Link

Owwww. This is definitely not good.

If Ellsbury can play through a bruised tailbone, I don't see why JD can't play through this.

Brian Giles would have looked pretty good in a Sox uniform right about now. If Ellsbury can do a passable job in the leadoff spot, it's still a solid offense without JD. Maybe not solid enough, though. Time for the bullpen to get its act together.

Ellsbury in right means Crisp in center though. And, with Lowell out we also get Cora sometimes, like tonight. So, I think the maybe not applies.

Without Drew I have serious doubts whether this team can get past the Angels in the first round assuming we win the wild card.

The lineup takes a major hit with both Lowell and Drew out. Not sure who else has cleared waivers but Sheffield if healthy is one of the few veteran OFs who may be available right now without giving up the farm. But Sheffield may not be able to play in RF because of his shoulder.

That's why Giles would have been nice.

Getting Lugo back would even be nice. Gives them a few options.



It applies with Cora in the lineup for sure.

If Ellsbury is getting on base at a passable clip, though, the offense is fine on most nights. 8-9 with Varitek and Crisp is a rally killer, but if you plug in Casey at 1B and Youk at 3B, it's still a decent 1-7. That's enough with the Sox starting pitching. It's never enough with the Sox bullpen. If the day ever comes when the bullpen can be reasonably consistent, the Sox can weather this. If not, well...they're still going to stay in the wild card hunt.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we ended up with Jason Bay.... but man, a Brandon Moss would come in handy right now.

At the time we tried to make that deal with SD, I have to wonder if under the radar Theo tried to send Giles a text message, oh something like "Dont tell NE1, but JD has herni8d disc. Plz agree to tr8d, we need U!"

Drew's probably just faking. I HATE him!

When did Theo become a lolcat?

Theo has ALWAYS been a lolcat, dummy.

Well shame on me for questioning him.

What's the time table for a herniated disc? The responses in here make it sound like he's done for the year.

Basically depends on how deep it is into the sciatic nerve. I've had it, and I couldn't even stand up to take a piss for 3 months without being in earth-shattering agony. Mine was actually 2 (one ruptured & one herniated) - the ruptured one was literally half way into my sciatic, and it took spinal surgery to correct it. I actually had the procedure the day after Pedro threw 6 innings of no-hit ball in game 5 vs. the Tribe. Best of times, worst of times...

With anti-inflammatories and an epidural, they can sometimes get the inflammation to reduce and the disc can reseal itself. From the reports, it does sounds like he is only having muscle spasms in back/ass at this time. As much as that is not a good thing, it is a good in thing in the big picture. If the disc is really bad and it is impinging the nerve root, you would expect that he would be have pain and/or numbness into one of his legs. Depending on the location of the herniation, it can also compress the canal itself and that can make for a boatload of pain and discomfort. Based on the way that they are handling this, I suspect that the herniation is not too bad and they are hoping they can get this to go away with conservative treatment. If they don't get it to go away, he might be looking at surgery.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds..._going_concern/

This does not look good.

He may be struggling right now in AAA but I wouldn't be opposed to brining up Jeff Corsaletti if Drew goes on the DL.

The real problem is they really have nobody to bring up who is any good. I'm sure they don't want to DL Drew, but they probably don't want to run too lean in the Yankee series too. Tough call.

Jason Lane. This is why they signed him a couple weeks ago. He has big league experience.

I totally forgot about Jason Lane, but how have his numbers been (I can't look them up now). Does he have good defense/speed?

He has a lot of experience sucking ass. He can't really hit anymore, can't get on base, is a terrible baserunner, and plays god-awful defense.

I'd rather see Van Every get a shot than Jason Lane.

This sucks. This was the most fun guy to root for all year for me. He exceeded my expectations, even though I did expect a bounceback.

Its a major blow if he's out because he is a legit 3-4-5 hitter and it will make the Manny to Bay downgrade all the more noticeable.

Drew to the DL:




This sucks. We go into the Toilet without our #1 and #3 pitchers and our #5 and #6 hitters.

Yankee Stadium in late August in a playoff chase. Welcome to the big time, Joe Thurston.

According to Art Martone's post over at SOSH, there should have been a question mark following the statement that Drew is going to the DL because there has been no official announcement. Thurston is, however, on his way to Boston.

If Joe Thurston is indeed going to be filling in for Drew in RF, that's an interesting choice. He doesn't play OF nearly as often as 2B, but he's a speedy guy and catches the balls that he gets to. He also bats left-handed and hits well for average in the minors.

Globe Update

Who's our #3 pitcher? Dice-K? Can't help it if he's just not scheduled. We get Beckett back Friday and Wake is back...the pitching is about to be stabilized. We get Lester Thursday and Byrd/Ponson tomorrow which is a coin flip..we can still win 2 of 3 here.

Lowell/Drew out is a tough pill to swallow; we are fortunate that the majority of the season left is at home, where we have less trouble scoring. I expect a Kotsay-type deal pretty soon to play RF. He's perfect because once Drew is back, Kotsay is a great backup plan for CF if Ellsbury/Crisp can't hit a lick in September.

Kotsay is no guarantee to hit well either, as in last year in Oakland, although I guess he had some injuries. I still like the guy as a good all around player and hope the Sox pick him up. I was positive on Kielty last year and that worked out fine.

The movement of Thurston to the 40 day roster puts Colon on the 60 day DL. So much for him going to the pen.

Colon has been on the DL more than 60 days already, so this is just an administrative move. Colon can come off anytime, so there'll be another move sometime in September to put Colon back on the 40-man roster.

I'm bummed about Drew also, but there is no "Manny to Bay downgrade".

Manny's OPS with the Sox .926
Bay's OPS with the Sox .914

Edit: and I'm confident that Bay's defense makes up for the .012 OPS

I meant just hitting wise. I guess I havent really made it clear( ), but I do agree that Bay's defense more than makes up for the difference in batting.

J.D back in the lineup tonight! Per Tito on EEI

Here's the link
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...ew_will_be.html

Put a healthy (heh) JD Drew back in this lineup, and suddenly the Angels series isn't looking like impending doom any longer. I don't have much faith in a lineup that has Lowrie and Varitek hitting 6th and 7th going deep into the playoffs, but suddenly if those two are the 8th and 9th hitters with Drew and Lowell back in the lineup (even if each of them are only at 80%), and you're looking at a really good shot at this team making a deep postseason run.

An 80% JD Drew is still better than Mark Kotsay of late. Hopefully they'll ease him back into things slowly, because he could be a huge part of the postseason.