Tuesday Links: Circle of (baseball) life

Do you remember where you were on the night of November 12, 2010? No? Good, because unless a momentous occasion…

Friday Links

We finally found out what Orsillo does on his off days

An Open Letter to Josh Beckett

Attempting to process some of the emotional baggage from one of my favorite and least favorite Red Sox players of the last decade.

Trading Jacoby Ellsbury

Facing the final year of his contract, many are suggesting that the Red Sox trade Jacoby Ellsbury. Hunter Golden examines his market and identifies some players the Red Sox may be able to get in return.

Prior’s Present Is Better

Mark Prior continues his battle to make it back to the majors. By Mike Scandura

6/14: Live game chat tonight for the Sox-Rays opener

Boston Red Sox (39-26) @ Tampa Bay Rays (35-31) Tim Wakefield (3-1, 4.84) @ James Shields (5.4, 2.85) 7:10 PM…

A Fix for Interleague Play

We are in the middle of inter-league play. Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers are coming to Boston. It is going to be an exciting weekend, but the last series with the Diamondbacks does not get circled on any fan's schedule in January nor does the All-Star Game unless it is in your home city. A few slight schedule changes could assist in making inter-league play tolerable for even the purists. As my colleague mentioned a few days ago, inter-league play generates too much revenue to be eliminated in the near future. But below is a plan to alleviate the two major negatives to those contests: too many games and the unbalanced schedule.

Is it Time to Get Rid of Interleague Play?

This will be the fourteenth season of interleague play in the Major Leagues. Perhaps the most controversial of Bud Selig's innovations, interleague has had a good run with some wonderful moments, but it has also produced some head-scratching matchups, highlighted the gap in talent between the American and National Leagues, and introduced a level of imbalance that is, at least in my view, antithetical to the spirit of baseball. Despite the revenue boost it has given some clubs, it may be time to end - or at least reduce - the interleague experiment.

Evan Brunell’s 2010 MLB Predictions: Does Boston win it?

As the advent of spring training games are upon us, I thought I'd kick off everyone's favorite little exercise by providing my own personal predictions as to how I think the season will shake out. Now, before I do so, a word of caution: predictions can change daily based on events. Heck, my predictions change multiple times a week. But I've gotta make predictions at some point, right? Point being, I might disagree with my own predictions a week from now. Most of the time, these kind of predictions are an exercise in fallacy, but it's not going to stop me from trying. I don't know why I made things harder on myself, but I set out to present an exact record. This means I had to go into a spreadsheet and make sure all the wins and losses totaled the correct amount of games while also balancing out to a .500 record. Took me a while, but dadgum it, I did it. One thing I did not control for was the unbalanced schedule (in a total record sense), but I already strained my tenuous math skills, so I wasn't about to complicate it further. Click "read more" or the headline to find my predictions.

Red Sox start offseason with bang, acquire Jeremy Hermida

UPDATE: Theo on the trade: "It was a chance to get a guy with unfulfilled potential for a reasonable cost." The Red Sox consider Hermida an average defender in either left or right field. (MLBTR) The Red Sox have acquired Florida Marlin outfielder Jeremy Hermida for lefty pitchers Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez. Hermida, 25, has been long on potential after being the 11th pick in the 2002 draft. However, with injuries and no "leap forward," he was a liability to the club at a $2.25 million salary, sure to rise in arbitration.