Yeah, not really sure what the plan for Gomes was. His pluses are that he kills lefties and he's a good clubhouse guy. Oh well, it's probably a good thing he's here to DH while Papi's on the shelf.
My impression is that Nava is pretty safe. Farrell has talked about how he might be a good #2 hitter against RH pitching. He also singled him out for praise for his right-handed at-bat against Cliff Lee when he fouled some 2-strike pitches off and got a sac fly.
Of course I'm a Nava fan myself.
Obviously there's still a very good chance Bradley will get sent down later. But by having him on the opening day roster they are opening the possibility that they won't send him down at all. If the primary concern was preserving a year, they would have done it right now.
But if by some miracle the Sox are leading the division and Bradley is playing great, they can't do it yet. In that scenario the fans are excited and happy, ticket sales are rebounding and for all reasons it's stupid to send him down.
On the Red Sox website right now one of the headlines is 'Red Sox send Bard to Double A to find consistency'. Now that is some Pollyanna coverage. Many fans are thinking 'to salvage career', or 'to try to stop sucking'.
Manny had a bad night in left in Game 1 of the 2004 Series. Errors on back to back to plays in the 8th that led to 2 runs that tied the game. On one of them he did a tumble out there.