Michael Bowden News

It's the dog days of the offseason, no doubt. While the main action goes on on the hot stove, the only real baseball being played is what's going on in the minor leagues.

I'm giving Beckett the nod on opening day to split up the two right handed pitchers, though I expect Lester to be the "Ace" by end of the season.

Boston Red Sox Top 20 Prospects for 2010. All grades are EXTREMELY PRELIMINARY and subject to change.

Don't hold your breath for the Red Sox to make big, newsworthy deals for players such as Adrian Gonzalez, Felix Hernandez, or especially Roy Halladay.

Prospects: Clay Buchholz , Casey Kelly , Ryan Westmoreland , Junichi Tazawa , Michael Bowden , Ryan Kalish , Josh Reddick , Lars Anderson Potential major losses: Jason Bay Major Free Agents after 2010: Josh Beckett , Victor Martinez , Mike Lowell , David Ortiz Infield: Victor Martinez, Kevin Youkilis , and Dustin Pedroia put together a very good ...

SD is in a far stronger bargaining position than Toronto. Halladay has come out and made clear he will not resign after this year.

The "2010 Baseball America Prospect Handbook" arrives in bookstores and mailboxes in late January, but the tease comes roughly a month earlier: The list of the Red Sox' top 30 prospects is set to be revealed on the BA website Dec.

Lars Anderson, last year's consensus #1, has likely fallen. Who will take over in his place? via View full size photo>> It's that time of year again, folks.

Baseball Prospectus released their list of the Top 11 Red Sox prospects, with an additional 4 noted after that, for a total of the Top 15.

But the Red Sox, the team with the most reported interest in Gonzalez, probably will need to offer major-league pieces to entice the Padres.

Boston Red Sox It is getting tougher and tougher for the Red Sox to keep winning and maintain an elite farm system, especially when you make some aggressive trade-deadline deals to pick up the likes of Victor Martinez and Billy Wagner .

With the postseason on everyone's mind, it must be hard for the players to concentrate on the last couple of meaningless regular-season games this weekend at Fenway Park.

Sitting in the enemy dugout on the field that he used to call home, Justin Masterson looked around at the green walls all around him and reflected on leaving Fenway Park for Cleveland.

Chris Carpenter has been voted NL comeback player of the year and Aaron Hill has won the AL award.

Jed Lowrie hit his first career grand slam to cap a five-run sixth inning as Boston outslugged Cleveland, 12-7, in the season and series finale for both clubs from Fenway Park.

All I can say is "Thank you, Texas Rangers." They lost once again to lower Boston's magic number to win the AL wild card to one, essentially clinching a tie.

All that matters is getting in to the playoffs. A team can back their way in, stumble, trip, crawl, or show up bloody and battered, but getting in is the goal.

The Red Sox have scratched ace Josh Beckett's start against the Blue Jays Monday night.

Posted by Christine E. at 4:13 pm in Baseball , Random Thoughts , Red Sox While Paul Byrd gave up 5 runs in the 1st inning, he completely settled down, and gave the Sox 5 2/3 scoreless innings after that-and on most days, that would keep the Sox in the game, and give them the chance to win.

A plan has emerged on how and when Tim Wakefield [ stats ] will pitch next. The knuckleballer will start Tuesday at Fenway Park [ map ] against the Orioles.