Sox to get both Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee?

Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse tweets that the Red Sox have told people they are trying to pull off a big deal, bigger than Roy Halladay.
Price goes on to speculate it may be a Cliff Lee/Victor Martinez package, as reported earlier by Joel Sherman.
The Sox also have been keeping tabs on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm team. It could be related to this big trade, or the Dodgers might be interested in acquiring a bullpen arm, most likely bringing Takashi Saito back.

7/26: Every Beckett start feels like a must win

With Beckett pitching as well as he has been, the Red Sox have to come out of his outings with a W.

Trade watch: Theo ‘burning midnight oil’

All the recent trade rumors around the Sox have your head spinning? No worries. Evan summarizes everything you need to know leading up to the trade deadline and handicaps the Sox’s chances.

The Red Sox promote Junichi Tazawa.

From Double A to Triple A he goes. And his performance warrants the move.

In 98 innings at Double A, Tazawa has 88 K’s and only 26 walks, which is nearly a 4:1 ratio. Very good.

What should be done with John Smoltz?

The options the Red Sox have are:

A) Simply wait it out and hope that Smoltz will regain command of all his pitches. This is definitely an option, as he hasn’t exactly pitched a half season or anything. But the Red Sox cannot afford to just give away games right now, not in the heat of a pennant race. And not while they are competing with teams such as the Yankees and Rays–both very good, if not great teams.

B) They could trade Smoltz, but they would be selling low and receiving very little most likely. But this would allow Wakefield to slot back in the rotation. Dice-K (maybe) and Michael Bowden would be the insurance in case Wake gets hurt again, or if Buchholz is ineffective. Even with the absence of Smoltz, there would be plenty of depth there, just not quite as much.

BAL 6, BOS 2: Smoltz rocked

The John Smoltz experiment is failing, miserably.