I was most annoyed by not pinch hitting Aardsma and sending him out for a 2nd inning. The post-game crew seemed a bit harsh on Hansen's outing today whereas I felt he pitched solidly. The single up the middle was a weak hit ground ball just out of the reach of Pedroia and other than that, he pitched well. Delcarmen was thrown to the wolves though. He didn't have it, and he should have never been kept in there after the walk.

This game reeked of a "Let's not throw Papelbon today" loss. While it's hard not to disagree with their handling of Paps, especially after how successfully he finished last year, it really annoys me that they change everyone's elses role in the game to try to protect thier closer. Any other day Hansen is starting the 7th and Delcarmen and Oki would be working the 8th. Because Tito tried stretching out his relievers and changing their roles (mainly by bringing out Aardsma in the 7th, but also slightly by not having as short of leash on Delcarmen as I thought he should have), we ended up losing. There's no way I'd throw Paps out in the 8th given the tie game and his recent workload, but I'm not sure Delcarmen was the person I wanted to throw to Berkman.

And while Papelbon might have worked a lot recently in terms of days, he threw very few pitches, especially in the last 3 days:

JUN 22 STL 19-15
JUN 24 ARI 19-13
JUN 25 ARI 5-4
JUN 27 HOU 13-9

Watch tomorrow be one of those blowout games in which we won't need to use Paps.

It really just depends on what you mean by prospects. I wouldn't trade Clay, Masterson, or Bowden for anyone, but I would gladly trade players on the level of Gabbard, Murphy, and Beltre again, albeit for someone better than Gagne. I would prefer a lefty to back up Oki, such as Fuentes.

We actually are in a position where we should make a deal this summer just for the sake of clearing out some prospects. David Pauley and Charlie Zink are both pitching as well as they ever have, and should be able to fetch something decent in return. Also, Brandon Moss appears to be blocked for another 2 years assuming Manny returns, especially if Crisp doesn't move. If there was a decent reliever out there on the market, I'd gladly swap out these three players for some players who could help the team win this year. Lowrie wouldn't bother me either, but I'd much rather prefer him going in a deal that would pull in C.C. rather than a middle reliever.