Kuzul

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So it would seem in Boston.

Gold Glove first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has been relegated to playing right field as a result of another Gold Glove-winning first baseman coming back from his stint on the disabled list. Kevin Youkilis was activated today, and, as some expected, the move pushed Gonzo to the outfield.

The move may come across as irresponsible to some. After all, in his 1,059 career games played, Gonzalez has played the outfield exactly five times. Once in 2005, twice in 2011 and twice in 2012.

Now, Gonzo is a healthy veteran ball player, so it would make some sense to have the man play in right.

Even though Youkilis has played 22 games in the outfield (two in right versus 20 in left) during his 929 career games, returning to the lineup from a back injury would imply somewhat limited motion as he continues to adjust and return to ball playing form.

Back injuries are nothing to take lightly. Certainly, Boston Celtic fans from the end of the Larry Bird era know the devastating effects that can occur and break down a once great player.

I am in favor of leaving Will Middlebrooks at third base. The kid has been red hot for the Sox, and it would be counterproductive for the team to send him and his .297 batting average, 22 hits (11 of which for extra bases) and 16 RBI in just 18 games back to triple-A.

If he were to keep up that production over 162 games, Middlebrooks would finish with 198 hits, 45 home runs, 144 RBI, 18 stolen bases and 108 runs scored. In other words, he could develop into an MVP-caliber player for Boston.

The kid needs to stay at third and further his development. Youkilis, therefore, needs to play first base. It is a position that requires less range than third base and will return him to a position of comfort.

It is no secret that the Boston Red Sox will trade Youk. While having Adrian Gonzalez in the outfield is not the idea situation, the team has been hamstrung with injuries to Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Ryan Sweeney, Cody Ross and Ryan Kalish. 

No rational fan would sit Gonzo in favor of Daniel Nava.

Hopefully, the experiment is short, as a slow Gonzalez trolling right field is not a sound defensive option (not to mention it increases the risk of injury to your marquee player); it is the most logical move the team can make at the moment with a recovering pitching staff.

The offense is needed; therefore, Gonzo is needed to take one for the team, whether he likes it or not.

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Of all the stories that have surrounded the 2012 Boston Red Sox, the Adrian Gonzalez saga has seemingly flown under the radar for the most part.

Saga, you say?

Well, that might be a bit dramatic. The problem is, Gonzalez has yet to truly perform in Boston in 2012. You can even make a solid argument that his numbers in 2011 were faulty due to the fact that he never produced in the clutch.

Think about that for a second.

When is the last time you saw Gonzalez come up with a big hit in the clutch for the Boston Red Sox? If you can’t think of one it is for good reason, there are none.

The Red Sox emptied their wallet to lock up Gonzo long term and thus far, he seems to be just OK for the Sox. While big-money contracts have flown around surrounding first basemen, it feels like an appropriate time to examine just where Gonzalez stands in comparison to his American League peers this season.

Those peers are as follows:

Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox

Michael Young, Texas Rangers

Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles

Billy Butler, Kansas City Royals

Prince Fielder, Detroit Tigers

Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay Rays

Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins

Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees

Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Adam Lind, Toronto Blue Jays

Justin Smoak, Seattle Mariners

Casey Kotchman, Cleveland Indians

Kila Ka’aihue, Oakland Athletics

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I have not had good experiences with fantasy baseball in the past.

First and foremost, I was terrible at it. I would say that I could identify a comfortable 95 percent of current players by name, but that doesn’t mean I know how to fashion them into a successful fantasy franchise.

Your initial instinct is to grab the biggest names you can find. You want the Pujols’s, the Hamiltons, and the Cabreras. But that’s not how it works. It’s all about variety, depth, and value. You want all your bases covered, forgive the awful pun.

It’s more important to have guys who excel in different areas. You need a home-run guy, sure—but not eight of them. You also want a batting average guy, an on-base guy, a steals guy, etc. There are too many factors and I have no patience for that.

It also requires constant attention due to staggered schedules and an overwhelming number of “day-to-day injuries.” There are baseball games every day (excluding the All-Star break) from early April to early October. It is a grueling fantasy season.

It is no secret that I love fantasy football, but baseball is a drastically different monster. Football only has one “round” per week, for 17 weeks. It is much more manageable.

And despite all the stigmas, very few people obsess over it all week long. I check maybe once a day to make sure that Tom Brady still has all his required ligaments or that some Cincinnati Bengal hasn’t been arrested for public indecency. Plus, given the short season, every game is important and players aren’t just going to take a day off on you. I would hardly categorize the schedule as grueling.

But still, I was left with an empty spot where fantasy football usually resides, and I thought maybe baseball was a fitting suitor.

Yes, despite all noted evidence, I considered fantasy baseball in 2012.

But I decided against it in the end, for one reason, which I at least had the foresight to recognize. And that reason currently has a 5-13 record.

I grew up in a small coastal California town called Encinitas, half-an-hour north of downtown San Diego. My allegiances have never strayed from the Chargers in the NFL or the Padres in the MLB. But every man has his limits, and the Padres are fast approaching mine.

I vaguely remember the 1998 World Series, in which the Padres faced the Yankees. I can also vaguely recall not caring all that much. I mean, I was seven years old, yet to reach diehard fan status.

It has been 14 years now, and the Padres have gone from World Series contender to league laughingstock. They won the NL West division in both 2005 and 2006 (perhaps only due to how bad the division was those years, as they won only 82 and 88 games respectively), but lost both times to the Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs.

But at least there had always been stars. There was always one guy who you could point to and say “That’s our best player, that’s who I want to pay to see.”

For a long while it was Mr. Padre himself, Tony Gwynn, and his pursuit of 3,000 hits. Or it was Trevor Hoffman, walking out to “Hells Bells,” lights-out for so many years. In the early 2000s, it was Jake Peavy, the fireballing righty from Mobile, Alabama. And until 2010, it was Adrian Gonzalez, with one of the prettiest swings you will ever see.

These players kept the Padres afloat, even through 66-98 seasons. And now, with the Padres setting a pace that wouldn’t even see them reach 66 wins, that player is…

Nonexistent.

No Padre with legitimate playing time is batting over .300, and only two players break that mark (barely) even when removing that restriction (Andy Parrino is 7-of-23 for .304, and Chris Denorfia is 9-of-30 for .300).

The only offensive bright spot thus far has been Chase Headley (.293, 4 HR, 13 RBI), who I have seen strike out in big moments too often to get excited about.

They have scored a scant 60 runs and just marked their first two-game win streak of the season, 18 games in. (Thank goodness for the Pirates, who have somehow managed to cross the plate just 30 times in 15 games—if you’re wondering, the record for fewest runs in a season belongs to St. Louis with 372 in 1908, a record the Pirates are on pace to obliterate.)

As far as the pitchers go, Cory Luebke has been pleasantly decent, putting up a 1.16 WHIP and 2.52 ERA in four starts. Plus, he accounts for 40 percent of the team’s wins, so that’s dandy.

Unfortunately, opening day starter Edinson Volquez is already up to a 4.30 ERA and has yet to get a win. Promising up-and-coming Clayton Richard has given up 12 earned runs in 18 innings, and I’m not sure who the other starters are.

I’m honestly not sure if Bud Black knows who they are.

Although they are probably going to overshoot the 6-45 mark I set for them for the first third of the season, all of these wins are meaningless. The Padres organization and the MLB as a whole have deeper-set issues. It goes deeper than just a bad team full of bad players.

It is an organization that doesn’t care about product, and a league that doesn’t care about market discrepancies. Not to make it out to be a conspiracy, it’s not like the league is fixing anything (directly), but I honestly believe that MLB would like to see the same five or six teams in the World Series hunt every year. It’s just best for business.

So this is why you won’t talk me into fantasy baseball: because my connection to the game has already been lost after two weeks. I’m already on the Clippers’ and Kings’ bandwagons—let’s hope I don’t move to LA and start rooting for the Dodgers.

Matt Kemp does have one of those lovable faces, doesn’t he?

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The last man to win baseball’s Triple Crown did it in a Red Sox Uniform. This year, it will happen again.

When Carl Yastrzemski won the AL Triple Crown in 1967, he did it with a .326 batting average, 44 home runs and 121 RBI. These numbers are certainly impressive, but as anyone who has seen him play can tell you, a healthy Adrian Gonzalez can easily reach this same milestone.

Indeed, despite a multitude of issues last season, Gonzalez was a monster for the Sox. He finished with a .338-27-117 stat line, with the bulk of his damage coming in the first half of the season. Indeed, at the All-Star break, Gonzalez was on pace to put up a .354-30-138, which would have put him at the top of two of the three Triple Crown categories at season’s end.

Gonzalez’s noticeable power drop-off from previous seasons has been linked to lingering shoulder problems associated with surgery he had prior to the 2011 season, though, to his credit, he never let that become an excuse.

It’s also true that when looking at advanced metrics, it becomes clear that part of the reason for Gonzalez’s swollen batting average was a high degree of luck. His batting average on balls on play (BABIP) was a ridiculous .386; for comparison, in the 2008-10 seasons, his BABIP was .304.

Though he may not reach such a high batting average again this year, it is perfectly reasonable to expect a .320-plus average from Gonzalez, who for a host of reasons will have a second year in Boston much easier than his first. He already had an excellent spring, hitting .356 with a solid .901 OPS and showing no ill effects from the collapse of last season.

There is no doubt that 2012 is shaping up to be a huge year for the Sox’s first baseman, whose ability to consistently hit for both power and average makes him arguably the most valuable asset in the Sox’s lineup.

Here are five reasons why Gonzalez will win the AL Triple Crown this season:

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This picture pretty much says it all. This is the attitude the Red Sox will have to have about the year 2011 and everything that came with it. 

It was a roller coaster-type year for the Sox in 2011, but unlike most coasters, the biggest drop off came at the end of the ride, as opposed to the beginning. 

Going 7-20 in September was the biggest free-falling coaster in MLB history—not to mention all the drama that followed! 

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The Boston Red Sox have the best offense in baseball and it’s not close. 

They hold the top spot in runs scored, average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. 

With the best offense in baseball, you’d expect the Red Sox to have a player in the MVP conversation, but not three.

Adrian Gonzalez, who leads baseball with a .353 average, was pegged as an MVP candidate from the moment he arrived in Boston in the offseason.

Few expected the Red Sox to have two other MVP candidates, but that is the case.

Joining Gonzalez in the MVP conversation are Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, both unexpected after both losing the majority of the 2010 season to injury.

In the end, the three will end up taking votes away from each other, but of the three whom is the most deserving candidate?

The case can be made for all three but Ellsbury has been a step ahead of his two teammates. Ellsbury has been electric in every facet of the game this season.

He is second on the team in batting average with a .319 average, only trailing Gonzalez. He leads the team in both stolen bases with 31, and runs scored, 83, and has hit an unprecedented 18 home runs out of the leadoff spot, which is good for second on the team. 

Ellsbury has also picked up the clutch gene this season providing walk-off hits on back-to-back nights against Cleveland last week. Gonzalez has a walk-off this season as well and Pedroia has yet to get one.

The element of surprise also plays into the fact that Ellsbury tops the list of Red Sox MVP candidates. After last season, when many questioned Ellsbury’s heart and toughness, no one could have predicted what has happened thus far in 2011. 

Ellsbury carries a 5.9 WAR—wins above replacement—making him the second most irreplaceable player on the Red Sox, just behind Pedroia who has a WAR of 6.7. Gonzalez is third on the team with a WAR of 5.2.

He leads the team in WPA—win probability added—at 3.85 as well as the clutch metric at 1.44, 1.26 points ahead of Pedroia (0.18) and 1.67 points ahead of Gonzalez (-0.23).

Sabermetrics aside, Ellsbury proves he is most valuable every night by setting the table for the offense. Ellsbury on base leads to RBI for Pedroia and Gonzalez. 

In the end, the three will likely take votes away from each other, being on the same team, and the award could go to someone like Jose Bautista or Robinson Cano. 

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Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers leads the way in our group of award winner from the first half of the 2011 Major League Baseball Season.

Baseball has suddenly become dominated by pitching as there are only seven players in the entire league with at least 20 home runs.  

It’s a fascinating statistic when you think just 10 years ago, Alex Rodriguez hit 52, Luis Gonzalez hit 57, Sammy Sosa hit 64, and Barry Bonds hit 73—the most home runs for a season in the history of baseball.

Now that we’ve officially reached the half-way point of the season, let’s take a look at the MVP’s and Cy Young Award winners of the first half.

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Surprise, surprise. The Boston Red Sox are exactly where the preseason pundits thought they would be in mid-June: sitting comfortably atop the AL East with the second best record (42-27, .609) in all of Major League Baseball.

The strength of the teams play over the last month and a half has been quite remarkable, actually. After averaging around 5.05 runs per game last season, good for second best in the majors, they’ve upped their offensive output to around 5.32 runs per game, the best mark in the league.

The Red Sox have always been a strong offensive team, but their surge at the plate this year has been evident. By just looking at some of the lopsided final scores the Red Sox have put up over the last week and a half––10 to four, 14 to one, 16 to four, 11 to 6––it’s easy to see the explosive potential the Red Sox enter each and every game with.

But what does this all have to do with the All-Star Game? Well, quite a lot actually.

As we all know, the All-Star Game is used to determine home field advantage in the World Series. It might be big-headed of this Red Sox fan to start thinking about the World Series this early, but for obvious reasons, the World Series is the ultimate end-goal for this team. Considering the talent on the team, anything less would be a disappointment to Red Sox fans.

And, besides the obvious home field advantage that an American League All-Star victory would ensure, it would also give the Red Sox an extra game to use the designated hitter.

The start of interleague play has uncovered quite a conundrum for the Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz, easily the teams two best hitters this year, both can’t play in the field at the same time.

Ortiz––whose position in the field is first base––is one of the few full-time DH’s left, and he’s easily the most productive of the bunch. Gonzalez is an above average fielding first baseman with no real ability to play another position.

So, when the Red Sox make the trip to play in National League stadiums, they’re going to have to make the tough decision of who to sit. There is no right answer; logically, it would be detrimental to leave either man’s bat on the bench, or to play them both in the field at the same time. It’s a lose-lose situation.

The Red Sox can juggle this problem comfortably enough for the nine road games they will play during the interleague period.

But, come October, if the Red Sox continue their strong play and make a successful run at the fall-classic, they’re going to have a serious problem on their hands.

The best thing Red Sox fans can do is pull up a chair and root, root, root for the American League come July 12th. Home field advantage is important, but nowhere near as important as being at full strength for four games, as opposed to three, in the World Series.

In years past, it was easy to feign mild interest in the All-Star game without caring too much about the final result. But, if you have any hope for the Red Sox returning to postseason glory in 2011, you’ll be vehemently glued to your television set late on a Tuesday night in July, willing to put up with Joe Buck’s dry commentary, and maybe even willing to silently root for a couple of Yankees to get a hit.

Dan is a Boston Red Sox featured columnist. Follow him on twitter @dantheman_06. 

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Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder bat on opposite sides of the plate, Fielder’s voluminous frame on the left and Pujols’ chiseled figure to the right.

Fielder, 27, was born in Ontario, Calif., and was selected seventh overall in the 2002 MLB amateur draft by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Pujols, 31, hails from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and wasn’t bagged in the 1999 draft until the 13th round by the St. Louis Cardinals.

They look nothing alike, speak different native dialects and clearly subject themselves to contrasting dietary regimens.

On the other hand, both play first base for their respective ball clubs, and share an additional commonality that is to be the focal point of baseball media come the last out of the World Series this fall.

The pair will become the two highest sought after free agents in the offseason, and mutually swell from wealthy, to down right filthy rich.

Baltimore, Chicago (Cubs), Los Angeles (Angles), Colorado and Washington are all drooling at the thought of bolstering their respective lineups with either of the thunderous sluggers, but whom would they prefer? 

And what are the odds that either can be resigned by their current club?

Chances are greater that Pujols re-ups in St. Louis, than for Milwaukee to open up its checkbook for Fielder.

Milwaukee is locked into outfielder Corey Hart for two more seasons, second baseman Rickie Weeks for three, outfielder Ryan Braun until 2020 and has two star pitchers (Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke) who they would obviously love to sign to long-term deals in the near future.

Remember, the Brewers are financially a mid-market team, who rank 17th in payroll at roughly $85 million for 2011.

Adrian Gonzalez set the bar for first-base bombers when he agreed to a seven-year extension with the Red Sox for $154 million before the season.

Gonzalez was coming off a campaign in which he batted .298, with 31 home runs and 101 RBI for San Diego. Keep in mind Petco Park is widely considered the most difficult place to hit home runs in all of baseball.

At 29, Gonzalez fits between our two sluggers in age, and had a track record of four-straight seasons with at least 30 long balls.  He batted in at least 100 runs three of the last four seasons, with 99 in the other.

Aided by his unscrupulous super-agent Scott Boras, Fielder will presumptively be seeking to surpass Gonzalez’s arrangement in Boston. 

Currently leading the National League with 59 RBI, and second with 19 homers, Fielder is surely going to make the franchise that goes all in for his services pay through the teeth.

Four-straight seasons with at least 30 homers—he touched 50 in 2007, and became, along with his father Cecil, the only father-son duo to both reach that mark in an MLB season—headlines his resume.  Also worthy of note were the 141 runs he helped plate in 2009.

Although 2010 was a down year for Prince, he still reached 30 home runs and 80 RBI while struggling to the tune of a .261 BA.  Boy, has he come back with a vengeance at just the right time.

Pujols is suffering from the inverse ailment: drooping statistically at precisely the wrong time—his walk year.

After two-straight 40 moonshot seasons—never launching less than 30 in his 10 years—Albert began the season ice cold.  Even with four round trippers and 10 hits in his last 10 games, he is still holding an uncharacteristic .275 BA and .491 SLG.

Before play began this season, there was little debate that Pujols was the top slugger in the game.  A career .329 hitter with a 1.041 lifetime SLG, there was little argument to be made for any other hitter even being in his wheelhouse.

Naysayers may claim that Pujols is reaching a breaking point where his prime years are behind him, and a gradual decline in production is inevitable.

On the flip side, Pujols has been an extremely resilient hitter for the Cardinals, and until now, never displayed even a hint of slowing down offensively.

By reputation, Pujols is stronger defensively than Fielder, but the various sabermetric tools contend the difference to be slimmer than believed.

Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) from Fangraphs.com places a run value on defensive efficiency, attempting to show how many runs a player saves or allows through fielding.

This season, Pujols ranks fifth with 1.7 runs and Fielder sits 12th at 0.4.

While many defensive calculations can be used to argue for or against either player, it is doubtful that much of the contract negotiations will stray from offensive contributions.

There are whispers that a team could attempt to lure Fielder into a designated hitter role in the American League, but this early in his career, it is speculative at best to think so.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is a sabermetric tool that attempts to quantify a player’s total contribution by comparison to an average minor-league or bench player. Without delving into the minutia of the calculations, a WAR of 0 simply means the player is on par with a “replacement level” competitor.

As we near the mid-point of the season, Fielder’s WAR is 3.2, third among all first baseman, while Pujols checks in at 2.3.

In 2010, Pujols was the top dog at his position by WAR ranking at 7.5.  Fielder, having the worst season of his young career, finished with 3.4 WAR.

And 2009 saw the duo finish first and second in WAR rankings amongst first basemen; Pujols was good for 8.9 WAR, and Fielder 6.4 WAR.

Length of contract shouldn’t be an issue for Fielder’s suitors; any franchise seriously considering an investment in his services will enter the sweepstakes knowing that seven years will be a starting point.

Cardinals GM John Mozeliak couldn’t come to terms with Pujols before spring training, and rumors of El Hombre seeking double-digit years in a deal were rampant.

St. Louis has already breached the $100-million mark for team payroll in 2011, and that includes just under $15 million for Albert.

His next contract will basically double his per-year cost, making it extremely difficult for St. Louis to shuffle its roster without skyrocketing payroll.

Unlike with Fielder’s negotiations, age will be an integral factor.  How many high-performing 40-year-olds are there in baseball?

So, if both players fail to resign with their respective team, who is the better pursuit?

Could either player be lured to the American League, or even to a designated hitter’s role in Fielder’s case? 

Is Pujols’ slow start just an aberration, or the first sign of a gradual degeneration for baseball’s most feared batter?

No matter what the future holds for the ball-crushing duo, only one thing is certain: they are both going to get paid.

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Boston Red Sox Executive Vice President and General Manager Theo Epstein knew what he was getting in to this past offseason when he acquired Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres.

The acquisition was made in exchange for outfielder Reymond Fuentes, right-handed pitcher Casey Kelly, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and a player to be named later.

The question is, did the Red Sox know Gonzalez might be viewed by some as a legitimate Triple Crown Candidate in his first year with the club and worth every dime of his 2011 $5.5 million contract?

A batter earns the Triple Crown when he leads the league in three specific categories, those being, home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI) and batting average (AVG). The Triple Crown generally refers to leading a specific league such as the American League (AL) or National League (NL) in these three major categories.

Through the first 63 games, Gonzalez leads the AL in runs batted in with 57, is second in batting average at .338 and has 12 home runs, eight home runs shy of Jose Bautista’s AL-leading 20.

Gonzalez is on pace for a .347 average, 148 runs batted in and 31 home runs.*

If these numbers come to fruition, his projected average and runs batted in maybe enough to lead the American League but his home runs may fall shy for a league leader.

The glimmer of hope may be that 81 of his games played will be at one of the smallest ballparks in all of major league baseball, Boston’s Fenway Park.

Fenway, known as a hitter’s park, especially for left hander’s with a short right field porch, makes it entirely possible that Gonzalez hits in upwards of 45 to 50 home runs which just may be enough to lead the AL.

The triple crown hasn’t been won by any player since 1967, 44 years ago, coincidentally by a former Red Sox player named Carl Yastrzemski. 

*Source: Yahoo Sports

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