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About Alex Speier

Before he joined WEEI.com, Alex covered the Boston Red Sox for several New England and national publications, including the New Hampshire Union Leader, Boston Metro, Boston Herald and Baseball America. Alex graduated from Harvard, where he served as the captain of the debate team, an experience that has been of surprisingly little use in pressboxes across the country.

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MOST RECENT COLUMNS
The Pitch: The Case Jason Bay's Agent Is Making To MLB Teams
11/13/09 09:11 EST
Jason Bay’s agent did not attend the GM Meetings in Chicago this week. No need. Joe Urbon, who is the free-agent outfielder’s representative with CAA, had already had enough constructive conversations with major-league clubs about their interest in his client, and about Bay’s potential value to them, that a trip to the Windy City was unnecessary. “We had enough productive traction with the multiple clubs that we assumed would be interested, and a few other additional clubs, even prior to the start of the meetings, that it made the most sense for efficiency’s sake and distraction’s sake to manage the process from our office here in [Los Angeles],” said Urbon. “It was pretty clear that there was a very specific but also general theme that we talked about, that was well-received by the clubs we talked to, at an early point in the process.” Urbon’s message about Bay has been straightforward. He tried not merely to establish his
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Why Adrian Gonzalez May Remain Off Limits to Sox
11/09/09 02:52 EST
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The line of thinking seemed natural. Padres All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez represents everything that could be on the Red Sox’ wish list. He is a slugger who can mash (40 homers in 2009) and control the strike zone (119 walks). He has produced middle-of-the-order numbers in OBP, slugging and homers while playing half his games in one of the worst offensive environments in baseball. “He was kind of overshadowed by the ballpark. He’d be a superstar in a lot of other cities,” former teammate Scott Hairston said this summer. “I think he’d be an MVP candidate if he were in a different park.” That claim might ring particularly true in Boston. Gonzalez has a great opposite-field stroke — evidenced once in a Caribbean Series game in which he stroked three homers to left field — that would suggest an ability to post huge numbers in Fenway Park. Gonzalez also is a well-rounded player who is an above-average defender at
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For the Sox, Hermida a Lottery Ticket Worth Playing
11/06/09 02:41 EST
To the Marlins, Jeremy Hermida’s 2009 disappointment rendered the outfielder an unaffordable luxury. To the Red Sox, Jeremy Hermida’s not-so-distant past meant that the outfielder represented an affordable lottery ticket with at least a chance to offer a tidy jackpot. The 11th overall pick of the 2002 draft had stardom written all over his amateur and minor league careers. He showed an advanced approach at the plate, a precocious ability to control the strike zone and the potential for significant power. Then, in 2007, he showed every indication that he could translate all of those traits to the major league level. As a 23-year-old, he won an everyday job with the Marlins by hitting .296 with a .369 OBP, .501 slugging mark, .870 OPS and 18 homers after a mid-May call-up. To put those numbers in context, one need only look at the superstar-laden list of the 11 outfielders this decade with an OBP of at least .350 and an OPS of .800 or better by the time they turned 23
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Ranking the Champions: Who Was the Best World Series Winner of the Decade?
11/05/09 05:17 EST
Thus ends baseball’s first decade of the 21st century. It was a decade that featured several great teams, but few great World Series. The Yankees hoisted the first and final championship trophies of the period from 2000-09. For most, they established themselves as the “team of the decade” thanks to two championships, two additional pennants, and nine playoff appearances in the 10-year stretch. Both of the Yankees’ triumphs featured little more than the glimmer of drama. That was true for most of the World Series in the decade. There were some great storylines that impacted not just a year but generations, most notably the titles for the 2004 Red Sox and the 2005 championship for the White Sox. But aside from a mesmerizing Fall Classic in 2001 when the Diamondbacks beat New York and, arguably, the Marlins’ shocking upset over the Yankees in 2003, few World Series were long enough and dramatic enough to stand out as truly great. Nonetheless, that
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