Palodios

Iglesias was activated from the DL on June 26th. Currently, the middle infield consists of Aviles, Gomez, and Punto. Iggy's bat is not going to suddenly get better in the minors. He's going to be a poor offensive player in the future. But is it that much worse than Aviles/Gomez/Punto that we have to see bad defense from the middle infield too?

Honestly, who cares at this point? As long as Ellsbury's rehab is progressing, that's what matters.

No Ross, no Salty. Ugh. When Ellsbury, Middlebrooks, Pedroia, Crawford and Sweeney are all on the DL, this team cannot afford to give up games to give guys a rest.

The very first thing I would explore is to see if a Manny/ Bay type trade, using Josh Beckett is at all possible. Beckett is under contract for a few years, so maybe with a few mid level prospects, they can pull in a end-of-contract guy like Hamels or Greinke with a three team trade. Then, try to see if Ellsbury can land the team an ace. If not, get some elite pitching prospects or a #3 type pitcher to replace Beckett's spot, and sell sell sell. Beckett/Ortiz have been absolute malcontents this year. Sell high. Shop Ellsbury for elite pitching talent, and see what turns up-- if nothing, it may make sense to wait till the offseason. Besides those, they need to hold onto their core, and trade the excess baggage. Guys like Ross/Sweeney/Shoppach/Salty/Albers who have high value for desperate teams but aren't necessarily going to be allstar caliber players and/or see their contracts end soon. I'd be very much in favor of selling high on Saltalamacchia. You could potentially trade all the guys above and leave yourself with a top 5 farm system, and the following core pieces in 2013, and a ton of money to spare: Kalish Pedroia Agon Middlebrooks Lavarnway Aviles Crawford Nava Lester Buchholz Doubront Bailey Aceves Bard Melancon Miller

Yeah. He hasn't done so hot in the majors so far.

I got a free ticket from work for this one. Still a lot of Talksox members heading to this series? Bring on the mojo.

Ortiz will probably retire with 150+ more home runs....

Tough loss, but it was the hardest matchup they'll face for a few weeks and they didn't lose any ground in the AL East. Seattle and Oakland will be cakewalks now that this one is done with.

Seven shutout innings from Morales!!!!!

.174 average, .278 slug. Morales, you've got this.

If they pinch hit Punto, Punto would have made that defensive play there

How hilarious would it have been to see Olivio smack Felix with that bat accidentally?

It looked like the Mariners didn't have enough fans, so they took a video of a college team.

I hate to say it, but they probably should have pinch-run for Gonzalez.

Just a one-run homer. That's all it is going to take tonight.

I know, but replacement players are a bit of a big deal for the Red Sox this year.

In all fairness, do you think Beckett or Buccholz could be doing better than Morales tonight?

Looks like Morales showed up today.

Hornets crushed this draft.

In a perfect world, Middlebrooks is the RHH between Ortiz and Agon. Valentine probably wants to keep the pressure off WMB-- replacing Youkilis is not going to be an easy task, so perhaps he's trying to give him the role gradually.

Having Middlebrooks and Ross in the lineup every night has done wonders for the numbers of the RHH the last week or so. There will be far more pitches for him to hit.

What a great lineup tonight. If Kalish and Aviles are the 8th and 9th hitters, this team will do considerable damage.