Red Sox trade Kotsay for Anderson

The Red Sox have traded first-baseman/outfielder Mark Kotsay to the Chicago White Sox for centerfielder Brian Anderson.

Anderson has roughly 2.5 years of MLB service, so is under Sox (the red kind this time) control through 2013, if my shady calculations are correct.

Anderson, 27, has 782 career at-bats in the bigs posting a poor .225/.288/.364 line. In Triple-A, he is at .279/.311/.488. He is a gifted defensive centerfielder, but has long struggled with the bat. Earlier, he requested the White Sox trade him so he could get more playing time. That’s not happening in Boston. It’s unclear the plans the Sox have for Anderson. If I was a guessing man, he’s the new starting centerfielder for the PawSox.

Red Sox waive Kotsay

Instead of disabling Mark Kotsay with his calf issues, the Sox have opted to waive him and his .257/.291/.324 line on the year. He just never could get in the groove. This opens up a 25-man spot for Adam LaRoche (and a 40-man spot for Chris Duncan).

This leaves Rocco Baldelli as the team’s only backup outfielder, but if needed, Kevin Youkilis could play left field — he has 134 innings of experience there. Tito also isn’t afraid to send him to right, with 8.2 innings experience there.

Bates promotion tells a lot about Sox’s concern for O

With the recent callup of first baseman Aaron Bates to the club, it’s clear that the Sox are concerned about their offensive viability.

With the All-Star break around the corner, the club could have opted to keep Jeff Bailey on the roster despite his high-ankle strain and go a couple days against a left-handed starter with Julio Lugo at short or Mark Kotsay at first (despite the latter’s left-handed bat).

Instead, the club chose to promote a 25-year old struggling in Triple-A. Bates’ numbers so far on the year are .182/.273/.295 with only 24 games at the level. And yet, the Sox brought him up to get his right-handed bat in the lineup against lefty pitchers.

Bailey likely to hit disabled list

Yesterday, first baseman Jeff Bailey suffered a high-ankle strain trying to make a play on Brad Penny’s acrobatic flip to first base Saturday. He’s likely to hit the disabled list, a loss given that the Sox are about to face two left-handed pitchers.

How can the Red Sox replace Bailey against left-handed starters?

BOS 1, ATL 0: All-Star Lock

Six innings. No runs. Three hits. Sounds like an All-Star caliber start from All-Star worthy pitcher.
That pitcher – Tim Wakefield.

Jones, Lopez return to Triple-A for second shot

Call it a second chance.

Call it a shot at redemption.

Call it whatever you want but for Javier Lopez and Hunter Jones, their return to Pawtucket shows that the Boston Red Sox haven’t given up completely on the two left-handers.

But they might have been justified in doing so with Lopez.

Chip Ambres welcomed back to PawSox

Outfielder Chip Ambres could be classified as one of the “good guys” who’ve played for the Pawtucket Red Sox this decade.

Ambres, who’s In his second stint with the PawSox, had done nothing but bring a smile to the face of Ron Johnson, who was in his rookie season as the team’s manager in 2005 when the native Texan joined the organization.

Know Thyself 2009: Boston Red Sox

The 2009 Boston Red Sox are in the final stages of preparing for what is certain to be an entertaining and exciting season. The spring is finally behind us, the roster is set and the team is moving northward to christen Citi Field with some Major League talent.

Now all the roster moves are behind us and the questions move from the “who” of the offseason as they shift to the analysis of performance and the “what” of baseball. This past week has been spent looking at the competition in the American League East, and stiff competition it is. In most cases, the Red Sox had the position by position edge over each team from the Yankees to the Orioles and it should come as no surprise, in that light, that the staff here at Fire Brand gives the Red Sox the edge to win the AL East in 2009.

Today we summarize much of what we’ve talked about in our “For Better or Worse” series this offseason as we go player by player through the Red Sox roster and prepare for live baseball next week.

Defensive Misplays and the Sox that excel at them

Defensive Runs show how good a player is at preventing runs. But there’s more than that that goes into fielding. What about mistake-free plays?

You would think that preventing runs and mistake-free plays go hand in hand, but not quite.

In the Fielding Bible Vol. II in which I received today, Bill James has unveiled publicly what I feel is a revolutionary statistic: Defensive Misplays.

is it any accident they’re aggressive about playing Ellsbury, acquired Kotsay, resigned Lowell and brought Bay in?

Kotsay out until May

The Boston Red Sox revealed today that Mark Kotsay underwent surgery Jan. 29th to remove a displaced disc fragment (H/T Extra Bases). This makes the Brad Wilkerson signing yesterday (minor league deal) make more sense. Wilkerson is likely ahead of Jeff Bailey, Chris Carter and Jon Van Every for a bench spot.