The official start of the 2001 campaign begins in a week, so look for the roster to start shaping up, or crumble depending on how you look at it. After his decent start yesterday, Jimy Williams announced that Paxton Crawford would indeed begin the season on the big club. How long it lasts will directly relate to his performance and how well rehab continues for Brett Saberhagen and David Cone.

With that announcement I expect to see the official rotation to be 1) Pedro, 2) Nomo, 3) Castillo, 4) Ohka, and 5) Crawford. Though it's possible that Jimy won't want the two rookies pitching back to back, and may switch Castillo and Ohka.

As many of you probably know Hillenbrand has done everything this spring to help himself make the roster, leading the team in hitting and playing pretty good defense at four positions (C, 3B, 1B, OF). If Shea does indeed make the team due to Dauber's injury there are a couple of things that could happen.

1) Jose Offerman could move over to first to start the campaign, with Chris Stynes over at second, and Hillenbrand with the nod at third.

2) Offerman over to first with Mike Lansing getting the starting job at second and Stynes at third.

3) Scott Hatteberg or Hillenbrand getting the nod at first, with Offy and Stynes staying at their spring positions.

So as you can see, there are several scenarios that could play out, and if Daubach turns out to be OK, then everything goes back to normal.

At this point, I'm just looking for decent defense. With Manny in the line-up, our offense is no worse off than last year and there's no way guys like Offy, Jason Varitek, and Troy O'Leary could play worse than last year. So even without Nomar (UGH!), the offense should improve a bit. It's just a matter of the pitching coming together, and seeing if we can hold out till Nomar's return.

paul@redsox2000.com