Red Sox Not Bringing Baldelli Back

"Rocco Baldelli's first season with the Boston Red Sox may be his last. The Rhode Island native will be back on the market after signing a one-year deal last offseason, and GM Theo Epstein already is talking about Baldelli in the past tense. "He was a pleasure to have around and a pleasure to have part of the organization," Epstein told the Providence Journal. Baldelli remains a quality right-handed bat off the bench and should draw interest from several teams. Baldelli missed the ALDS against the Angels with a hip injury, and Boston's offense was stagnant for most of the series (ESPN)."

I like Baldelli a lot, but the Sox need a backup that can play several days in a row since you know Drew is never going to play a full season. Rocco is just to injury prone, and on top of that he has that condition that makes him tired all the time. He will get picked up by someone, but he is nothing more then a bench player at this point in his career.

Red Sox 6 Rays 3

Finally the Sox had some success at Tropicana. Last night Buchholz pitched very well letting up 3 runs over 6 innings with 3 Ks. Boston is really going to need him to step up over the final month or so if they want to nail down the Wild Card.

Jason Bay continued his tear as he hit a 2 run double that put the Red Sox ahead 2-0 in the 1st inning. Tampa quickly responded with 2 runs of their own in the same inning, when Longoria (who just kills the Sox) and Zobrist got RBIs. Baldelli hit a HR in the 2nd, but an RBI by Zaun (another Red Sox killer) tied the game. Lowell put the Sox up for good in the 6th with a soc fly, and Boston was able to put the game out of reach in the 7th with 2 runs.

The key to this game was the fact that the Sox were able to get to the Tampa bullpen early in the game. Price was only able to go 5 1/3 innings, and the Rays bullpen is so bad that you just knew the Sox were going to win.

Boston's bullpen on the other hand was fantastic. Wagner pitched another scoreless inning striking out 2. Then Bard and Papelbon closed it out with 2 scoreless innings of their own.

With the win Boston is still just 2 1/2 games up on Texas for the Wild Card spot.

Red Sox 6 Marlins 1

The Red Sox enjoyed their 500th straight sellout last night by pounding the Marlins. Penny got his 6th win of the season, but there was a scary moment when he took a line drive off his chest. To be honest I kind of laughed, because it would have most likely given the Sox less headaches with the logjam they have in their rotation, but he was fine and pitched well.

Penny (6-2) allowed one unearned run on three hits and four walks, striking out three in 5 innings of work. He has not allowed an earned run in 11 innings over his last two starts. Penny let up a run, but it wasn't an earned run as Jacoby was charged with his first error ever in center field. You have to say that it is going to be very tough to take Penny out of the rotation with the way he is pitching right now, but we will have more on that later.

So, the Marlins were up 1-0 after the error by Ellsbury, but that didn't last long. Boston scored 2 runs in the second, 1 of them off a Rocco Baldelli RBI single, and the other from Tek, but he hit into a double play. Rocco has been playing much better of late, and we are starting to see his batting average rise. This is great news for the Sox as they are really going to need him as a backup for Drew, and against left handers. Boston wasn't done as they tagged on another 2 runs in the 4th off a Pedroia single. Hopefully this means he is coming out of his slump.

The game was over even though Penny's pitch count was high and he was chased out of the game, Boston's bullpen is just too good and they don't give up leads. Ellsbury made up for his error by knocking his 3rd HR of the year into the stands, and Pedroia ended his fantastic game with another RBI which gave him 3 on the day.

With the Yankees losing last night the Nationals (HAHAHAHAHA), Boston is now up 3 games in the AL East.

It's Only Fair?

Here is Mark Kotsay and Rocco Baldelli playing rocks, paper, scissors to play. I like it, I just wish Francona wasn't so good at it, because it makes his coaching that much worse.

Rocco Baldelli Injury Update

"The Providence Journal reports that Red Sox DH Rocco Baldelli's knee felt better Sunday and he should be available against Detroit on Tuesday (Sportsline)."

It was really scary when Baldelli slammed into the wall. He was already having hamstring problems, so it is good news that his knee doesn't seem to be a long term problem. Still, I am expecting a DL trip soon, since he just doesn't look right, and he is not hitting very well. In general I have not been impressed by what I have seen from Baldelli this season...

What's Wrong With Rocco Baldelli?

I am sure every Tampa Bay fan is laughing there ass off at this, but I was wondering what is really wrong with Balldelli. The Sox say he has a tight hamstring, and they are saving him for this weekend, since they are going against some lefties, but something still seems off about him. We all know he has that disease where is gets tired very easily, so I was not shocked when I read this....

"The Providence Journal reports that Rocco Baldelli's hamstring issues may be related to his rare cellular disorder. He has not played since he was taken out of Monday night's game after awkwardly running to first base (Sportsline)."

If you were watching that game it looked like he was galloping like a horse. Maybe he is just tired? Is his hamstring acting up? Whatever it is I was really expecting more from Rocco when he does play. I knew he would be a part time player, but he isn't even effective when he does play (.232 BA, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 15 Ks, 0 SB). Sorry those numbers aren't going to cut it, since we really can't rely on Drew playing all the time...

Red Sox Updates

Rocco Baldelli has been working out, and everything is going as planned so far. Rocco has been battling channelopathy, which causes muscle fatigue. This stops Baldelli from playing everyday, and he gets exhausted very easily. The good news is that he is on a new "cocktail" that seems to be helping. Though Rocco still doesn't sound overly optimistic...

“It’s tough to put any expectations on myself the first week out there,” said Baldelli, who ran sprints in the outfield yesterday morning. “I’ll get a better idea of how much I can do as we go along. It won’t be as difficult as it was last year, but I just don’t know what to expect (Boston Globe).”

And neither can we. Baldelli has all the talent in the world, but never seems to be able to stay on the field. We should be used to this (Drew), but if somehow he can stay healthy enough to be the Sox 4th outfielder it would be a huge boost to this team since we all know J.D. will go down at some point.

The other player that we have been keeping an eye on is Takashi Saito. He is trying to overcome a partially torn ligament in his right elbow, and instead of surgery he opted to have injections. This guy really makes me nervous, because it kind of sounds like Curt Schilling last year. I hope he is able to produce, but I really feel that this guy is going to drop very fast. Boston does have a deep bullpen, but having Saito would be a nice boost, and make getting to Papelbon a lot easier.

Saito threw 33 pitches during an 8-minute mound session. He threw all kinds of pitches, and said he felt fine. He just wanted to prove he is healthy, so basically so far so good.

Smoltz On Verge Of Deal With BoSox

John Smoltz has pitched his entire major league career with the Atlanta Braves, but he is on the verge of a deal with the Boston Red Sox, according to sources.

The Captain touched on this before, but I wanted to throw my opinion in on this. Smoltz is 41 and coming off surgery, but I do think he could be a very effective weapon for us. As of right now, we have 6 starters, Beckett, Dice, Lester, Wake, Penny, and Smoltz, not bad at all. The signing of Smoltz will make us overloaded at the SP spot and have injury protect and allows us to trade one of our young starters such as Buchholz and Bowden for one of the Texas catchers. Smoltz is tough to figure out because I have no idea on how much he is going to pitch. He does have some relief pitcher experience under his belt, but I don't figure he would want to do that. He is one of my favorite pitchers of all time, hell I will take him.


BMack's Take:

I have to agree 100% with Pearce. Smoltz could be the guy that puts the Sox over the hump in the playoffs, and even if he doesn't do anything the Sox have plenty of pitching to be just as good as they were last year. If he is healthy, he has some of the best stuff in the majors. The best thing about the Sox for aging pitchers is that they are very good at giving them ample rest. They always seem to come up with some way to get them extra time off at some point in the season (putting them on the DL with a non serious injury, ect). He is also one of my favorite pitchers of all time, and I think guys like Buchholz, Lester, Bowden, and maybe even Beckett could learn from this guy.

The Baldelli signing is a little more of a question for me. As a 4th outfielder I think he is great, but the thing with playing for the Sox is that J.D. Drew is going to go down at some point in the season, and I just don't know if Rocco can play everyday. When Baldelli plays, he can be one of the better corner outfielders in the AL, but he was that problem where he gets tired very easily, so he can only play like every other day. I hope Drew can stay healthy, but he never does. I wonder if the Sox will go after another outfielder, like Kotsay, since he can play outfield and 1st.

Rocco Baldelli to DL

Ok, I don't know who has caught this, but surprise, Rocco Baldelli is going to start the season on the disabled list again! This is the same guy who has played a grand total of 127 games out of a possible 486 the last 3 seasons, which the highlight injury being that he blew out his knee (ACL) in the backyard with his little brother. Further details are sketchy at what he was actually doing with his little brother, but lets move on. His other injury was pulling a hammy running to 1st, and never being able to overcome that injury all season!!!!! Seems Rocco is going on the DL this time because of "extreme fatigue." I wish I was making this up. This is a guy who makes 6 million dollars a year playing fucking baseball, you have to love it. At times during his press conference today, he appeared to be on the verge of tears....boo hoo Rocco, boo hoo. In a related development, GM Andrew Friedman of the Devil Rays was quoted at saying he probably wouldn't pick up the 2009 option on Rocco for 6 million dollars, thus making him a free agent. Wow ya think?

-CCook