Season Preview Part II: Defense

"Offense wins games, but defense wins championships."

Yeah, I guess so, since pitching counts as defense in baseball. More on the offense later. How do the Sox stack up defensively?

No spectacular players. Nick Punto is good, but he's not Ozzie Smith. They have a great second baseman, two good first baseman, and reasonably good outfielders. (By contrast, Manny Ramirez was arguably a liability, though I would defend him in that there was some fear of his arm, which was pretty good.)

There's no young Vlad Guerrero on this team, nor a Dwight Evans for that matter.

But this is fine. Show me the spectacular position player anywhere in baseball. Torii Hunter? Sure, I love Torii Hunter -- but he's 36. Vlad is practically 80 and a DH these days (really he's 37, but his knees are both 74). The Sox are solid on defense, and that will be enough.

In short (no pun intended), this is a wash. The Sox will make some great plays, and their opponents will as well. Ellsbury is fine, and he has moments of greatness. But there is no Fred Lynn in center to take away runs. There's no young Alex Rodriguez out there. We might look back on Pedroia someday and really appreciate his defense -- but for now we love his bat.

Which brings us to part III, the three-run homers. Or it will, later.

Pictured: Fred Lynn. Every so often you can still hear someone yell, "Freddie woulda had that!" at Fenway. It's an easy thing to say, because it's almost always true. We just didn't worry about balls hit to center.