Random Thoughts

I haven’t done a “random thoughts” post in some time, so I thought I would let you know some thoughts I had on the Red Sox at this point in the season.

* When I came into work on Monday, one of my co-workers asked me if anyone was “sacred” on the Red Sox anymore, meaning Youkilis. As much as I enjoyed Youkilis and was a fan of him, sometimes players need to be moved (Remember Nomar?). I also told him that with the way the Sox are playing lately, Youkilis won’t be the end of the trades for the Sox.

* Ben Cherington has said that starting pitching remains a priority for the Red Sox as the trade deadline approaches. Matt Garza’s name has been floating around for weeks, almost months, now. Do the Red Sox overpay for Garza (since it’ll look really bad on Hoyer and Epstein’s part if they only get one or two prospects in return)? Greinke might be available, but could he survive in the AL East? I, for one, would love to get back Masterson, but the Indians are in the AL Central race at the moment. With Sabathia and Pettitte both going on the DL for the Yankees today, you know the Sox will be competing with the Yanks for pitching.  Should be interesting.

* I had a post awhile ago about something being wrong with Clay Buchholz. Not that his condition went that far back, but something WAS seriously wrong with Buchholz. He spent five days in the hospital, two days in ICU, with esophagitis, which lead to corrosion of the esophagus and an associated bleed (gastrointestinal, by reports). In Buchholz’s word that appeared in The Boston Globe:

It was real scary I never really felt the urge to pass out every time I stood up and I didn't know what was going on. Whenever you got doctors telling you, 'Alright, come on over to my office and we'll check you out,' and you're like, 'I can't get there, I can't walk,' it was pretty scary for about three days.

They were trying to downplay it, but when you're laying in an ICU [intensive care unit], where I'm from it usually means that stuff's not going really well. Once I got out of there, the doctors were pretty upfront about it, saying it wasn't really life-threatening at this point. They just had me in [the ICU] to make sure that I wasn't really losing any more blood.

They were basically giving me medicine to coat my stomach and put it wherever the bleeding was coming from to stop the bleeding. That's when they started doing the tests. I really never cared to know what was going on, I just wanted to get out of there and that's where I'm at now.

I'm sure I'm going to have to go in and do some more tests when the guys go on the road. We might know a little bit more from that. But they still really hadn't put a finger on what happened or what caused it and why it stopped bleeding or when it started, so, yeah, it would be news to me, too.

Buchholz was in the clubhouse before today’s game, but who knows when he’ll return to the mound.

* Josh Beckett is reportedly going to be returning from the disabled list and pitching on Saturday versus the Mariners.

* I saw two videos provided by MLB this week that I am really enjoying. The first is Omar Vizquel’s dancing in the dugout during the rain delay on Monday night to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.” Here’s the link: http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=123744

The second is Aroldis Chapman’s somersaults after his save last night. I know there’s been some outrage about it; but really, who does a somersault? Here’s the link: http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=547973