$300,000 down the drain

The problem with incentive laden contracts is that Wells will pitch again, whether he feels good or not. Wells just drives me nuts. Let's face it, he is a good number 4 pitcher, getting paid as a number two pitcher. If Schilling doesn't get back into the starting role he was born to play, this team is going nowhere in the playoffs. Who's your number one and two starter without him? Clement and then ... Arroyo?

1-2-3 You're Out! Looks like Bellhorn is finally out the door. God bless his performance in the playoffs last year, but watching his league leading strike out count go up, up, up is just maddening. Now they just have to figure out that playing Olerud is better than playing Millar at first.

And why do people give Manny a hard time? Yes, he loses you, what, 2 or 3 games a year by not running out a ball or not running hard on the bases, but he wins a lot more games than that for you. Look at his numbers for the Red Sox over the past 5 years:

Year Team G AB R H HR RBI BB SO OBP SLG AVG
2001 BOS 142 529 93 162 41 125 81 147 .405 .609 .306
2002 BOS 120 436 84 152 33 107 73 85 .450 .647 .349
2003 BOS 154 569 117 185 37 104 97 94 .427 .587 .325
2004 BOS 152 568 108 175 43 130 82 124 .397 .613 .308
2005 BOS 109 394 84 113 32 108 60 89 .385 .594 .287

Yes, his average is still down (so far) this year, but look at those RBI's and slugging! You think you can replace that? Out of 681 runs scored for the Red Sox, Manny is responsible for 108 of them, or 16%! Ortiz has 107 as well, and I know he doesn't get paid as much, but then he doesn't play the field, either!

Magic number for the Sox is still 41 since everyone (Yanks, Sox, and A's all lost).