Hey now. Hope everyone had a great weekend, or at the very least, a better weekend than the Red Sox. Then again, even poor Tony Scott had a better weekend than Bobby V's boys; the bar isn't set very high.
But on the brightside, with 38 games left and the Sox 7.5 games back in the Wild Card, David Ortiz is finally seeing the light! And not to be outdone, John Lackey's progressing in his rehab from Tommy John surgery! The front office is currently deciding whether to have Lackey make a couple starts in September or just individually kick every Red Sox fan in the groin. Stay tuned.
Speaking of Tommy John, the big story today will no doubt be Carl Crawford, who's set to meet with the Sox this afternoon and decide once and for all whether to have surgery on his ailing elbow. According to the reports, Crawford probably will elect to have surgery (most likely tomorrow), and in the process close the curtain on his 2012 season.
The final tally: 31 games, .282 AVG, .785 OPS, three homers, 19 RBI, 22 Ks, three walks and five stolen bases. Or if you want to break it down another way, that's roughly 161K per game, 1.7M per home run and 2M per stolen base.
Not a bad deal, Carl.
But despite his latest wildly disappointing season, I don't think anyone has an issue with Crawford going under the knife. In fact, most of us wonder why it took so long. I mean, you can understand why Crawford wanted to delay things a little bit; you admire the fact that he genuinely feels bad about how his time with the Sox has gone and wants to do everything he can to make up for it. But it's obvious that we've reached the point where the best way for Crawford to make up for these last two seasons is to do everything he can to be ready for next season. To get this elbow taken care of andonce againtry to start fresh.
According to Sean McAdam, Tommy John recovery times for position players range from 7-9 months, which would put Crawford on track to be ready right around April. Actually, it puts Crawford on track to be ready by next August, but hopefully this time around he'll recover at a more reasonable rate. Either way, I don't think you'll hear anyone make a stink about Crawford shutting it down.
Boston Red Sox
I don't think there'd be a problem if anyone wanted to shut it down. Papi? Beckett? Ellsbury? A-Gon? I don't care who it is. If you don't feel like playing, take a seat, and let's unleash the farm on Fenway for the rest of the year. Bring up Jackie Bradley, Jose Iglesias and Matt Barnes. I know Xander Boegarts is all of seven years old but bring him up, too.
I know the owners might be worried about people losing interest, but I guarantee fans would be more interested than they are right now. And who cares? After all, no matter how many people show up to Fenway, you know it still counts as a sell out.
Rich can be reached at rlevine@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Rich on Twitter at http:twitter.comrich_levine