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And who would you deal for a player like Aaron Rowand? Michael Bowden? I don't think so. I don't buy any of it. I don't think that Ellsbury is just going to suddenly lose the ability to hit the ball if he has a few bad games. I don't think he is suddenly going to stop being able to get on base at a decent rate or swing at bad pitches out of the zone. He is not just an average athelete. As soon as he is on the Red Sox he will be the best athelete on the big league club. While you treat prospects lightly you don't treat all prospects lightly if they have shown the ability. I understand why people are hesitant about it, but I also think that the Fenway faithful tend to have more sympathy for rookies and home grown talent than overpaid underachievers. If he comes through a few times down a stretch run then we're talking about having a minor Fenway cult. I could give you a list of other players who were more than productive at 23, but I would be accused of cherry picking. If Ellsbury played on any number of other teams he would already be in the bigs, the sox need him and own him, so he should come up by the end of the season and the sox should NOT sell the farm to get some mediocre CF who will not entrench himself with Sox fans.

I'm not feeling this comment. Very hard to prove. How do you measure that? I mean, I watch the games too and wouldn't say he has had "great" pitches to hit.

The average is totally unimportant. Its the OBP that matters when talking about a leadoff guy and he had 1 AB between 04 and 06, and 5 in 03. I didn't look back farther than that. I'm not willing to draw ANY conclusions on 6 ABs. While I don't necessarily like this move I'm not going so far as to say Drew is some black hole at the top of the lineup (or anywhere in the lineup). He is cold, but that's baseball. He will hit better. I don't see a need for drastic changes to the lineup unless the Sox think they could be perminant or very long term. I don't see JD Drew as a long term option at leadoff so it kind of feels like Francona has some ADD in terms of his lineup and can't help but make changes.

I just don't think that can be shown to be true. Every season there are some rookies who come up and are absolutely on fire and then regress to the mean, and others who under perform and eventually ascend to the mean. Is there any reason to think players are predetermined to have one reaction or the other? No; it is a strange statistical clumping. I agree that there will be some form of an adjustment period, but it is still a game and the pitcher still has to put the ball over the plate and Jacoby has to try to hit it. I think there is way more to it than assuming he will have a negative adjustment period because you can think of other players who have. Even Pedroia last year had a lot of hard hit balls and good at bats, they just didn't fall early and it killed his stats.

And the Sox should win 2/3 against them. Remember, those of you who are talking about the Sox winning percentage vs the Yankees winning percentage from here on out, even if the sox do slightly better than .500 and the Yankees do slightly worse than .585 or whatever it will still be a pennant race. We would be taking about winning the division by just a game or two. I would prefer to not get into a position where we are counting individual games, but, alas, I predict that is where we will be.

Honestly, that's not always a good thing.

How poorly did he start in AAA? His first full month there he scored 20 runs in 23 games, hitting .293 with a .369 OBP, stealing 11 bases and getting caught 2 times. You can't call the first two weeks of a month a "horrible" start. I just don't think your argument that he started out so shittily in AAA that he couldn't possibly produce at the MLB level holds water.

So a kid has a poor first 30 ABs in AAA, essentially hits a cold streak over 6 games, and you say he adjusted poorly? I see a kid who is hitting .297 with a .379 OBP in 34 games. Looks fine to me. He's getting a SB every other game (17 in 34) and is scoring nearly a run a game this season throughout the minors. It may be harder to guage hitters tools, but you can't question his speed or fielding. Since that's all that Crisp offers, and Ellsbury is currently a better hitter than Crisp I just don't buy that you should never bring him up in a situation like this. He's not 18, he's 23.

I just don't believe that there is some hard-and-fast rule about how to deal with minor leaguers. This guy's tools have been consistent across the board. He isn't a power guy, he's got ++ speed and ++ defense, with a high OBP but not an amazing OBP (.375 is reasonable). We are ostensibly talking about using him to replace Crisp's production (.281 OBP) or Lugo's production (.273 OBP). People say that Cora could do better, and I agree. But why replace the leadoff hitter with Cora lower in the lineup when you have a stereotypical leadoff hitter who is going to be the future of the franchise in the wings? Why have him score nearly a run per game in AAA when he could do the same in MLB. He's obviously not a flash in the pan, as is evidenced by his quick movement through the system. Hell, we need a CF and a leadoff hitter. Instead of dealing a promising minor leaguer for a mediocre replacement option go with what you're going to go with next year anyway.

His name is Jacoby Ellsbury and he plays for Pawtucket. I don't care what other people say, bring the kid up for a 2nd half run. He gives the Sox the leadoff hitter they need to put everyone in a more appropriate position in the lineup: Ellsbury Pedroia Ortiz Manny Drew Youkilis Lowell Varitek Lugo There is no real solution at SS, but if he's batting 9th then you mitigate his suckiness a little bit, allow him to run more, etc., and take him out of the top of the order. Ellsbury's speed alone will produce some interesting results (he could be a 50-60+ stolen base guy) and will keep CF well-defended. So there's my solution. I would likely also try to bring up Buchholz too, but few people agree with that approach. I think there is a lot to be gained by these young guys being able to be the lowest rungs on the ladder on this team, so to speak. Getting to play on a team with the likes of Schilling, Manny, Ortiz, Varitek, etc., could help that core nucleus of the next few years to gel. The team of the future is undoubtedly going to be comprised of names like Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Papelbon and Buchholz, so like a700 argues, we should make a run while we have THIS group that includes Manny and Lowell and Varitek and Schilling. I think the experienced gained would outweigh any potential temporary loss in performance.

A-Freaking-men. Thank you yeszir for dealing with this mess.

f***ing double. f***ing Quintin. 2-1 is not going to be the final score of this game, but we gotta get out of this inning ASAP. Dice-K has pitched well, but he has still given up too many walks. He appears willing to error more on the side of putting runners on and making HIS pitch rather than just making good overall pitches and letting guys beat him with their bat. You just can't give up this many baserunners and hope to have an ERA in the 3s. If he stopped walking dudes he'd be in great shape. 4 hits today.

People need to get over this "JD Drew Sucks" mentality. He obviously doesn't suck. Anyone who watched him over the past few weeks saw, admittedly, a few pretty bad hacks at the plate. They also saw a number of line-drive outs and some hard hit ground balls. He simply isn't as bad as his numbers have shown thus far, and his last few games look like his first month did.

Hey Gom, "I made a good pitch down and away and he just got it. What can you say? Vlad Gurrerro is one of the best hitters in the game and he got the best of me on that one." How many homeruns have you watched a hitter like A-Rod or Manny hit to the opposite field on a pitch that, to most hitters, would be good? QUite a few on my end.

I watch the scouting videos for the Sox guys because I know there is a chance they will one day play for my favorite team. I don't feel I have the patience to watch the mid to late round picks for the team I despise most. At least, not right now.

I don't know who is lucky enough to have the Arizona feed for this game, but I am very impressed with it. In all seriousness. Matt Williams is doing color commentary, and they have a mic on the DBacks' hitting coach and he's been breaking down Beckett. They are giving tons of respect to the Sox and talk a whole lot about little interesting things. I don't watch the Diamondbacks very often and don't think I've ever sat down and watch an entire D-backs game, but I'm impressed. EDIT: picked up Drew in my fantasy league last night, too bad I didn't start him thinking Tito would play Pena against the lefty! D'oh for me, woo hoo! for Francona!

Impressive indeed jacksonianmarch. I would love to reply to your post with something equally thoughtful but I am simply incapable of it at this point. I need to digest who got what for a bit first. Very nice though.

I love the impact baseball article about The Mailman (love the nickname too!) "One of the things I love about The Mailman is when he steps up to the plate, it strikes fear in opposing coaches and players. The guy is unbelievable. You just think something good is going to happen every time he steps up to the plate. He is a huge offensive threat to opposing teams." Not a neutral assessment by any stretch. This guy sounds dangerous.