Red Sox right handed pitcher Josh Beckett, who left Tuesday night’s game in New York with a lower back strain, is headed to the disabled list. Righty reliever Joe Nelson is being called up from Pawtucket to take his spot on the roster.
Boston Red Sox infielder/DH Mike Lowell has asked the club to release him, saying it would be better for him and the team.
Lowell has seen limited time this year, and his at-bats figure to diminish even more with Jacob Ellsbury and Mike Cameron will be returning from injuries here shortly.
Mike Lowell has spent most of his season on the Red Sox’s bench and wants out.
He told ESPN.com’s Gordon Edes:
“I’m not mad at Tito (Francona, Boston manager). … What am I going to go and tell him, play me more? Why? Who am I going to play for? Honestly, I actually agree with everything they have done. I actually would have played David (Ortiz) more.”
Lowell, owed $12 million this year, lost his everyday job at third base when the Red Sox acquired Adrian Beltre over the winter. His trade value in spring training was limited because he was recovering from thumb surgery, so he was penciled in as a back-up at third and insurance policy in case Ortiz could no longer hold down the everyday designated hitter job. But Ortiz is starting to hit and Beltre plays every day.
Lowell, 36, is hitting .259 in 58 at-bats and recognizes he’s an unneeded spare part. “I literally eat up a roster spot,” he told Edes.
Today the Red Sox announced that Jacoby Ellsbury will be starting his Minor League rehab to return back to the big league club on Monday down in Pawtucket. Ellsbury will start in either left or center field when the Sox Triple A affiliate the Pawtucket Red Sox host Syracuse on Monday at McCoy Stadium. The Pawsox will be headed on the road following Monday night’s game, so Ellsbury’s rehab stint will continue with Double A Portland.
Here is a hogde podge of some Red Sox news and notes for today. Josh Beckett tweaked his back yesterday during pre-game batting practice while taking some swings team official’s are saying. Beckett went to Mass. General this morning to get evaluated no results have been announced yet. Sox Manager, Terry Francona said Beckett’s start on Friday could be in jeopardy pending the results of his tests this morning.
According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, Jacoby Ellsbury has just completed baserunning drills at Fenway. This may be the next major step towards getting closer to being put on a rehab assignment soon. Ellsbury was watched by manager Terry Francona, bench coach Demarlo Hale and the Sox trainers. He ran first to second, first to third and also ran first to home. He took breaks in between and seemed to be winded, Carfardo said. Ellsbury is trying to recover from four fractured ribs. He’s complained of still feeling pain when he breaths as of recently.
Sox outfielder Mike Cameron, who batted leadoff and was the designated hitter for Triple-A Pawtucket in the first game of his rehab assignment, went one for three with a double against the Gwinnett County Braves. Cameron also fouled out to first, walked and struck out in his four plate appearances. The Sox plan to have Cameron play the outfield tonight in order to get a better sense of his readiness to return to the majors.
Today Terry Francona announced the news that Josh Beckett’s next start will on on Friday in Detroit instead of this Wednesday against the Jays. Tim Wakefield will be inserted into the rotation and will face the Jays on Wednesday.
Tito said this serves two purposes. It will give Beckett a chance to throw an extra side session and it allows Wake to maintain his stamina and arm strength. Wake’s last three appearances have come out of the bullpen.
Here is the primary reason, quite likely: Beckett is 3-5 with a 7.34 ERA against the Blue Jays in 13 career starts. Beckett faced the Blue Jays on April 26 and allowed eight runs on nine hits and three walks over only three innings.
He is 3-1, 2.60 in three career starts against the Tigers and dominated them for two starts last season, allowing two earned runs on only five hits over 14.2 innings and striking out 15.
Beckett is 2-0, 0.61 in two career starts at Comerica Park as well. When you consider all that, this move makes perfect sense.
“I would hope we look at everything,” Francona said.
Beckett has pitched poorly in three of his last four starts. The breakdown:
Texas on April 21: 7 innings, 7 hits, 7 earned runs
at Toronto on April 26: 3 innings, 9 hits, 8 earned runs
at Baltimore on May 2: 7 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned runs
New York on May 7: 5.1 innings, 9 hits, 9 earned runs
For the season he is 1-1 with a 7.46 ERA.
The extra rest should help Beckett as well. He will be pitching on six days’ rest and is 17-11, 3.09 in such situations over the course of his career.
As for Wakefield, this is the perfect way to use an extra starter. The veteran was furious when he was demoted to the bullpen and has appeared in three games since, allowing six earned runs over 6.1 innings.
Wakefiels is 17-13, 3.93 in 51 career appearances against the Blue Jays. He did not pitch well against them last season (1-2, 6.89), but starting on Wednesday will appease him at least temporarily while meeting the larger goal of giving Beckett a chance to throw an extra side session and a little more rest.
In other Sox news, Francona said that Mike Cameron would lead off for Pawtucket tonight and probably get four at-bats. The weather and how he feels will ultimately determine that. Ramon Ramirez has apparently made a miraculous recovery from the triceps tendinitis he had the other day. He is available for tonight’s game.
The Red Sox have called up left handed veteran Alan Embree from Pawtucket. The announcement was made last night after the Sox won 2-1. To make room on their 40 man roster and have designated infielder Kevin Fransden for assignment. They also optioned Fabio Castro back to Pawtucket, after just being called up for last night’s game . This move was to make room on the 25 man roster for Embree.
Frandsen was hitting .258 with two homers and four RBI for Pawtucket.
Embree pitched in eight games for Pawtucket, allowing three runs on two hits, striking out six and walking five over 7 1/3 innings. He had faced 14 left-handed hitters, not surrendering a hit and just one walk.
Embree had the option of opting out of his contract with the Red Sox if he wasn’t placed on the 25-man roster by Friday. Castro was with the Red Sox for just one day, having joined the team as insurance in the bullpen, with Scott Atchison having been sent to Pawtucket.
For most of us in Red Sox Nation, the Sox haven’t been putting as many W’s in the win column as we would all like. They aren’t standing atop in the A.L. East standings with nearly a month already in the books. The injury bug has already bit the Sox with a few key players being put on the disabled list. We are seeing some players offensively struggle, we have seen our share of early season call ups already. We as part of the Nation need to keep the faith and can’t stop believing. In the early 2010 season a return to the playoffs seem like a huge task to even make it with the way alot of the teams are playing in the division.
We now have some hope! Sports Illustrated has given the Yankees the cover jinx of 2010 and right now the Red Sox can use whatever help that is given and to me this is an omen of hope.
Granted right now the Yankees are in 2nd place and are playing some good baseball. But how long can or will it last?
I am not quite sure what the photographer for SI was trying to portray but to me it looks like it could possibly be used as a banner for maybe the annual Pride parade or a flyer posted outside a gay night club.
I would go into detail of what the photograph looks like to me, but I am going to refrain from doing so to keep this PG rated for all the readers young and old.
I realize I am probably going to take alot of heat for this post but I couldn’t hold back, I guess this is where the true die hard Sox fan in me takes over and can’t pass on a temptation like this.
The way I look at it, if anyone doesn’t like it they can go eff themselves with some pinstripes!
The Red Sox recalled left handed reliever, Fabio Castro from Pawtucket and optioned right handed reliever, Scott Atchison to Pawtucket after last night’s game in Toronto. Castro will be availible for tonight’s game in Toronto and will be wearing number 55.
Castro has made 3 starts down in Pawtucket so far this year and has an 0-1 record with a 8.10 earned run average with 13 strike outs and 8 free passes. This is the first season for Castro in the Red Sox organization after signing as a free agent this past December. He spent his 2009 season split between Toronto’s Double A New Hampshire Fisher Cats and their Triple A Las Vegas affiliate. He had a combining 9-6 record with a 4.01 ERA in 29 starts. He has had Major League experience with the Rangers and Phillies.
Scott Atchison, appeared in seven games for the Sox this season, going 0-1 with a 6.10 earned run average with nine strikeouts and four walks. Atchison is in his first Major League since 2007. He pitched for the Hanshin Tigers of the Japan Central League for the 2008 and 2009 seasons where he had a 12-9 record and a 2.77 ERA in 117 relief appearances. He has a career MLB record of 2-4 with a 4.37 ERA in 60 career appearaces over his career that were with Seattle, San Francisco and Boston.
According to reports from Boston Globe’s, Peter Abraham and the Cuban Ball Players website, The Red Sox have signed catcher Adalberto Ibarra. The deal is being said to be a 5 year deal worth $4.3 million that also includes a signing bonus of $1.5
Updated (2:30pm): Michael Silvermann of the Boston Herald is reporting……
The deal still has a few procedural matters to be completed before it can be considered official but the major-league deal is worth $3 million over five years, with incentives that could bring the total worth to $4.3 million. He will report first to the club’s minor-league complex in Fort Myers in order to get in game-ready shape, then the club will decide which minor-league team he will report to. The club is quite high on his offensive potential and his throwing arm but because he has not focused on catching until the last couple of years — he played first, second and third — his defense still needs development.
Peter Abraham also went on to say the agreement is on a major league deal and Ibarra will be on the 40-man roster once he officially signs.
Former Camagüey standout Adalberto Ibarra, 23, starred for Cuba in the 2004 World Junior Championship, hitting .429 for the Gold Medal winners and taking All-Star honors at 3rd base. He had 8th highest average in the event, just ahead of Justin Upton, and tied Jorge Padron for third in hits with 9.
Ibarra hit .363 for Camagüey in 2007-2008, his 4th season in Cuba. He tied for 9th in the league in average and tied Héctor Olivera Jr. for fifth with 25 doubles. He played 1B, 2B and 3B, fielding .935 overall. Through that season, he had a career average of .324 and slugging percentage of .444.
Ibarra fell to .341 in 2008-2009 but improved his fielding to .976 while playing primarily second base. He defected from Cuba following that season.
Ibarra defected from Cuba last year and is currently in the Dominican Republic, where he has been working out for several teams.
If the Red Sox plan on using Ibarra as a catcher, he’ll be included with Luis Exposito, Mark Wagner, Ryan Lavarnway, Dusty Brown and Tim Federowicz in the Sox’ minor league system.
Tim Wakefield had a solid outting today against the Baltimore Orioles which would appear to be his last start for awhile and will be moved to the bull pen with the return of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Wakefield went 6.2 innings, giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs, walking 3 and fanning 5. As Tito came out to the mound in the 7th inning you could tell Wake wasn’t happy, he handed Francona the ball and headed to the dugout as we got closer to the dugout with the crownd showing their appreciation of his performance he tipped his cap. When Wake walked off the field he was in position to get the “w” with the Sox leading 4-1.
“I threw a lot of strikes, and unfortunately we came out on the short end of the stick,” Wakefield said after the Red Sox lost 7-6 in 10 innings.
“My job as a starter is to get us deep into games and give us a chance to win and I thought I did that today,” Wakefield added.
Terry Francona comfirmed the decision of Wake being moved to the pen when Dice-K returns from the DL after the game.
“He’s a good pitcher, we will always think that and continue to,” the manager said. “This will turn out good. I believe that.
“We’re not turning him into a reliever. … This is us putting him in the bullpen until he starts again.”
Wakefield was not happy with the move and deservingly so. Wakefield wasn’t willing to discuss his move to the pen. When asked by reporters for his reaction to the move, Wakefield said, ” I don’t have any.”
Today the Red Sox have announced that they made a trade to re-acquire outfielder Jonathan Van Every from the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named later and have optioned Josh Reddick back to Pawtucket. To make room for Van Every on the 40-man roster, the Sox designated right handed pitcher Santo Luis for assignment. Van Every will be active for tonight’s game against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park and will wear No. 44.
Van Every spent parts of the 2008 and ‘09 seasons in the Boston organization, playing 18 combined games in the majors and 139 games for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. His 2009 season came to an end, though, when he underwent knee surgery. He was waived in the summer and picked up by Pittsburgh.
In 2010, Van Every has hit .314 with two homers and four RBIs in 10 games for Triple-A Indianapolis.
Last year, Van Every hit .364 with a game-winning home run and three RBIs in seven games with Boston. He also pitched in an emergency relief role in a 13-0 blowout in Tampa Bay in late April.
Reddick had been recalled by the Red Sox this week, and he went 1-for-6 with a double and two RBIs.
The Red Sox claimed 26 year old Luis off waivers from the White Sox on April 14 and optioned him to Double-A Portland. He’s posted a 3.00 ERA (1 ER/3.0 IP) in two relief appearances with the Sea Dogs, recording three strikeouts. Luis also made two appearances for Chicago’s Double-A Birmingham club this season, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA (1 ER/3.0 IP) and three strikeouts.
