(Boston Red Sox’ Paul Byrd goes high and tight)
Red Sox GM Theo Epstein has taken off his monkey suit long enough to complete a phone call with Cleveland, acquiring RHP Paul Byrd for the Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later – although I’m going to guess the name won’t be “Coco Crisp”. Byrd has been superb since the break, sporting a 4-0 record and miserly 1.24 ERA. A banged-up Tampa Bay squad should have its hands full in the stretch.
Meanwhile, on the South Side, after splitting a 4-game series with the Bosox, Chicago’s Kenny Williams set a less concerned tone, passing on the shipwrecked Mariners’ Jarrod Washburn and talking up the virtues of promotion from within. The cagey GM made no moves at all and instead offered the following ruminations on patching the Jose Contreras-shaped hole in his rotation:
“Sometimes the most obvious move isn’t so obvious for us,” Williams said. “And taking money and contracts out of the equation, for instance, getting a veteran who may slip through the waiver process, it may look good on paper and create a buzz with the fans. … In essence, if we don’t really believe that will translate into success in this ballpark, and that’s very key, then it doesn’t make sense to do it.”…
“You’re better off bringing someone in who has been trained in a minor-league system, a major-league spring training, has experience in the ballpark and understands the value of two-seam sink on a pitch, [throwing a] changeup behind on the count, all the things it takes in order to translate to success out here at this park,” Williams said.
Okay, fair enough. Junior, here’s your rosin bag, your ticket to Charlotte and your copy of So You’re Behind In The Count.
Rob — do you think Kenny was alluding to Gary Sheffield when he was talking about veterans who get put on waivers?
Ahem, I’d just like to add that the Red Sox late-season acquisitions haven’t been doing nearly as badly as dolts like Steve Phillips had made them out to be (and assuredly better than the Yankees’ moves). Andy Marte’s ERA is inching close to 5 and the aging and punchless Pudge is on the shelf. Everybody creamed their pants when the Yankees traded for all of those guys but the only one who has played well is Nady and he doesn’t always play every day. I love mainstream sports journalism so damned much, it hurts. The Red Sox pitching has been fine but with the injury to Wake, they go out and pick up a decent Veteran Who Knows How To Win®. Nice. And…it was a gorilla suit goddamit!
Ben: Kenny knows to draw the line at 1500 career home runs in the lineup. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Rog: I haven’t read Steve Phillips, but no doubt the superheated East Coast Media Bias plays a role in the mainstream writers missing the boat but filling column inches. I like the Byrd pickup quite a bit and I also expect to see Zink keeping Varitek busy too. I predict an ugly week for the Rays vs Angels and White Sox.
Well, Kevin Cash catches the knuckler and Zink has already been demoted after last night’s ‘performance.’ Then there’s also Obese Bartolo Colon down in AAA if he can ever put enough rehab innings together before Sept. 30th. When rosters expand, keep an eye on Michael Bowden. Some think he’s the best of the young pitchers though he hasn’t logged a lot of innings at AAA yet. Can’t wait to see if he can start a coupe of games.
The Yankees are losing ground almost every day in the wild card race. I predict that MN will get the wild card, Sox win the division and the Yankees spend $50m per year for 5 years for Man-Ram in the offseason.