Results tagged ‘ Kansas City Royals ’

Could Beckett Be Traded?

It’s no secret that Josh Beckett has lost a lot of fan support since last September. Just yesterday it was reveled that he and Clay Buchholz went golfing even though he was “resting” a lat injury.  Shortly after  people were calling for him to be traded or just outright released. Now this is a little unrealistic, it’s not like he’s completely unproductive (although tonight he looked it) there’s still trade value. Obviously the Sox would have to eat most of his contract ($51 million over the next 3 years) so the question is a waste of $20 million+ worth keeping the fan base and taking a bad influence out of the clubhouse. I’m not saying I’m on board with it, but if Ben Cherrington is here are some teams that may be takers.

San Diego Padres: This may seem like an odd match, but this is the same team that was willing to take John Lackey, plus with 3 of their starters on the DL they could use a pitcher right now. Beckett could also be a teacher to their young pitchers, but in baseball only.

 Pittsburgh Pirates: Another interesting team, but they want pitchers at any cost. Their staff has filled up, but I’m sure they’d welcome Beckett to the team.

Los Angeles Angels: The Angels have a lot of bad contracts and they want pitching depth, so in an extreme case they could swap contract for contract. It’s not likely, but it’s a possibility.

Kansas City Royals: People have been saying all they need to contend is pitching, and with a system full of quality prospects they could match up nicely. It’d be difficult to get them to part with prospects, but the amount eaten by the Sox would determine the size of the return.

This is only list of teams that could take Beckett off our hands right now. All are long shots, but still possibilities. I think what this proved the most was that trading Beckett would be difficult and futile. They won’t get a huge return and they’d still have to pay him. I’m sorry if you hate him, but he’s likely here to stay.

Why The Daniel Bard Experiment Must End

I wasn’t a fan from the start. The closer in waiting turned into a starter. Why? I’m not sure.  He didn’t even like at first, but now he won’t let it go. He’s steered Bobby V away from using him in the bullpen and convinced him to let him start. Sadly those starts have been lack luster, and for me last night was the final straw for me.  The Daniel Bard experiment must end. Last night against arguably the worst team in baseball, the Kansas City Royals, Bard faltered late as usual. The big problem with Bard is he doesn’t have the stamina to go late into ballgames, and with a struggling pen, Bobby is going to push him to go deep which he’s incapable of doing. Once he gets his pitch count in the 80′s he becomes a different pitcher. He has problems locating his pitches and tries to aim his pitches, which only gets you trouble. Last night was just a perfect example of how Bard’s start will go all year. Be decent for the first 5 or so innings and then watch it all go downhill. That’s not going to help you win games. What will help you win games is a shutdown, hard throwing reliever. Sadly, the Sox don’t have that anymore, because now he’s a joke of a starter. There’s guys the Sox can use to replace Bard. Ideally I’d like the Sox to trade for another pitcher, but they don’t need to. Andrew Miller looked nice in his first outing back, but he can be wild so he can’t be fully trusted yet. Once Aaron Cook gets back he’d be a nice option, and of course everyone’s favorite player, Daisuke Matsuzaka. He could come back this month, and this point he’d be a welcome addition to this struggling rotation.  I’d take enigma that Dice-K can be over Bard any day. While people continue the “Fire Bobby V” movement, I want a “Put Bard Back in the Pen” movement, but that might take a lot to put in a hash tag.

Rock Bottom 2.0?

Here we go again another losing streak. The only positive is it was to the best team in baseball so we can say it was them not us. Even with that it’s going to be tough to get over this, but the Royals look like a nice remedy, but not enough to make this into a winning team. Everything needs to click at once for that to happen, but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen with this team. Either the starter can’t go into the 6th, the bullpen falters, or the hitting just isn’t there. It seems like after a nice revival, were back at the bottom in danger of getting on a long painful losing streak. If things don’t start getting put together this team will soon be turned into a rebuilding project. Everyone with an expiring contract will be gone in July and we’ll be 5 years from contention, at least. But of course that’s worst case scenario, they can always pull off an amazing road trip winning all but one game. That’d be nice, but that seems like a pipe dream at this point. We just got to wait and see.

Deadline Review

I’m a bit puzzled by the Red Sox moves at the deadline. They acquired Mike Aviles, Erik Bedard, and Josh Fields. Bedard is the only one I see having any impact this year. He’ll start until Buchholz is healthy, and then I don’t know what the Sox will do with him then. He might keep his spot in the rotation if he pitches better than Tim Wakefield, but if that’s not the case there isn’t really much room for him on the roster except as a possible second lefty out of the bullpen.
Fields is said to be just a throw in so is impact, if any, will be minimal. He can play both corner outfield positions and both corner infield positions, so he may be of some value to the Sox.
Aviles is the most perplexing move. To give away too players with tremendous upside for a utility infielder seems a bit strange. The only possible move I see for Aviles with the Sox is potentially competing for the starting shortstops job next year with Jed Lowrie and possible Marco Scutaro. Aviles has proven he can be an effective starter at the big league level, so that may of been Theo’s thinking as he made that deal.

Sox Acquire Mike Aviles From Royals

Today the Red Sox sent Yamaico Navarro and minor league pitcher Kendal Volz to the Royals for utility infielder Mike Aviles. Aviles, 30, finished fourth in the 2008 rookie of the year voting, but has struggled with his utility role this year. He’ll add much needed depth to the Sox infield while Jed Lowrie is on the DL. Aviles is arbitration eligible at the end of the year and is under team control until 2014.

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