Well, Pedroia is definitely in Boston for a while barring a trade. I'm far from sold on Ellsbury, I was just using him as an example. Between his injuries, his not so wonderful relationship with the FO, and most of all, the fact that Boros is his agent and I think he may end up too costly to take that kind of risk.
Upton (Justin, not BJ) would be ideal. But I'd also be open to others.

As NastyNate pointed out above, talent comes available. The Sox need to do a better job of evaluating the guys they choose to target.

Plus Boggs was considered slow. He ran like a cement block, got on base all the timer, and darn it all, it's all Wade's fault that big Jim Ed grounds into all those DP's.
And I know it sounds uber insane now, but the above was actually a pretty prominently held school of thought in the mid 80's.

Now in fairness, it should be mentioned that Boggs always complained that the main reason he wasn't a power hitter was that the Sox (rightly) batted him leadoff. For years he said, "Hit me deeper in the order and I can hit the Poo-bah." As he, like Ichiro always had great BP power, he was kinda, sorta, maybe a little bit, believed.

But before 87 he got into a bad contract dispute, and somehow convinced the Sox to hit him 3rd that year. Boggs responded with the best year of his life, hit .363 with 40 doubles and 24 HR's.

So the Sox in their infinite wisdom moved him back to leadoff the next year.

Boggs' power surge and return to earth had nothing to do with batting order position. They moved him in response to his power, his power did not respond to batting order changes.

In 1988, he started the year as a #3 hitter, as if the team believed his power was for real. Through the first 48 games he had 1 homer and a .480 OBP. They moved him back to leadoff.

He didn't always hit leadoff before that either. In 1986 he was the #2 hitter until moving to leadoff in August. In 1985 he was leadoff the first half, #2 the second half. In 1984 he hit #3 for the first month of the season, and not a single homer. He ended the year batting leadoff. In 1983 he was the leadoff man in April, then spent 2 months batting 5th, of all places. He finished as the #2 hitter.

If all he needed to be a power hitter was to be free of the responsibilities of leadoff man, he had ample time to do that early in his career. He didn't. The reason he hit 24 in 1987 was simply that it was 1987. It was a crazy year. Jack Howell hit 23. John Shelby hit 22. Even Rafael Belliard hit one. It was a fluke year. Simple as that.

Oh I know-all of which worked against Wade. The one year he gets a chance to hit 3rd and Boom, everyone in the league goes nuts.

I don't think that 1987 worked against Boggs. Without the juiced ball he doesn't hit 24 home runs, just his usual 363/461/490.

His problem was still the fact that on base skills weren't valued as highly as they should have been.

EDIT: Sorta Coke to AROM. Just FWIW, this is home runs/game, 1985-1989:



You can't prove it, but it was widely assumed at the time that they'd juiced the ball, then overcorrected in '88.

As a kid, I remember when Boston came to town it was "Wade Boggs and the Red Sox", which meant he was a star. And that was when Mike Greenwell was putting up his MVP-esque season.

Of course, I also thought it was "Joe Carter and the Indians."

"Is 29 old now?"

It's not young, especially for a 2B.

the tougher AL East pitching hurts him as well.

Huh? He leaves the Giants; Kershaw/Dodgers; San Diego; and Colorado (okay, they are bad), for what tough AL East pitching? Not the Yankees; not the Red Sox; not the Blue Jays; not the Orioles. The Rays, I admit, do pitch well. I would be the 1st to admit the AL East is very good, but not because of its pitching.

Yeah, Boggs was a big deal. He wasn't a "slugger," but then Nomar wasn't either. So I don't know what Simmons is thinking.

Nomar has twice as many home runs and an extra 80 points on his slugging average as a SS instead of a 3B. He's 8th all time in HR's at SS. He most certainly is a 'slugger'.