The title of this piece is going to make a lot of Red Sox fans upset.  As a passionate Sox fan myself, it isn’t exactly fun to write.  The subject is being debated everywhere but the conclusion is often wrong.  Much as we may not like it starting Jackie Bradley Jr. in Pawtucket would have been the right thing to do.

If he was sent down, it wasn’t going to be a permanent banishment to Pawtucket; he would have missed 9 games out of 162. He would miss a measly 5.5% of the 2013 season in exchange for his team control for 100% of the 2019 season.  Even as tight of division race as everyone is predicting the AL East to be this year, what’s the impact of one hitter out of nine in the lineup over a sample size of nine games?  That’s the question that, if quantifiable, answers the debate of what to do with Bradley.  As a GM, Ben Cherington should be making the best BASEBALL decisions, not the best political decisions for these Sox.  Stick around after the jump, and you’ll see just how little impact the Sox lose without Bradley for 9 games.

Jackie Bradley the Paw Sock, or Jackie Bradley the Red Sox? Which has a better ring to it?

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Are Beckett and Gonzalez on their way out of Boston?

In what has been a busy day for Red Sox fans, we’ve discovered that not one, but two very highly paid players on the Red Sox, a very cap stricken team the past year or two (Thank you Theo Epstein, for making sure your impact on this team would be felt for years), have been claimed on waivers by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  What does this mean?

It could mean a couple things—it could mean that the Dodgers actually WANT both Gonzalez and Beckett, and new ownership has shown a willingness to spend, adding Shane Victorino, Hanley Ramirez, and Joe Blanton in the past few weeks.  If that’s the case, they could be trying to set themselves up with a “we’ll send take Josh Beckett off your hands if you give us Adrian Gonzalez” type of deal, which Ben Cherington should promptly walk away from.  They could also be trying to acquire both of them via trade, although from the looks of their farm system, it wouldn’t be deep enough to make an offer similar to what the Sox gave for Gonzalez.  It’s hard to see the Red Sox give up on the former All-Star so quickly, unless Cherington is really determined to put his own mark on this team.

An interesting fact about the waiver claim system is that players can be basically “given away”, meaning a team gives up that player (and his contract) for nothing, just like Alex Rios was given to the Chicago White Sox a couple years ago.  This, to me,  is the most logical course of action for Josh Beckett, who really seems to need a fresh start, and the Red Sox, who need the financial relief and a fresh start of their own next year.

No matter the result, the next 48 hours should be very interesting, as trade chatter involving A-Gon, Beckett, and even Carl Crawford could persist.  We’ll be sure to monitor the situation closely and keep you as up to date as we can on this developing story.

Whatever was talked about in this picture clearly hasn’t been working so far for Beckett this season

The 2012 season has not lived up to anyone’s expectations, and in the eternal search for a scapegoat, it appears the first hat has fallen on pitching coach Bob McClure, who was relieved of his duties this afternoon.

The move comes at a time when the Red Sox stand 7.5 games out of the wild card and 4 games under .500 for the season, and their pitching staff is one of the main reasons why.  The team’s ERA stands at 4.30, good for 7^th worst in the majors this season.  While the team has put 26 players on the disabled list this year, including starters John Lackey, Aaron Cook, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, and now most recently Felix Doubront, as well as proposed closer Andrew Bailey, that shouldn’t be used as an excuse for their struggles.

Daniel Bard moved to the rotation this spring, pitching to an uninspiring 5.24 ERA that lead to his demotion to Triple-A and return to the bullpen.  Jon Lester, a rotation mainstay the past few years, currently has an ERA north of 5 as well, as does Beckett.  The other two members of the rotation for most of the season, Cook and Doubront, have ERAs of 4.58 and 4.70, respectively.

While ERA isn’t a perfect stat or indication of how a player’s performing, it’s safe to say that these sort of numbers are a far cry from the norm that we’d expect, especially from Lester of Beckett.  Combined, they have a 12-23 record, and that simply is a sign that something needed to change, and after a reasonably successful  year under Curt Young, the Red Sox will be moving on to their third pitching coach in the two seasons that have passed since fan favorite (and potential managerial candidate?) John Farrell took the Toronto Blue Jays managerial position.

The Sox seem to be getting a head start on what will likely become another tumultuous offseason for the team, as other coaching and player changes should be coming.

Randy Niemann, the assistant pitching coach, will act as the interim pitching coach for the rest of the season, as Boston tries to right the ship and salvage what’s left of this year.

Should the Sox shut Crawford down now, or let him play through his injuries?

For the record, this article’s purpose actually has nothing to do with his performance, although it definitely didn’t help matters.  Carl Crawford likely needs Tommy John surgery, which would effectively end his season, and potentially cause him to miss the start of the season—if he was having the surgery done tomorrow.

Instead, he finds himself plugged into the lineup 4 out of every 5 games on a Red Sox team that just finds new ways to lose, such as last night’s heartbreaker, where closer Alfredo Aceves, working in his second inning of work, tossed a meatball to Joe Mauer that promptly found its way into the Monster seats, mere minutes after Pedro Ciriaco took his first major league curtain call following what was then a go-ahead home run.

Read on to see why I feel the time for surgery is now, not later for Crawford.

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