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.
Category: Justin Masterson
BOS 15, KAN 9: Sox slug their way to win
Even though Boston got out to a 9-0 lead after four innings of play the Red Sox bullpen made it interesting.
BAL 11, BOS 10: Shocked
Even the best bullpen in baseball can have off days. This was just of the extreme variety.
MIN 4, BOS 2: Wild Thing
The Boston Red Sox did their best impression of Rick Vaughn in a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
5/17: Evening, sirs
This is probably Masterson's final start before he goes back to the bullpen to make room for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Vargas will try to continue his hot streak, but isn't particularly any good.
BOS 5, SEA 3: Powered by Jason
No warning track power this time, Jason Bay wasn't going to be short changed.
Are the Sox starters as bad as they seem?
It's a testament to how good the offense and bullpen is that the Sox are hanging around first place. Once the starters start regressing to the norm, the club will be that much more stronger.
How much is a Penny worth?
While they haven't shown the "stuff" that was expected of them this season thus far, the Red Sox do have rotational depth. With Daisuke Matsuzaka on his way back to the big club and Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden in the minor leagues, decisions regarding the starting five and top alternates will soon be made.
As injuries throughout the infield (Pedroia, Youkilis, Lowrie) have started to take their toll on the Red Sox this season, the "surplus" in the starting rotation may soon be required to yield some reinforcements.
For Starters
Coming into the season, Red Sox fans may have had some worries about the Red Sox offense, but general consensus was that the 2009 team was going to ride the success of it's deep and potentially dominant starting pitching. Experts, pundits, bloggers, and fans alike all agreed that the Red Sox staff was easily one of the best in baseball.
In my very own preseason preview of the Boston Red Sox, I certainly thought as highly of the Red Sox rotation as everyone else.
With Josh Beckett and Jon Lester off to slow and inconsistent starts and with Daisuke Matsuzaka's early trip to the DL with "post World Baseball Classic-itis", the Red Sox rotation hasn't lived up to those lofty expectations.