We turn our attention to the free agent marketplace and put starting pitchers under the microscope. At this point in the season, your needs in this area are varied - from a one-time spot start to desperation for an arm that can save your pitching staff. Hopefully, most are closer to the former than the latter because there aren’t a lot of long-term fixes available.

Angels right-hander Ervin Santana fits that mold if he can conquer his road demons. Same deal for Twins starter Nick Blackburn, who is talented and poised enough to have prolonged success as a rookie, but is not guaranteed to keep his spot in the rotation. The point is, if free agent pitchers were perfect, they wouldn’t be free agents. Find the risks you want to take, take them and hope for the best.
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Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has just about put veteran backup Coco Crisp in his rearview mirror for good. He is in the same form now as when he burst onto the scene in 2007, igniting the Red Sox offense with an array of skills and carving out a huge piece of the team’s outfield time share.

First point in his favor over Crisp, Ellsbury is quickly becoming an adept leadoff man for the Sox. Look no further than his 12 walks and just four strikeouts in 43 at-bats to gauge that progress. For comparison’s sake, he had just eight walks and 15 strikeouts in 116 at-bats in his debut last season. The production results have been much the same; Ellsbury has scored 15 runs over the last 11 games, and Boston has been victorious 10 times over that stretch. Read more »

I was in Boston this past weekend to watch my friend run the Boston Marathon. It was a great road trip. Three friends and I drove seven hours, got a cheap hotel room and made t-shirts. We discussed things we could do while we were there and more than anything else, I wanted to see the Red Sox play in Fenway Park.

We decided that Sunday afternoon’s game against the Texas Rangers would be our best chance to get some tickets from a scalper for a decent price. About an hour before the game, we walked to Fenway and started looking for shady guys whispering, “Who needs tickets?” Sure enough, about 20 minutes later we found a guy with standing room seats that were in our price range of $50 or less.

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