Blog post-wise, maybe something about which players could help out this year if needed (minor league prospects and vets), and the converse of what the roster crunch will look like if giant cartoon feet stop coming down from the sky to crush members of the active roster one by one (Who has minor league options, potential DFAs and so on).

There's also room for a 3-way comparison blog: Sox management vs Duquette vs Theo in terms of the day-to-day progress and trading moves of the Sox, Orioles and Cubs.

There's also room for a 3-way comparison blog: Sox management vs Duquette vs Theo in terms of the day-to-day progress and trading moves of the Sox, Orioles and Cubs.

We're probably a little too early into the Orioles and Cubs tenures of the GMs for this to be in any way illuminating, but in a couple years this could actually be very neat to look at.

Cook is an excellent starter for AAA. His stuff is good enough to get most guys out in AAA, and if you need somebody to make three or four starts on the big club due to injuries, he's a fine option. But wouldn't you much rather have, say, Doubront pitching than Cook? At least Doubront could be around for a while.

The Red Sox are now 6-44 with RISP on this homestand.

But Doubront isn't going anywhere, Cook is in for Beckett today. Given expected injuries and inning limitations to Doubront and Bard I'm fine with Cook as a sixth starter.

WOW I AM SO SURPRISED AARON COOK IS GETTING LIT UP.

Oh wait, no, I'm not.

Why are we supposed to like Cook so much? Let him walk. See if he catches on with anyone now....

You all did SEE his injury didn't you?

He wasn't looking great before the injury either. He'd just given up a homer and a double, right?

He'd just given up a homer and a double, right?

no

He'd given up 2 singles before the injury.

That injury was disgusting. He was doing ok (not great) before that, but he obviously should have come out of the game at that point. Hard to really judge too much based on that. Salty wasn't helping either letting balls get away from him.

Cook sucks. The leg injury is just going to be an excuse to explain away this disaster. Maybe he wouldn't have been quite as bad without the injury, but he wouldn't have been any good. He was still throwing the same 86-88 MPH junk that he's thrown since hurting his shoulder. He's had no success with that diminished stuff, and that isn't going to change pitching in the AL East and in Fenway.

The optimism over a guy with a 13/11 K/BB in 33 AAA innings reminds me of last year when some of you convinced yourselves that Andrew Miller actually did turn his career around and wasn't destined to suck monkeys again when brought up. If Cook is actually the best sixth starter that the Red Sox have then they're ######.

And even if the injury were the cause of Cook's awful performance, then that's just a failure by the medical staff, manager, and pitching coach to put him back out on the mound.

But he's really just a shitty pitcher, and now due to the injury they'll probably explain away his shitty pitching and give him more starts, and he'll continue to get lit up.

If Cook is actually the best sixth starter that the Red Sox have then they're ######.

Of course, he'd be the Yankees fourth best starter, so...

They should sack the entire medical staff.

They already did, didn't they? Can't sack them every 6 months, unless they want to register the team with the British National Health Service, and pretend it's a branch of Liverpool!

What Duquette's done that prior O's GMs didn't was make sure that the club isn't playing anyone who doesn't belong in the majors. I'm loving the early starts by Hammel + Chris Davis, not sure if that's how they'll be all year, but with Nolan Reimold out, the O's aren't starting Brandon Fahey in LF anymore. They just signed Tejada to put a charge into Mark Reynolds (I... freaking... hope.)

Club's gonna be competitive all year.

They just signed Tejada to put a charge into Mark Reynolds (I... freaking... hope.)

Miguel Tejada? One never knows, but I can't imagine Reynolds is going to be that alarmed by the prospect of 38-year Miguel Tejada and the giant fork sticking out of his back taking his job.

Miguel Tejada? One never knows, but I can't imagine Reynolds is going to be that alarmed by the prospect of 38-year Miguel Tejada and the giant fork sticking out of his back taking his job.

True. If Tejada is taking playing time away from anyone better than a D+ prospect in the minors, it's a wasted roster spot for their AA team. If he's somehow in the majors, it's a comically terribly wasted roster spot and close to firable negligence if anyone else was willing to work under Angelos.

The staggering number of players on a team with such a high payroll who do not belong in Major League Baseball simply astounds.

The staggering number of players on a team with such a high payroll who do not belong in Major League Baseball simply astounds.

Amen. This is, of course, because there is SO MUCH money going to players that have nothing to do with a high-skill, high-payroll, high-performance team (Crawford, Jencks, Lackey, and Matsuzaka are getting, what, $45 million to NOT play right now...and those four might actually be helping the team more by not playing.

Then, you've got guys like Youkilis, Ellsbury, and Bailey who would be helpful, but they are out, too. What's that, another $20+ million.

Basically, the Red Sox are like a household making $200K a year, but they've still got their student loans, the fifth-year of a six-year car payment, an underwater mortgage, and $20K in credit card debt. They are currently living below their means because so much of their spending is on legacy payments, and on things that are not directly related to their current quality of life.

I usually look askance at analogies but that last one was pretty good.