The Free Agent options were limited and with the winter over, Red Sox Nation is being told that utility man Mike Aviles will start at short in April… and the fans are not amused.

Being a fan myself, I don’t blame them. Aviles some up and down years in Kansas City before coming to Boston… and at 31 (next month), he’s no longer a “work in progress,” he’s simply an average player.

With plenty of question marks and average players on the new roster, I don’t blame fans for being concerned about the 2012 season, but if I were a betting man, I’d put money down that Aviles will be the least of our concerns this summer.

Here’s why:

A) In 2 of the 3 1/2 seasons Aviles played for the Royals, he earned 400+ at-bats. He hit .325/.354 in his first big league season (2008) and .304/.335 in 2010, proving that steady work agrees with him. With Nick Punto on board at the utility man, the starting role at short stop is Mike’s to lose, and after hitting .316/.340 down the stretch in Boston last season, I’m predicting similar numbers in 2012.

B) The predicted lineup for Opening Day is a little scary with Ryan Sweeney in right, and Cody Ross in left, but most major league teams would kill to have a top five like Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonazlaez, Youkilis and Ortiz…

If those guys play up to expectations, the Red Sox can win games with mediocre hitting from the bottom four hitters. That said, I think Aviles can match Scutaro’s production from the 9th spot, hitting above .275 and turning over the lineup. Here’s a cool factoid to back that up:

Aviles is a career .302 hitter with runners on and 2 outs – clutch!

C) Probably more so than the top five mentioned above, the performance of the pitching staff will make or break this upcoming season. If Beckett, Lester and Buchholz aren’t pitching well… it won’t matter how well the offense is playing. And if that happens, Aviles could hit .300 and no one even would notice…

… just like Scoots in 2011.

Bottom Line: Inglasis may learn to hit enough to learn a call up this season, but Aviles will be our short stop for the bulk of this season… and I think he’ll be just fine.

Many of you have been asking for a re-print of our popular Celtics Legends shamrock shirt and with St. Patrick’s Day just weeks away, it seemed like the perfect time to bring it back!

For those of you that don’t know, this design was created by one of our local artist friends, Michael Weinstein. The Celtics Legends shamrock shirt design features silhouettes of Celtic greats, iconic images from Celtic history and 17 years of championships rounding out the steam of a great big shamrock on an Irish green t-shirt!

We’ve re-stocked this shamrock shirt just for St. Patty’s Day, so get one while you can in the Bottom Line Apparel web store now – http://blshirts.com/store

 
The Red Sox traded OF Josh Reddick and a few prospects for Oakland closer Andrew Bailey yesterday.

The Sox were hoping to get LHP Gio Gonzalez along with Bailey, but thanks to years of mediocrity, the Nationals had better prospects to offer and Gonzalez landed in Washington.

Thankfully, the Red Sox continued to talk with Oakland about Bailey and finally got the job done last night. With Bailey set to close, newly acquired set-up man Mark Melancon can help in the 8th and Daniel Bard is free to try his luck as a starter.

There’s till plenty of work to do, regarding the pitching staff, but during Ben Cherington’s presser about Bailey, he was asked how veteran OF Ryan Sweeney (also acquired in the trade) fits into the plans for right field.

Here’s what Ben had to say:

Ryan Sweeney we expect to be a big part of our outfield mix. He can play right field. He’s a good defender. His versatility is kind of like Reddick, really, both of them can play both outfield spots and play them well. Sweeney has played in a big ballpark in Oakland and handled the defensive part of the game well. We also really like his offensive approach to Fenway. He’s got an opposite field approach. He’s a guy we tried to acquire in the past, and think he fits well with our team. So he’ll be a big part of our outfield mix. We still have Darnell McDonald on our roster, who has done a good job for us in the past and has hit left-handed pitching. Mike Aviles we sent to Puerto Rico not too long ago to get some experience in the outfield. We got good reports on him when he was in Puerto Rico. Obviously we like him as a hitter and as an offensive player. We think we have some internal solutions for right field and Sweeney is a big part of that.

So… I guess that means we’ll be watching a platoon of Sweeney, McDonald and Aviles in right field in 2012. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but when you look at the list of Free Agent outfielders… Sweeney is just as good as any man on that list, now that Carlos Beltran and my guy Josh Hamilton are with new teams.

Bottom Line: The Sox got a new closer that will be under team control and for years to come and swapped the free-swinging Reddick (.280, 7 HR, 28 RBI) for the more patient Sweeney (.264, 1 HR, 25 RBI) – a career .283/.720 hitter.

The only problem is… he’s left-handed.

If Carl Crawford bounces back at all… and Jacoby Ellsbury builds on his MVP caliber 2011 season… we should be find with this rag-tag bunch of misfits in right.

We met a ton of new fans, created some fun new t-shirt designs like our Incredible Gronk and Seguin: The Future Is Now tees.

We’ve got big plans for 2012… but before we get there, I want to say thank you to all of you. I started Bottom Line Apparel a few years ago because I wanted to create fan apparel that was different from all the other stuff. It took a while to find our groove, but things really came together in 2011 thanks to ton of great feedback from you guys.

Conversations at holiday events, e-mail suggestions and likes on Facebook and re-tweets on Twitter all help us make the best possible products and I want to make sure we do more of that in 2012.

So make sure you stay in touch!

As a thank you for all your support in 2011, use coupon code NEWYEAR at www.blshirts.com/store to save 15% off your total order.

Have a great New Year’s and stay tuned for new BLA products in 2012!

Bottom Line Apparel: Boston sports fan apparel with a pop culture twist!

 
Rumor has it the Red Sox are willing to trade OF Josh Reddick and a few prospects for Oakland Athletics closer Andrew Bailey.

With Paps gone and mediocre and/or expensive free agent options available… I actually like this idea.

Bailey is coming off of a “down year” (42 G, 24 SV, 3.24 ERA, 41 Ks) but his 2009 season shows his potential: 68 G, 26 SV, 1.84 ERA, 91 Ks.

Injuries have forced Bailey to miss time over the past two years, but he’s only 27 and will be under team control until 2015. Nick Cafardo says the A’s have been asking for 3B phenom Will Middlebrooks, but if that’s the deal breaker, I expect the Sox to walk away.

Bottom Line: If the Red Sox can pull this off, they’ll have a closer locked up for a few years and money to spend in other places – like RF or starting pitching. It’s been a rough start to the Ben Cherrington Era… but this kind of move would earn him some serious points in my book.

What do you guy think?

 
Last spring, we had a blast making limited edition Bruins shirts for each round of the playoffs. And when the B’s won the cup, we were ready and waiting with our Stanley Cup Champions Boston Bruins shirt.

It was an instant fan favorite.

People fell in love with our Bruins bear mascot and many fans have told us that the clean, simple design featuring all the player names and Bruins black & gold color scheme make it a unique collector’s item.

Well now it’s official. With the 2011-12 season well underway and the Bruins making a strong push to repeat as Stanley Cup Champs, we’ve printed our last batch of this t-shirt. This is your last chance to own the BLA Stanley Cup Champions Boston Bruins shirt.

We’ve printed a small run of men’s and kid’s sizes and you can get them in the BLA store right now.

Once they’re gone, we won’t print this design again. But don’t worry, we’re working new stuff all the time and we will definitely have some new Bruins items available soon… so stay in touch!

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates… or sign up for email updates HERE.

 
When we made the “Wes Is More” Wes Welker shirt… we knew it was kinda corny, but the play on words couldn’t be more true.

At 5’9″ and a buck-eighty-five, Wes Welker is more “Micro Machine” than “Megatron,” but statistically, he’s actually been better than Detroit’s Calvin Johnson (6’5″ 236 lbs), who many feel is the best wide receiver in the NFL.

I beg to differ…

Wes Welker: 1143 yards (1st in NFL)
Calvin Johnson: 1023 yards (3rd)

Wes Welker: 82 receptions (1st)
Calvin Johnson: 63 receptions (4th)

Wes Welker: 107 targets (3rd)
Calvin Johnson: 109 targets (2nd)

Wes Welker: averages 6.8 yards after the catch
Calvin Johnson: averages 6.0 yards after the catch

Wes Welker: 18 catches of 20+ yards
Calvin Johnson:16 catches of 20+ yards

Wes Welker: 8 touchdowns
Calvin Johnson: 12 touchdowns

Bottom Line: Pound for pound, Wes Is More… way more.

That’s why we made the Wes Is More Wes Welker shirt.

Enjoy.

 
Come hang with me and your fellow Bruins fans on Wednesday November 30th at The Place in Boston and watch Tyler Seguin and the Bruins take on Phil Kessel and the Maple Leafs.

Our friends at Boston Sports Then & Now and Days of Y’Orr are hosting a “Viewing Party” which is a fancy way of saying “a getting drunk while trying to win free swag party.”

Comcast Sports Net New England is providing free grub and I’ll be there with Bottom Line Apparel t-shirts, including our new “The Future Is Now” Tyler Seguin shirt.

And here’s a secret… Bring your smaht phones. Just find me, Joe from BST&N or any of the guys from Days of Y’Orr and like our facebook pages with your phone. For every like you submit, you get a free raffle ticket towards some sweet Bruins swag!

The game starts at 7:00 pm, but get there early, grab some raffle tickets and some free apps and a good seat for the Seguin vs Kessel show.

RSVP on Facebook