No luck for Buch by Jared Carrabis
Erik Bedard's impact now that Clay Buchholz "likely" out for the season with stress fracture


Certainly not the news that everyone wanted to hear, but I can't say that this news is all that shocking.

Multiple sources, but first reported by Sean McAdam, are handing down the bad news that Clay Buchholz has "likely" has thrown his last start with the Boston Red Sox this season as a result of a stress fracture in his lower back.

Losing a pitcher of Buchholz's caliber is a back-breaker to most teams, but before you rip up your World Series hopes, keep in mind that the Red Sox just had their first 20-win month since May 2007, and their best winning percentage of any month in team history. Oh, and they did that with Jon Lester on the 15-day DL, Josh Beckett missing two starts, Jed Lowrie missing the entire month, and their $14 million right fielder becoming seemingly useless.

Now, here's the wild card: Erik Bedard.

If you live under a rock, then you should know that the Red Sox have traded for left-handed starter, Erik Bedard. Bedard is a very curious case. I used to pay no mind to Tony Massarotti's rants on 98.5 The Sports Hub about the lefty, but now that he has become relevant to Red Sox fans, it's worth passing along that Bedard has a reputation of being one of the most unfriendly athletes in the game. Or as Tony Mazz likes to say, "He's an a-hole."

Over the weekend, WEEI was discussing the acquisition of Bedard, and there had been a rumor floating around that the left-hander purposely tanked his most recent start (1.1 IP, 5 ER) so that a big market team wouldn't trade for him.

On Friday, Jim Duquette had some choice words about Bedard to the Boston Herald, to which he said, "He's not a 'spotlight' guy, and he's not reliable from a health standpoint — as we've seen. Caveat Emptor."

I've definitely heard more assuring things before in my life.

However, on the other hand, CSNNE.com's Sean McAdam went on the record saying that when the Seattle Mariners were in town this past week, Bedard threw a simulated game at Fenway Park as part of his preparation for his first start after returning from the disabled list.

McAdam said that Bedard was "pitching with much more focus" when members of the Red Sox front office and scouting department began watching him throw from the Fenway Park mound. So you can take that for what it's worth.

Regardless of the attitude that he possesses at the moment, he's a free agent after 2011, and this is simply a two-month rental. If he hates the spotlight, then he's going to find out very quickly that it will be a lot easier for him in his two-month sentence to pitch for a winning team (horrible, I know) that it will be a lot easier for him if he pitches well and says the right things.

He's no longer the front-line starter that he was in Baltimore, but if he can give Red Sox a string of quality starts, then it will justify the decision to acquire him for the stretch run.

-Jared Carrabis

Published on August 01, 2011

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