In the News...

For me, today was a very interesting day on the baseball news front.  While I don't typically bother with current events posts (no time to keep up, and so many others already do a better job than I ever could anyway), I figured it was a chance to at least show some baseball cards.

Red Sox fans found out what that already feared, that there's nothing wrong with Clay Buchholz except that he's not that tough.  Dr. James Andrews confirmed what the team already knew, that Buchholz is in overall good health.  I remember a time in May when I had visions of Cy Young awards dancing through my head, and now after two months of basically no action we find out that essentially Clay is "sore".  This, combined with recent comments that he's "90%" and "if this were September...", have a lot of fans, myself included, pretty ticked off.  Patrice Bergeron played with a dislocated shoulder, broken rib, and punctured lung in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Dislocated shoulder.

Broken rib.

Punctured lung.  Clay Buchholz, you sir, are a panzy.*

So this guy's a fraud.  I don't really feel bad for him.  In the least.  I know I'm not the only one who got some sick satisfaction in hearing this after Braun got off on a joke of an appeal previously.  What a dope.  Since A-Rod is injured maybe he can take the Braun route and admit to what he did and serve out his suspension this season?  Nope, too much pride for that.  I don't give Braun any credit for "coming out and admitting it" either, he had plenty of chances to do that previously.  When you only admit something because you're backed into a corner (and your team is 18.5 games back in the division), does that really count?

Finally, Dustin Pedroia appears to be on the verge of signing a gigantic contract extension with the Red Sox.  While there is literally no player on the current team that I would rather lock up than Dustin, the numbers I've been hearing ($20 Million!?!?!) seem very high, even if you want to go above and beyond to reward a guy who is your franchise embodied on the field.  There are very few athletes I'd give that kind of money too.

Patrice Bergeron is one of those few, and when I think about it Pedroia is probably the most like Bergeron of any player on the Red Sox (really weird comparison to have to try to make, not sure why I feel that way, I just do).  So in that sense I'm glad they're locking him up.  At least we can count on Dustin taking his at-bats, even if it's not October, and even if he's only 90%...

*I've never met Clay Buchholz, I'm sure he's actually a very nice guy who does a lot of charity work.  His tolerance for pain is very low though.  Simply a fact.