Ad Gon Gone!

Gone? Gone... It's a ballsy move for the hometown nice - trading both last year's big money acquisitions, plus Josh Beckett, for prospects - though probably easier to take then most salaries for prospects deals. Gonzalez hasn't quite been the world beater here he was supposed to be - maybe he's been hurt, maybe he's unhappy, maybe he's wilting under the pressure of the big city, maybe - who knows. Odds are, he's going to earn that contract, here or elsewhere - but he hasn't yet. And Crawford has been a disaster. Maybe nothing you could foresee - he had a bad start, got hurt, came back and stunk, was hurt more than they thought, and has stayed hurt, and is hurt now... all that money... And Beckett has gone off the burn. He's to blame for all the clubhouse dissent, they say. Who knows about that, but they are sure sick of him here.

The point is, the sox have stunk out the joint since the beginning of last September - after being on top of the world this time last year. The decline was precipitous, and the expected recovery never came. They've hit all along - but the pitching has been dreadful. They need to do something about that. Some of it, of course, is that the people who are, in fact, established, front of the rotation starters have to pitch like it. Lester, Buchholz - Beckett - need to pitch like it. Lackey, at least, had the decency to get hurt and go away... but that's just part of it. Looking at the parade of scrubs the Sox have run out there after Lester and company, it's no wonder they have been so bad. Last year's dregs - Andrew Miller, grampa Wakefield after his 80 good innings, Eric Bedard? - were, maybe - well, officially - the worst ever. This year's failures - from Daniel Bard (ruined, for no good reason) to Rockies cast offs Morales and Cook - may not match those depths, but god almighty. What a disaster.

So this deal - full of prospects, young arms, mostly, is what is needed here. The sox are still turning out decent hitters down on the farm - but they have been a while since they have brought up a pitcher who is worth having. The cupboard is bare - it needs to be restocked. The thing is - the team was scoring runs this year without Crawford, and with Ad-Gon hitting like James Loney - so they should keep right on scoring runs. They have some money again - they should be able to turn that into something after the season - pitchers, I hope (and I hope they do a better job of picking them than John Lackey), offense doesn't hurt... If not in free agents, then in those arbitration eligible types that mediocre teams like to get rid of while they can... r the Carlos Gonzalez', with their big contracts on losing teams. hey'll have more to offer anyway...

We'll see. On balance - I am sorry to see Gonzalez go, but if he can take the other two with him, then I guess I won't complain.