5 Questions: Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe

As the 5 Questions series continues, we bring in Boston Globe columnist and baseball expert, Nick Cafardo. Cafardo covers the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball for the Globe, giving Bostonians a feel for what is happening around the league. He writes a Sunday baseball notes column, as well as writes a Red Sox column and contributes to the Extra Bases blog. Cafardo also makes frequent appearances on the NESN pre-game show to keep fans up to date on the latest happenings around baseball. Because of his wide-range of knowledge, his questions focus more on the MLB overall, with less of an emphasis on the Red Sox. Without further ado, enjoy 5 Questions with Nick Cafardo.

1. Looking outside the AL East, which AL teams do you think have the best chance at making the post-season in 2011 and why?

If the White Sox can get Matt Thornton to be a consistent closer, they have a chance to be a playoff team with their very potent lineup. They have a deep and decent starting rotation and good pieces to the bullpen, but Thornton has to come through in order to get them to where they need to go. The Twins are always going to be in contention and they’ve improved their middle infield defense and with Joe Nathan back, could be a very tough team. I like the possibility of Oakland sneaking in there in the West because of their excellent pitching depth 1-12. For them it’s a question of how many runs they’ll score to help out their fine pitching staff. Detroit could sneak in there as well if the Miguel Cabrera situation doesn’t blow
up in their face. Texas will be good, but not sure they did enough to replace Cliff Lee and pitching depth.

2. Given the interesting off-season for the Tampa Bay Rays, with the departures of Matt Garza and Carl Crawford and the additions of Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, do you think they are as talented as they have been the past few seasons? Are they realistic contenders in 2011?

Probably not as talented, but do they have enough to contend? I think so. I think Damon can be 60 percent of Crawford and Manny can surely replace Carlos Pena. I still have my doubts about Reid Brignac taking over at SS for Jason Bartlett and their catching is a bit shaky, but their rotation is still very good. We could see a guy like Wade Davis really emerge to take Garza’s No. 2 role while Jeremy Hellickson could be special as he gets his feet wet. Need a bullpen obviously and that’s the big issue facing this team. But if they find something that works, they’re in this thing.

3. Given some of his choice comments this off-season, do you think the New York Yankees will re-sign Brian Cashman after the 2011 season? Why or why not? What would you do if you were the owner of the Yankees?

Brian Cashman will be back if he wants to be. Public perception of the situation wasn’t really the reality. Cashman is one of the best and the Steinbrenner family knows it. They welcome and they’re used to that type of discourse with Cashman, so this is really nothing new. The only thing I could see Cashman doing is taking a year off and then resuming his career somewhere else. But if I were a betting man, I’d say they’d announce a new deal for him in the not-to-distant future.

4. A big story this off-season was the failed contract extension talks between the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols. Where do you think Pujols will be playing in 2012 (and beyond)? Why?

I think he’s a Cardinal, and eventually, much like what happened with Joe Mauer and the Twins, the team and the player will realize it’s foolish to let such a special relationship expire. And even when and if he becomes a free-agent, other teams won’t go after him that hard initially respecting the process and allowing his team to do everything they can to resign him. He’s synonymous with the Cardinals.

5. Looking at the off-season moves for each AL East team, which team impressed you the most? Knowing that anything can happen over the next several months, how do you see the AL East panning out when the regular season is over?

Boston easily won the offseason. Best team on paper, but not sure that means much. Last year at this time the San Francisco Giants were headed for the paper-shredder and they won the World Series. Every team has to make adjustments and tweak along the way and the Red Sox will be no different even with their All-Star team. I think Boston can prevail here if most things fall their way. If they don’t the Yankees are still really good. The Yankees have the “underdog” role in their court and they seem to be feeding off that. They also have the resources and the players to make those adjustments during the season.

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