Projo Sox Blog

It's not so much the disabling injuries to regulars such as Mike Lowell and Julio Lugo, along with the day-to-day back woes of J.D. Drew. It's that the starting rotation is in as much flux at the moment as its been all year, including back in spring training. Joe McDonald writes from Toronto that, right now, the only sure thing is Jon Lester. The rest? Physical question marks (Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield, Bartolo Colon), newcomers (Paul Byrd), failures (Clay Buchholz, at least for now) and riddles wrapped in mysteries inside enigmas (Daisuke Matsuzaka, though at least he does win his games).

And now isn't the time for this, because, as the Boston Herald's Tony Massarotti points out, "In recent years, the team that has been most prepared for the playoffs has held a decided advantage, particularly in the American League. Clinching a playoff spot relatively early seems nearly as important as clinching one at all, something Sox officials have tacitly acknowledged." The Sox are living proof: In their two World Series championship years, they clinched early and were able a) to get their regulars some rest and b) set up their pitching rotation to their satisfaction. In 2005, conversely, they didn't clinch until the season's last day and were swept in the first round by the White Sox.

So the good news last night was Colon's four hitless innings at Pawtucket, which, reports Steven Krasner, may have him on pace for a Sept. 1 return to Boston. If he's able to provide some stability to the rotation he'd be a huge help since, as FoxSports.com's Dayn Perry points out, the Sox will be playing mostly good teams from here on in. (The good news: They'll play most of those games at home.)

Clinching early won't happen unless the Sox get hot; they remain 4 1/2 back in the A.L. East and are now tied for the wild-card lead. (More on that later.) Getting hot means getting their starting pitching in order, at the very least.

Colon (above, pitching last night) may be the first step in that direction.

YOU LOST ME: Mike Schmidt was at McCoy Stadium last night to promote awareness of BPH, or enlarged prostate, and told Mike McDermott that while he'd always been a fan of Manny Ramirez, he no longer has any use for the ex-Red Sox and current Dodger slugger. The way Ramirez manipulated his way out of Boston, said Schmidt, was "one of the worst things I've ever witnessed in the history of the game" (ProJo Sox Blog)

MY KIND OF PLACE: Jason Bay tells SI.com's Holden Kushner what it's like to play for the Red Sox, and it's all good. "I walked into the clubhouse [the first day]," he said, "and everyone came up and said, 'Oh, we're happy to have you,' and was very genuine. That's such a breath of fresh air. Terry Francona had called me five minutes after I had talked to Theo Epstein, and just said, 'Hey any time you need anything.' "

HOME SWEET HOME: Bay, a Canadian native, is excited to be in Toronto this weekend, since he's never played there since turning pro. (Boston Herald)

QUITE A CATCH: McDonald talks to Theo Epstein and Bronson Arroyo (who threw to him in Cincinnati) about the Sox' latest acquisition, catcher David Ross.

BACK AND FORTH AND BACK . . . Chris Smith is a Red Sock once more. (projo.com)

CROSSING THE BARRIER: The Globe's Amalie Benjamin reports the Red Sox handed out a record $10.5 million in bonuses to this year's draft class.

UNESSENTIAL: Allan Wood of Joy of Sox is extremely disappointed in the new DVD Essential Games of Fenway Park, since "[two] of the [six] games are available elsewhere and three of the remaining four are highly debatable choices."

FALLING: The Sox have dropped to No. 6 in SI.com's latest Power Rankings.

SPOTLIGHT ON . . . Your first-place Tampa Bay Rays, who, writes the St. Petersburg Times' Joe Smith, are garnering more national attention than they have in all of their first 10 years combined. The latest plaudit comes from the Chicago Tribune's Phil Rogers, who says the question isn't whether or not they're for real; it's how they got this good, this fast.

VOICES OF EXPERIENCE: This is the first time in the pennant-race cauldron for most of the Rays, obviously, so they're leaning on the few team members who've been there before -- like two ex-Red Sox, Cliff Floyd and Eric Hinske -- to tell them what to expect. (Tampa Tribune)

'IT KEEPS ME GOING': Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli admits it hasn't been easy; his energy level is such that he can barely practice between games. But the support he's received from friends, family and "people that I didn't even know had my phone number" has been a great source of inspiration during his remarkable comeback with Tampa Bay. (St. Petersburg Times)

THE TRAGIC NUMBERS: The New York Post's George King has determined them -- which is to say, the number of Yankee losses and opposition victories needed to mathematically eliminate New York -- to be 23 in the A.L. East race and 24 in the wild-card hunt after last night's 14-3 blowout in Toronto, which dropped the Yanks 10 1/2 games behind the Rays in the division and six back of the Red Sox and Twins in the wild card. I have those numbers as 26 in the division and 30 in the wild card, but George may have figured the permutations with head-to-head matchups. In any case, you get his drift.

MIXED SIGNALS: Even so, Hal Steinbrenner isn't running up the white flag just yet (New York Post), despite his brother's concession speech last week. Hank, however, says he had to say what he said, because "the national media is full of Yankee haters." (New York Post) The blog IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS . . . caught applauds Hank on behalf of "all who've endured the last 20 years of Gammonite slurs, the pro-Redsock propaganda from the blow-dried oh-dears who hate us with the intensity of a billion suns."

THE COMEBACK KIDS: In the meantime, Carl Pavano gets ready to return on Saturday while Joba Chamberlain continues his rehab. (Both stories New York Daily News) The blog Baseball-Intellect has a not very encouraging (for the Yankees) breakdown of Chamberlain's mechanics.

NO ONE CAN SAY IT'S NOT POSSIBLE: Ed Valentine of Bugs & Cranks lists several reasons why Pavano may miss Saturday's start.

OPEN YOUR EYES! Will Leitch, late of Deadspin, is now a contributor on WEEI.com and says, "No matter what happens in the next month with the Red Sox, the Yankees are toast ... and no one seems to have noticed."

THEY'RE WIDE OPEN: That's not quite true. Steven Goldman, writing in the New York Sun, says that long-ago cry "Break up the Yankees!" should be revived . . . not from Yankee-haters this time, but inside the team's executive suite. Because if they don't, next season "could easily be worse than this one."

SHEA GOODBYE: Tom Seaver won't be shedding any tears when the wrecking ball crashes into Shea Stadium. (Newsday)

A.L. RACES: The Angels haven't been much help to the Red Sox lately. First they lost two out of three in Tampa and last night they dropped a 2-1, 12-inning decision to the Twins (St. Paul Pioneer Press), enabling Minnesota to tie the Sox for the wild-card lead. The Twins now trail Chicago by a half-game in the Central.

N.L. RACES: The Mets picked up ground on both Phillies and the Marlins in the East, as they beat the Braves with a run in the bottom of the ninth (New York Post) while Philadelphia was losing to Washington (Philadelphia Inquirer) and Florida suffered its second straight walkoff loss in San Francisco (Miami Herald) . . . In the Central, the Cubs upped their lead to 5 1/2 by beating the Reds, 3-2 (Chicago Tribune) as Carlos Zambrano pitched seven innings of one-run ball despite cracking a molar during the game -- even he doesn't know how he did it -- and spitting out the tooth while on the mound . . . It remains the Diamondbacks by two in the West as they beat the Padres (Arizona Republic) while Derek Lowe and the Dodgers were beating the Rockies (Los Angeles Times).

YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT: Umpires are warning that instant replay will make major-league games even longer. (AP via espn.com) But, says John Hirschbeck, "Major League Baseball and the media, they want instant replay, and we're going to have instant replay, so if it delays the game, then there's nothing we can do about it."

A FIRST: David Pinto of Baseball Musings points out the Indians could finish "well under .500" and still have both the American League MVP (Grady Sizemore) and Cy Young Award winner (Cliff Lee). "Nothing like that ever happened before," he notes, and later adds, "That's the big failure of the Cleveland franchise this season. They failed to surround these stars with players capable of playing decent ball around them."

ONE OF THE GUYS: Ken Griffey Jr. says he's beginning to fit in with the White Sox. (Dayton Daily News)

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? Not many Oakland fans have the same view of the sliding A's as Billy Beane, who says, "to go from where we were this time last year to where we are now is amazing." (San Francisco Chronicle) He means that in a good way, incidentally, because he's talking about the amount of young talent now in the system as compared to last year . . . and many baseball folks agree with him.

LEFT, LEFT, LEFT-LEFT-LEFT: The A's now have an all-southpaw starting rotation. (Costa Contra Times) Pinto doesn't think it will work out too well.

IF THIS ISN'T ACTUALLY IT, IT CAN'T BE TOO MUCH FARTHER: In spite of a decade of utter wretchedness, Joe Posnanski thinks the Royals may finally have reached rock bottom . . . and he tells us why.

HERE AND THERE: The Blue Jays picked up Jose Bautista from the Pirates for a player to be named (Toronto Star) . . . The Twins have expressed interest in reacquiring Eddie Guardado, but aren't willing to surrender any talent to the Rangers (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) . . . The main problem's with his elbow, but Tom Glavine also underwent shoulder surgery to "clean up" his labrum (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) . . . Ex-Mets reliever Jorge Sosa, who's been pitching for the Mariners' Triple-A team, has been suspended 50 games for violating baseball's policy for amphetamine use (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) . . . Jason Isringhausen says he wants to pitch again next year (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . Jack Wilson has heard the trade rumors and is upset by them, because he wants to stay with the Pirates (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) . . . Mike Scioscia insists he hasn't lost faith in Scot Shields. (Los Angeles Times)

OLD FRIENDS: Hanley Ramirez says his injured thumb "hurts -- a lot" and he doesn't know when he'll be able to return to the Marlins' lineup (Miami Herald) . . . Pedro Martinez says he's "coming around" physically, but he's happier that the Mets " are in great shape now" (New York Daily News) . . . The A's have placed Justin Duchscherer on the disabled list. (San Francisco Chronicle)

-- ART MARTONE