In a story that *everyone* saw coming. He probably was not using last year when he was on the Yankees though right?[^bit]
[^bit]: Now I am not only bitter the Red Sox are terrible this year, but I am bitter they missed the playoffs last year when the Yankees beat them with guys like Colon who were juicing.
I agree with everything on this list, especially getting the young guys some playing time:
> With Crawford done for the year and the Red Sox playoff hopes long since faded to oblivion, there is no reason to keep playing Nick Punto or Scott Podsednik. We know who those guys are and we know what they can do. Put Daniel Nava, Pedro Ciriaco, and Ryan Lavarnway, and if he’s up, Iglesias into the lineup every single night. Yes, it might be painful. Yes, on occasion it might be excruciating, but then are Podsednik, Punto, Aviles, and a clearly tiring Jarrod Saltalamacchia going to do much better? And even if they are, to what end? Time to see what these guys can do with 100+ at-bats as starters. This is it, boys. Prove you should be a part of the 2013 Red Sox.
> To that end, if the organization deems that Ryan Kalish is ready to face major league pitching then throw him in there as well. If he needs to face Triple-A pitching for whatever reason, that’s fine as well.
The Red Sox need to make productive use of these next few weeks and evaluating their younger talent is on of the best ways to do that.
> All this is not to shroud Buchholz’s dramatic improvement in a cloak of luck. It would be far too simple to say Buchholz’s resurgence is due to luck, just like it would be foolhardy to point to his disastrous start to the year as all luck. The truth is that Buchholz was rather unlucky early on and has benefited from luck since, but the underlying changes are what are far more important and are what will matter to Buchholz’s future. He’s rediscovered his changeup, and in the process, discovered another weapon in a split-fingered fastball he can use to get batters out. In a season to forget, the Red Sox may all look back on 2012 as the year Clay Buchholz became the best right-handed pitcher on the Red Sox staff for years to come.
Excellent piece by Evan Brunell, who you can normally find on [Fire Brand of the American League](http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firebrandal/~3/9CziScn6fCs/).
Good thing they did not have him have the surgery earlier. Now, we get a whole 7 months of wondering if he’ll be ready for opening day.
Jane Leavy writing on Grantland:
> Over the last four years, [Ann] McKee has become the most visible member of a cohort of research scientists and family members — wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of the dead, dying, and demented — who have forced the issue of chronic brain trauma into the forefront of American consciousness. The process has engendered enormous publicity as well as criticism and jealousy in the scientific community, which is every bit as competitive as the NFL. Her work has brought “a great deal of acclaim, exposure, and recognition,” says neurosurgeon Robert Cantu, clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University and co-director of CSTE. “But at the same time it’s brought a great deal of pressure. Not everybody greets her findings with the same degree of enthusiasm.”
Imagine being the person most responsible for the end of America’s favorite game. Depending on how things go, that might be Dr. McKee’s legacy.
What a story. I have been reloading Google News all day in hopes of hearing if she made the team or not.
> Filmed throughout the 2011 season with extraordinary access from Major League Baseball, the story follows 37 year-old R.A. Dickey (New York Mets, now a 2012 All-Star) and 18-year veteran Tim Wakefield (now retired), the oldest player in the major leagues and an icon of the Boston Red Sox. Knuckleball! details their personal and professional triumphs of the season, while exploring the bond between these two active pitchers and their only allies, the five living retired knuckleballers: Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Jim Bouton and Tom Candiotti.
I look forward to watching this via Netflix streaming some day.
> [Shawne Merriman] will be remembered by many as a guy who had a couple of really good steroid-fueled years, and after getting busted, was never effective again.
I agree. I will not be sad if he is done for his career. I always viewed him as the poster child for the Chargers teams that talked a big game, came up small when it counted, and then whined that it was not their fault they lost. The NFL would be a little better without him.
Someone had to take the fall. I have a feeling he might be the first of many.
> Three more hits on Sunday boosted Iglesias’ August batting average to .348 with a .423 on-base percentage. He’s doubled five times and drawn nine walks. It’s even better than the May he put together in which he hit .341 with a .364 on-base percentage with two doubles, a triple and a home run, a hot run interrupted by a back injury that sidelined him for a month.
Unfortunately, he suffered an ankle injury toward the end of the game. Assuming he’s healthy in another week, call him up to the Sox. There really is no reason not to let him get some time against major league pitching while the Sox play out this season. Though this season is over as far as the Sox playoff chances, they should use this time wisely to find out what they really have in some of these prospects.
Congratulations to Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore.
Ian O’Connor for ESPN New York:
> Only the easiest available target, Valentine, shouldn’t be fired for failing to reach the postseason with a team that has been a physical wreck all year, a team that still suffers from the self-inflicted psychological wounds of 2011. In fact, it would be an injustice if Boston doesn’t give Valentine a second season, or at least the first three months of a second season, to tweak his approach and program in an attempt to stanch the internal bleeding.
> “I’ve done a lot of work; I couldn’t do any more,” Valentine said in a private moment outside his clubhouse. “I don’t think I could’ve worked any harder. I probably could’ve done some things differently, I guess, but I don’t know what they are. I’ll appraise it and I’ll look back on it.”
I see Mr. O’Connor’s argument, but I do not agree[^note]. Let Bobby Valentine be the guy who followed the World Series winning manager that no one will remember and start the search for the guy who can bring the Red Sox their next title.
[^note]: I am not alone. Even Mr. Valentine himself agrees [he is not doing a good job](http://blogs.providencejournal.com/sports/red-sox/2012/08/valentine-im-not-doing-a-good-job.html).
Good. Use this season to give the young guys experience.
I completely believe this. I mean, the Red Sox ownership would never smear someone just as he left town.
Let Carl Crawford get his surgery. Give Daniel Nava more playing time. Problem solved.
Finally. It is ridiculous that it has taken this long.
Might as well get it done now and get ready for next year. Use the rest of the season to get Ryan Kalish more playing time.
*UPDATE: Ben Cherrington says [no request for the surgery has been made](http://blogs.providencejournal.com/sports/red-sox/2012/08/cherington-crawford-has-not-asked-for-tj-surgery.html).*
9 pitches, 3 strike outs. A feat that has only been accomplished 47 times in the history of baseball. Well done Clay. Well done.
Rob Neyer tells the story of Andrew Baggarly, a Giant beat reporter for CSN Bay Area. Mr. Baggarly had heard that Melky Cabrera had failed a drug test, but when he confronted Mr. Cabera about it, Mr. Cabrera denied the claim. Mr. Baggarly then apologized profusely, including on Twitter, about the incident.
> Why on earth should Baggarly have believed Cabrera? I mean, believed him 90 percent? Sure. Even 95 percent. I probably would have. I have a trusting nature. But it seems to me that Cabrera might have lied about everything. He might have lied about contacting the union and his agent. He might have contacted the union and his agent, but he might have lied about what they told him.
It is not surprising that a player lied to a reporter. What is surprising is how that reporter just simply rolled over and started offering apologies. If that is how beat reporters handle their relationships with players, it makes sense why independent people, like [Yahoo Sports](http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/), end up getting all the big stories.
This baseball season might have been really enjoyable if the disfunction of the Red Sox was not bringing it down so much for me.