Dojji

Makes Lowrie's return timely. He might need to hold down 2B until September. Certainly I trust Jed to do that more than I'd have trusted Eric freaking Patterson. Between Lowrie and Hall we should be able to piece together a 2B platoon and make it work out.

Big, big hit last night. Glad to see him in, glad to see him producing in the clutch again. It's like 2009 never happened.

Third base? The second year of Beltre's deal is based on a player option. NWIH he sticks around. He's a Boras client, he WILL test the waters of FA. So unless you're pencilling in Jed Lowrie as next year's starting 3B, we have an issue here. EDIT: Oh I see, you meant short-term, my bad.

I wonder what the Twins are asking for Rauch. He can't be in their long-term plans.

Don't give up on WML. Cynicism for its own sake is lame. Sometimes these things do work out better than expected, so hold out a little hope. But as to trade value, yeah, RWML isn't likely to have a lot of it until he demonstrates he's ready to play fulltime.

Tampa radio guys are very emotional. The PBP guy sounds like he's about to cry.

And there it is. Tampa Bay's first no-no.

Garza one out away.

Bard, Ramram, MDC are the guys who need to stay. Everyone else can go. Oki was a great signing, worked out far better than it should have, but every good thing comes to an end.

I don't think that the run for the playoffs should take precedence over positioning for the future at this point. You need to take a multiyear view -- any one year can be sacrificed to put you in better position for the next several, and that's where we need to be right now.

We're gong to have some serious holes in this team at the end of this year. How much of our future should we be sacrificing to win now when we're not in line for a playoff berth and we have major positions to fill in the offseason? (3B, C, and possibly LF, RF and/or DH.)

The Sox should sell on Beltre, and on Ortiz if he doesn't drop his multiyear deal demand. It's time to reposition for the new decade, and these are old-decade players. I'd say the same about Lowell, V-Mart and Tek if they were at all tradable (V-mart's injury obviously destroys his value). I think there should be a way to deal some of our older talent without officially tanking the season. Who knows, it wouldn't be the first time a "youth injection" has salvaged an endangered season And we're going to need to radically retool next year no matter what we do, soo if our chances to make the playoffs officially become "slim" it's time to get what you can. The only position we can't replace at least somewhat is 3B, and that's assuming Lowrie can't play there.

Welcome to Pawtucket, Daniel. Still disgusts me that we kept the schlub Hermida over him. One of the advantages of a big market is supposed to be the ability to eat our mistakes. Play the better guy, Theo.

He wasn't going out there with 117 pitches on his arm. you can like it or hate it but the league isn't run that way anymore.

Thank you. You already said it's a large. I was wondering if it was a named jersey or not.

What/who's on the jersey? (not that interested since it's not in my size, I don't think they make 4X Bruins jerseys anyway just curious)

And you really think Boras will let us extend him? Beltre's gone. The way his contract is structured this is virtually a 1 year deal and then he'll go get a big deal somewhere else, especially with how poor the market has been at third base in the last several years. Taking a salary dump on a competent but overpaid 3B may be our best possible way to fill 3B with a capable player. Besides, that way we get two picks.

We'd have a better crack at Michael Young to replace Beltre at third

Callaspo isn't capable of playing SS or 2B unless you're willing to put up with poor infield D. He's strictly a 3B in terms of what you want him doing on a daily basis.

Pretty much. That and he's a platoon hitter while Nava switch hits. There's no comparison here. Nava is the better player. His OBP alone is 100 points better. heck, Mark Kotsay hit better than that. We're about 5 games back for the wild card heading into August with 2 very good teams to catch.. Every little gain could make a difference at this point and every drag on the roster hurts disproportionately. we DO NOT have the luxury to wait and see if Hermida will improve. Get. Rid. Of. Him.

http://news.soxprospects.com/2010/07/hermida-activated-nava-optioned-to.html Called it. Absolute idiocy to send Nava down in order to keep a guy who didn't step up when the team needed him and whose season line is as dominant as .214/.268/.384 could possibly be. Really, really sick of Theo sticking the worst guy in MLB and the better guy in AAA just to self-validate his decision to sign someone. Show a bit of honest humility and mental flexibility and PLAY THE BETTER GUY, especially when we already have a ton of ground to make up.

I disagree with you. Nava has shown strong offensive ability and he's obviously still adjusting to big league ball. Prejudging his ceiling is a mistake that a lot of people have made already and he's gone through the minors proving them all wrong. Any guy who can get the bat on the ball and deliver the kind of quality contact Nava has provided so far could start for a team. He wouldn't be Plan A in Boston, especially not at first, but if he gets another long chance next year and does the same thing only with more power -- well, let's just say I can see a couple scenarios where Nava could Youkilis his way into a starting role no one originally planned on him earning. I see him very much like a baseball version of Tim Thomas -- talented but unorthodox and somewhat offputting and waiting for a chance to prove everyone who ever underestimated him wrong. All that remains to be seen is if he has the talent to make it happen, and for right now the signs are pretty good. So instead of clapping an arbitrary limit on a guy who's made a career of defying type I'd rather just enjoy the show. Because I think it'll be enjoyable.