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.

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.

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.

Possible in-season trade targets for BoSox

One reason why many clubs are shying away from doling out big-money free agent extensions (besides the economy, of course) is the potential to land gamechanging hitter at more favorable prices in-season from teams that experience a budget crunch. The Milwaukee Brewers are doing this; so are the Red Sox.

Let's take a look at what players could become available to the Sox as the season goes on...