Jon Lester hopes the rookies are "dumb" and "naive"

DOC/sportstalk.com
Nick Tarantino
Contributing writer

That's kind of a mean thing to say about your young guns huh? Silly Jon.

I typically wouldn't want my starting ace and two-time World Series champ pitcher to say that about the rookies, but when you put it into context, he's right. He said it in this article on ESPN Boston:

The past month or so we've had a bunch of new guys filter in, young guys, and maybe they can be dumb enough and naive enough to just say, 'Yeah, screw it. Let's go,'" Lester said. "And maybe give us that little bit of spark."

What Jon is saying is pretty clear, he isn't giving up on the season, and hopes the kids can be a spark for the old guys. I'm with Jon. As bad as we've been, there have been sparks of life for the Sox. Now that the cancer that was AJ Pierzynski is gone, maybe the pitching staff will be happier to throw to some who cares about the team, in Cristian Vazquez.

As we've posted here before, the rookies have been a huge spark.

There's no reason to give up on the season. We've got great pitching in Lester and Lackey. We've got great pitching prospects in Workman and De La Rosa.

We have the Flyin' Hawaiian beginning rehab.

This is something that I think can be HUGE for the Sox. Once Vic comes back, he will go into right field. We could then put Holt to his natural position at third base. Once Holt is at third we can put Bogaerts back to his natural position at shortstop.

While we're on the subject of switching Bogaerts from 3B to SS, lets look at these numbers:

With 30 games playing 3B Bogaerts has hit .136! in 118 AB's. While he has played 53 games at SS he was hitting a healthy .296 in 199 AB's. Say what you want about how thats a coincidence, or "He hasn't had as many games at third." That's no f*cking coincidence. Moving from his natural position has affected him at the plate and it drives me nuts that he isn't being put at SS. Yes, I know the offensivley challenged Drew is a $10 million mistake and has "solid defense." Whatever. X has solid defense too. If moving X to short brings him back to life, DO IT! Imagine a Sox team with a hot Bogaerts, Holt, Pedroia, Ortiz, possibly Napoli and Victorino? With Vazquez learning and JBJ giving us the clutch hit every now and then? Hello playoff run!

So, don't give up. And when Vic comes back, or if Nava gets hot and the infield isn't moved around, remember this post, and blame John Farrell.

stats from ESPN.