Five shortstops Red Sox could pursue

As Nick Green and Julio Lugo team up in an attempt to break the record for most errors out of shortstop (and we thought Edgar Renteria was bad), it's time to start looking at outside options.

Green has been a great fill-in with the bat after no one expected him to even get a single at-bat on the year. On defense, however, his lead glove is starting to raise concerns. And Julio Lugo, of course, is Julio Lugo. We'll get to our internal option, Jed Lowrie, in a moment. But for now, let's focus on five shortstops the Sox could go after.

BOS 10, DET 5: Almost

Josh Beckett didn't need the early run support. He didn't allow a hit until the seventh inning.

Fireside Chats #48: Where Paul admits he was wrong and in doing so blows up the second half of the show

With me out of town on the west coast for work, Paul fills me in on the goings on with the team over the last few days; Ortiz' continued struggles, great starting pitching, and more SS errors. Of course, the remote equipment lost the second half of the show and conveniently that's where Paul uttered the words, "I was wrong". Find out about what in the final minutes of this week's abbreviated Fireside Chat

All that and more on Episode #48 of Fireside Chats on MVN!

Fenway Guide TRIVIA: End year playoffs

The Red Sox have made the playoffs in every "end year" (9 is the end year in 2009) except one. What end year have they never made the playoffs in?

Ortiz, Penny on the outs in June?

As Oakland GM Billy Beane once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "the first two months are finding out what you have, the next two getting what you need, the last two trying to make the playoffs."

Well, we've just passed the two month mark, and we're already confident there will be changes ahead. Brad Penny has been the most inefficient starting pitcher on the team and with John Smoltz aiming to return June 16 and Clay Buchholz/Michael Bowden in the wings, Penny's not long for Boston. That is, barring a surprise -- and we know how baseball is chock full of them.

Penny won't fetch an impact player on his own, but if you pair him with Buccholz or Bowden, we could be looking at our new designated hitter.

Yeah, I just said we could have a new DH.

BOS 5, DET 1: Everyone’s a winner

Daisuke Matsuzaka and Terry Francona were both in search of wins. Both, for different reasons.

Simmons on David Ortiz

I love Bill Simmons. He's one of my favorite writers on the planet. Unfortunately, he rarely talks about the Red Sox. He's a Celtics/basketball guy who writes football on the side.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to an article about David Ortiz. My favorite part of the article is after the jump.

Anderson, Bates power Sea Dogs to win

In retrospect, Portland's 6-4 victory over the Connecticut Defenders was a microcosm of the season for Aaron Bates and to an extent for Lars Anderson.

Bates cracked three singles in five at-bats and drove in two runs while Anderson was 2-for-5 (single, double) with an RBI.

And manager Arnie Beyeler continued his "mix-and-match" routine Sunday with T.J. Large and Bryce Cox who combined to make a winner out of starter Jarod Plummer (4-1).

Red Sox projected to draft Garrett Gould

Over at MVN Outsider, Fire Brand's Pat Hickey participated in a MLB mock draft.

Picking at No. 28, Hickey projected the Red Sox to select right-handed pitcher Garrett Gould out of Maize (Kansas) High School. Check the writeup here.