Boston’s Final Blow

By Corey R. Cunningham

I believe the injury to young Red Sox 3B Will Middlebrooks was the final nail in the coffin Friday night, as the young superstar took a ball off his right wrist. This is true for Fantasy players who own Red Sox players and theRed Sox fans. As a result of this injury his right wrist is broken and Bobby Valentine thinks Middlebrooks will be shut down for the remainder of the season.

Middlebrooks was hitting .288 with 15 HR, 54 RBI, 34 R and 4 SB. He was the replacement to Kevin Youkilis and he will be the long time 3B there in Bean town. Even though this is a crushing blow to all fantasy teams and dynasty teams, have faith, and keep Middlebrooks on the DL for next year.

This injury could lead to a lot of decision from the Red Sox organization, whether it’s to start bringing up younger talent from the minor leagues to get experience, and also this could be time for Carl Crawford to get his Tommy John Surgery. The Red Sox are 12 games out of first place in the AL East and 6 games out of both the Wild Card spots. I can simply say this is not the year for the Red Sox, it started off bad and it’s going to end worse.

If you have owned anyone in the Red Sox rotation you have been hurt in W, ERA, & WHIP. That is just one of the ralities of owning AL East SPs. The SP is just not up to par this year, with Lester having an ERA above 5, the Josh Beckett trade rumors, and last year’s mishaps in the club house, brand new manager, which I do not think is entirely the problem, however, I do think Bobby Valentine is not the man that should be managing this team. Felix Doubront cannot do it all; he has pitched well for this team, however, his past couple outings have been horrible to say the least. The only positive note is SP Clay Buchholz, who has turned it around since the first couple starts of the season; he has been on a tear lately.

SP Aaron Cook is just simply not going to get it done this year, and although I believe they upgraded the bull pen during the trade deadline, it did nothing for this year, and I still believe trading Josh Reddick was the wrong thing to do. What is done is done, look for Boston to bring up some young minor league talent to get a head start for next year.