox to watch for quite a few months now, I'm ready to turn my attention to next year. Although I love watching baseball and miss it I must admit that I really, really enjoy talking about off-season moves. October, of course, is much too early to really make any predictions about next year so all of my outlandish predictions I am about to make are based solely in my imagination and have just a slight handhold on reality.

1. Josh Beckett will return in 2011 as a soulless, pitching monster and rightfully regain his place as the Red Sox ace. This one is really a no brainer. Things can't get worse for Josh, they can only get better. So if one is to assume that next year is going to be better for Josh, let's go whole hog and say not only will it be better, it will be his ultimate year. You thought 2007 was good? It was nothing compared to what 2011 will be like.

2. Jason Varitek will return to the Red Sox for one more year and announce he will retire at the end of 2011. A win-win for everyone. Tek gets to stay with the Red Sox for one more year and leave with the dignity and send-off he deserves. In the meantime, he will continue to be Josh's catcher (thus ensuring Josh of his monster year, see prediction #1), do some great hitting when he is in the lineup, and continue to do an excellent job of backing up VMart. Which brings us to ...

3. Victor Martinez will sign a 4 year deal with the Red Sox for a reasonable amount of money. Victor doesn't want a huge payout, he just wants what he deserves and a little job security to go with it. I predict Theo will see that this is the way to go with Salty not being ready to be the full-time catcher and no free agent or trade available catchers who are better than Victor. Combine that with the fact that Clay loves him and really, I don't see why it is a question whether he should be signed or not.

4. Youk moves to 3rd base and the Red Sox get some new 1st baseman. I'm not ready to predict who they might get to play 1st base but I have a hunch that Beltre won't be back next year and 1st basemen seem more plentiful than 3rd basemen. I prefer Youk at 1st myself.

5. Darnell McDonald comes back as a utility man but Daniel Nava does not. Darnell I can easily see slipping into the Bill Hall role (although hopefully we won't need him as much as we needed Hall) but I think Nava will go on to smaller, greener pastures. I wish him the best of luck.

6. Jacoby Ellsbury will be back in centerfield and all will be forgiven all around. Look, everyone had bad feelings last year about the Ellsbury situation. He wasn't happy, the Red Sox weren't happy, the media wasn't happy (or maybe they were because it made a good story), fans weren't happy. I predict next year Jacoby will regain his place in centerfield, steal a million bases, be a fantastic lead-off hitter, and make everyone forget about this debacle.

7. Lowrie and Scoots will have a knock down drag-em-out fight during Spring Training for the shortstop position. And Lowrie will win. Scoots will be back up. Lowrie is tougher than he looks and could totally take down Scoots.

8. Jon Lester will win the Cy Young award. I predicted this would happen this year but that's not looking like it will pan out so I'm going with 2011 being his year. Now remember, Josh is having a monster year this year so that means Jon has to be a smidgen better. This will make Josh even more motivated for 2012.

9. Papelbon will start the year out as the closer but Daniel Bard will finish the year as the closer. Pap is still good and I'd love to see him bounce back but my prediction is he won't and Bard will be eased in.

10. J.D. Drew will continue to quietly kick ass. Yeah, J.D. had a slight off year in 2010 but I think next year he'll be back to form. No one will notice though because he will be so unobtrusive about it.

11. The Red Sox will win the World Series. Why not?