4/14: Hey, offense. Haven’t seen you in a while.

Dice-K, are you prepared to step up with a quality start? That’s what we’ll need at an absolute minimum to win.

Poll: Are You Worried??

So the Red Sox start hasn’t been what we all hoped for.  I think it’s fair to consider this team in a bit of an early season funk.  That said, are you worried about the start in the context of the full season?  Has the 2-5 run out of the gate caused you to reconsider your lofty expectations of this club in 2009?  Vote away!

Red Sox claim Travis Denker

The Red Sox claimed second baseman Travis Denker off waivers from the San Diego Padres; the Padres nabbed him from the San Francisco Giants last year.

Denker, 23, has a .243/.333/.486 line in 37 at-bats with the Padres this year. It was his major league debut, and TSN.ca says he is “a true gamer with some pop in his bat, decent speed and pretty good plate discipline. Has solid gap power.”

His flaws are that he “needs to improve with the glove if he has any chance of becoming an everyday player.”

He is a career .276/.375/.455 minor league hitter. I would expect him to replace Gil Velazquez as the backup infielder.

Beckett suspended 6 games

How is it possible for a pitcher to be suspended when he wasn’t thrown out? When the umpires feel the pitch wasn’t intentional?

Josh Beckett, as reported on SportsCenter, has been suspended for six games for “throwing” at Bobby Abreu. As I mentioned here, how could it possibly be intentional?

This will definitely be appealed, so Beckett won’t miss his next start. I wouldn’t be surprised if the appeal was downgraded to less than five games, which means he misses no games.

OAK 8, BOS 2: Lester roughed up

Jon Lester would certainly trade his start to the 2009 season with Kevin Youkilis. Reason being, they have been polar opposites of what was expected of them coming into this season.