Game 1: Clay Buchholz (0-0, -.--) @ Ricky Romero (7-3, 3.00) Scouting Report: Red Sox: Buchholz will make his season debut after dominating at the Minor League level in 2009. The 24-year-old righty went 7-2 with a 2.36 ERA in 16 starts for Triple-A Pawtucket, but a logjam among Red Sox starting pitchers prevented the touted prospect from cracking the Boston rotation. Buchholz is 0-2 with a 4.22 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against Toronto. Blue Jays: Romero -- an early favorite for the American League Rookie of the Year Award -- has been Toronto's best starter of late, posting a 5-1 record with a tidy 2.38 ERA over his last eight turns in the rotation. Over that stretch, the rookie left-hander has limited hitters to a .221 average and he's compiled 48 strikeouts against 20 walks over 56 2/3 innings. On Saturday, Romero walked away with a no-decision on the road against the Orioles after allowing three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Game 2: Brad Penny (6-3, 4.71) @ Brian Tallet (5-6, 4.95) Scouting Report: Red Sox: With 17 starts, Penny has already matched his season total from a year ago with the Dodgers. The right-hander has surrendered three runs or fewer in nine of his past 10 outings dating back to May 20, going 3-2 with a 3.45 ERA over that span. Penny is 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA and a 15/3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three career starts at Rogers Centre. Blue Jays: Tallet endured one of his roughest outings of the season last time out, allowing eight runs on 11 hits in three innings of a no-decision on the road against the Rays on July 8. Tallet, who shifted from the bullpen to the rotation early in the season, said he needs to find a way to eliminate those type of outings. In his three worst starts combined, Tallet has allowed 26 runs over 10 1/3 innings for a 22.65 ERA. In the lefty's other 14 turns as a starter, he has fashioned a 2.72 ERA. Tallet has not won since June 23. Game 3: Jon Lester (8-6, 3.87) @ Roy Halladay (10-3, 2.85) Scouting Report: Red Sox: Lester enters the second half of the season on a bona fide hot streak. The 25-year-old lefty has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his past eight starts since May 31, yielding one run or fewer in six of those outings. Just 21 strikeouts shy of last year's career-high total of 152, Lester is 3-2 with a 3.25 ERA and a 39/20 strikeout-to-walk ratio in seven career starts against the Blue Jays. Blue Jays: Fresh off a start for the American League in the All-Star Game, Halladay returns to the Jays' rotation in search of his first win since June 7. Over his past four starts, including an injury-shortened outing on June 12 that led to a two-week stint on the disabled list with a right groin issue, Doc has gone 0-2 with a 4.30 ERA. Halladay allowed three runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and no walks over seven innings in a losing effort on July 9 at Tampa Bay.
atta boy! we'll see what clay has tonight. interesting to see what they'll do with him if he pitches really well tonight.
I don't want Halladay. As it is they have a rotation that is easily capable of winning it all, there's no need to mortgage the future for a luxury. If they were thin at SP I'd be all for it, but I think it would be a bad move. Not to mention they would likely only be able to keep one out of him and Beckett, so they'd end up back where they started in a year and a half anyway, only without some of their top prospects.
i don't understand why that is, beckett would probably go for around 15 per, halladay around 21+. with lester making a bargain at 6 for the next 5 years that should easily be affordable.
Because they need to either resign or replace Bay, Lowell, Ortiz, Varitek, Drew, and Okajima, among others. They also need to account for Ellsbury, Papelbon, and Delcarmen hitting arbitration. Unless they commit to pitching to the extent of sacrificing offense and get lesser players elsewhere, they would have to add a decent amount of payroll to keep everyone which is unlikely.
i really feel the only one of those that will be hard to replace would be bay. with youkilis, there are options around the league at the corner position that can replace him, be it at 3rd or 1st. ellsbury hitting arbitration is a big deal, but a guy like okajima can easily be resigned without breaking the bank, hes' not going to ask for closer money. guys like reddick and anderson will be around come 2011, who obviously aren't huge monetary investments. adding a guy like halladay will always cause an increase in payroll, but i do understand why you think it is a bad YEAR to invest in a guy like that. EDIT: replace lowell, not youk.
I didn't get to see the game but saw the highlights and am very happy the way Buchholz pitched last night! Especially with the amount of first pitch strikes!
The Sox can definitely afford to add payroll. NESN is still doing fine, they're selling out every game, and payroll is lower than it's been since '03. I know starting pitching is one of their strengths already, but that doesn't mean making it an even bigger strength is unnecessary. With that three headed monster plus a lights out pen (cue a snarky comment from Cappy here) a team with a totally mediocre offense could very easily win the whole thing. There's no way they get him without Buck though. Or Anderson, and maybe even Reddick too. The thing about this is that smart teams like the Sox generally believe very strongly that you want to have good players in their 20's for their best years, which coincidentally are the cheapest. There has to be a huge exception to trade away this much talent for a guy on the wrong side of 30. If Doc is 3 years younger this would be an entirely different trade. I think even at this stage he's still worth it, but the Sox probably don't.
