Lost 2010 season sets Mark Wagner back, but he’s not done for

At the risk of stating the obvious, 2010 was a lost season for catcher Mark Wagner when he was with…

Beckett Impressive in Rehab Start

When it comes to real estate, the key is location.

Without question location was the key Sunday when Josh Beckett made a rehab for the Pawtucket Red Sox who beat the Syracuse, 2-1. Beckett allowed the one run on two hits while pitching for innings. He didn’t issue any walks, struck out four and threw 42 of 68 pitches for strikes. “Maybe he missed a couple of times but for the most part he located all of his pitches very well,” catcher Mark Wagner said. “By that I mean his cutter, curveball, changeups, two-seamers and sinkers. “He made my job really easy.”

Prospective Additions and the BoSox’ AL East Title Chances

There’s no doubt the Sox recent injuries have done a number on the club’s chances of winning the AL East. So we thought it would be interesting to uncover how bleak -- or rosy -- the those chances have become. Prior to the slew of injuries that befell Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, and Jason Varitek, Baseball Prospectus had the Sox at about a 99-win team with an 853-702 scoring differential. That team, with the current standings, would have won the division about 38 percent of the time -- a solid second best to the Yankees' expected title rate of 45 percent. The Devil Rays take the cake about 18 percent of the time while the Blue Jays and Orioles are almost nowhere to be seen. But that was a different team. Injuries have decimated this club and with it, their chances at the division. So, we sought to quantify this question and see just how often the new lineup would win the AL East. We’ll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but the essentials are this: based on the expected run production of the new lineup, we simulated 10,000 “seasons,” the end result being an AL East championship probability. Further, we plugged in some of the club’s rumored trade targets and internal options to measure their effect on the team. Playing time estimates are rough estimates and are subject to change. Production estimates are based on Fangraphs.com’s CHONE projections. Below are the results.

The Future Holds many Questions for the Red Sox Catching — And Hopefully an Answer

Fact: As a catcher, Victor Martinez makes a good first baseman – and a D.H.

Fact: Jason Varitek, at 38, is on the down side of a once brilliant career. Fact: Both players’ contracts expire after the 2010 season. Question: Who will comprise the next generation of Red Sox catchers? Will it be either Pawtucket catcher Mark Wagner or Dusty Brown, each of whom is on Boston’s 40-man roster? Or will it be one – or both – of Boston’s very best catcher prospects, Luis Exposito or Tim Federowicz?

Pawtucket Red Sox 2010 Season Preview

There's a pretty big game tonight. It's Opening Day and the Red Sox and Yankees will battle on NESN/ESPN2 at 8:05 p.m. in the opening salvo of the 2010 rivalry. But keep an eye on the Triple-A team, as there are plenty of people starting things off in Pawtucket that will be important to the Sox's title hopes down the road... Torey Lovullo didn’t need an inordinate amount of time to drink Boston’s “kool-aid” after he was named the Pawtucket Red Sox manager.

BoSox AFL Update

With the conclusion of every major league season comes the beginning of the second season of “minor” leagues in baseball – the Winter Leagues. This 2009 off-season, the Sox have placed 17 promising prospects across four leagues, including some of the most exciting names in the organization, such as Casey Kelly, Ryan Kalish, Jose Iglesias, and Yamiaco Navarro. The Winter Leagues are one of the more interesting annual rituals of the MLB, aside from maybe the Rule 5 Draft, as every team in baseball pours their most highly touted prospects into one pool where they duke it out for organizational supremacy.

What in the name of David Wayne Pauley is going on here?

I took a day off today and thought I

The Fall of Jason Varitek?

One of the lesser talked about mates of the Red Sox this year has been Jason Varitek, which is curious…

2006 Minor League All-Stars

Over the last three years, I have written an exhaustive review of nearly every single player in the Red Sox’s…