6/12 Online Seats Game Thread: Can Boston Bomb Blanton Too?

A day after the Boston Red Sox took the Phillies out to the yard to play yesterday. Today, Daisuke Matsuzaka will do his part against Joe Blanton, who has been struggling since his return.

6/11 Online Seats Game Thread: The Best of the NL

Sometimes interleague play brings you the Pittsburgh Pirates. Other times, it brings you the Philadelphia Phillies. Let's hope the Boston Red Sox can maintain their swagger as they take on one of the best squads in the NL.

Looking for Signals that the Draftees Will Sign

In a chat on BaseballAmerica.com, Jim Callis thinks “…the Red Sox have drafted the most highly regarded talent. To have the best draft, they'll have to sign a lot of those guys. No reason they won't, though, that's their approach.” Callis is dead on; a successful 2010 amateur draft will be if Yawkey Way signs most of the amateurs mentioned below.

6/10 Online Seats Game Thread: The Hangover, Masterson Edition

Justin Masterson routing Clay Buchholz to embarrass his former team was a forgone conclusion? Say whaaaaaa? After a stunningly, shockingly, horrifyingly inane loss last night, the Boston Red Sox will scrape up their shattered dignity and finish an otherwise strong series in Cleveland. And what better man to slam the door than Jon Lester? Certainly not Boof Bonser... that's for sure.

Bullpen positives and negatives

Look on the bright side. When it comes to the Sox best relief pitchers, all are home grown.

Yet, outside of Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard and Manny Delcarmen there has not been a lot to like about the Sox bullpen this year. You probably had the feeling, as I did, heading into the season that the relief corps would be somewhat of a problem when the big decision heading out of Fort Myers was whether to carry Scott Schoeneweis or Scott Atchison.

Into the second week of June, the Sox bullpen has an ERA of 4.24. Compare that to the strong relief that a team like the Padres are getting (2.70 ERA) or or the Rays (3.23) and you see just how far off the pace Boston has fallen in an area that presumably was a strength coming into the season and was a relative strength last year (3.80 ERA).

6/9 Online Seats Game Thread: The Masters Take On Masterson

Having taken the last two at Cleveland, the Boston Red Sox bring the fight to their former top prospect, Justin Masterson. Masterson, the feature piece in the Victor Martinez trade, has struggled since the trade with much credit owed to his inability to put down lefties. Clay Buchholz, on the other hand, looks to continue his tremendous start to the season.

6/8 Online Seats Game Thread: Wakefield Must Wake Up

On the heels of eight shut out innings by Dice-K, Tim Wakefield will lead the Boston Red Sox in another contest against the Cleveland Indians and David Huff, who was recently humbled by a monster line drive to the head off the bat of Alex Rodriguez just two weeks ago.

All quiet at short for once

It looks like we can finally spend our time harping on other things this year like A low K/BB from John Lackey or Jonathon Papelbon instead of worrying about our short stop production. Marco Scutaro won't be leading the box score every night or getting top billing in the recap, but you won't see him as the goat either. Since 2003 when Nomar Garciaparra totaled 5.4 WAR in his last great season the Red Sox have only had two Short Stops total more than 1.5 WAR. Jed Lowrie in 2007 and Alex Gonzalez in 2006. Some of those were in limited time so they were better than they seemed, but only these two seasons had a real chance to be greater than average in a full season. So far in 2010 Scutaro has been an average hitter totaling -0.5 batting runs above average. His contact has been better than ever only striking out 10 percent of the time. His 2009 season was solidified though with a 13 percent walk rate where he is only walking 10 percent so far this year.

6/7 Online Seats Game Thread: V-Mart Cowboys Up to Face Indians

The Boston Red Sox narrowly missed a series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. Daisuke Matsuzaka will lead the team into Cleveland to take on the struggling Indians, who have been missing Victor Martinez, as V-Mart makes his first appearance back in Cleveland since last year's move.

Names to Watch on Draft Day

Heading into draft day tomorrow, the Sox are sitting pretty with four picks in the first two rounds. Their first selection at 20, the Sox have been tied to relatively few names -- making their intentions a mystery to many even on the eve of the draft. Still, the most important name to remember when things kick off tomorrow is Anthony Raunado – the LSU right-hander being the player most frequently quoted as the Sox top target. Picks: 1-20 (from Atlanta for Type A Billy Wagner) 1s-36 (compensation for New York Mets signing Type A Jason Bay) 1s-39 (compensation for Atlanta signing Type A Billy Wagner) 2-7 (from New York Mets for Type A Jason Bay) 3-28 (110) 4-28 (143) 5-28 (Repeating at 28 for remainder of draft)