Mark Kotsay is a Red Sox no longer. In fact, all he has to do is trade his colors, because he’s headed to the White Sox. Brian Anderson will be leaving the White Sox for Boston. Kotsay seems to be headed to Chicago to help them out in all kinds of different positions and as a pinch hitter. He’s a good all-around utility man. Anderson was sent to Triple-A earlier this week but in the trade might play in the MLB again with Boston. For now, however, he’s headed to the Red Sox Triple-A world. Meanwhile, there appears to be a three-way deal in progress with Boston and Cleveland and possibly another team. It’s going to be an interesting time to see what our team ends up having on the field. I know they’re trying to improve a bit of the infield, so we’ll have to see what’s going on there.

The Red Sox had a tough job to do last night against the Oakland A’s. The team has had the worst offense in the AL since the All Star Break, which explains why the Yankees are more than 2 games ahead in the Al East. The Yankees are having a very interesting time in the early 2nd half of the season, having gone on a long win streak and they will be pushing the envelope as they move forward in the season. But last night, the Sox did a great job. They backed up Josh Beckett helping him to win his 12th against the A’s on 10 strikeouts. They got an 8-3 win, while getting 14 hits. Hopefully this will give the team a great boost on their bid for the AL East yet again. The Yankees will be a tough foe, but what better way to have a rivalry than against those New Yorkers?

The Red Sox just made some big changes with their players, particularly the infield. It’s not just a question of the whether they needed to get rid of a couple of players, but they did need a couple of new people and needed to make space on their roster to do it. They traded Julio Lugo for outfielder Chris Duncan of the St. Louis Cardinals. He will head to Triple-A for the moment to get the cobwebs off and get out of his hitting slump. Meanwhile, they also traded a couple minor leaguers for first baseman Adam LaRoche, who will play whenever Lowell needs a day off. The Sox will benefit from both of these moves, and Duncan will provide dependable ability whenever the team needs someone to step in.

John Smoltz was playing a great game through more than 5 innings. Then the bottom of the 6th saw all of that erased with a big 6-run inning for the Texas Rangers. This was supposed to be the big outing for him this season, the one that would bring him back into his game and back into the elite pitching squad of the Red Sox. He pitched great for most of the game and then suddenly the Rangers put together a string of good at-bats, including a couple of home runs and an RBI double. The signs are good that Smoltz will be able to keep improving. After all, he’s been out for such a long time that you shouldn’t lose faith yet. He has a lot of good stuff in him; he just needs to stop those sudden big innings a little bit better.

The Boston Red Sox have cut their ties with Julio Lugo after a disappointing first half of the 2009 season. The team has been one of the best this year, but Lugo has been one of the less impressive players this year. The Red Sox, however, have a fairly long and pricey contract with him. Whatever the Sox do, it looks like they will have to pay off that contract, no matter if they reassign him, trade him or whatever else. No one will pay $18 million for the guy if he keeps playing the way he has been or if he’s going to stay injured over the next little while. Almost any other team could take him in for a small cost. But he’s been injured for such a long time that it doesn’t seem like it would be worthwhile, with absences and a severely limited range on the field.

The Boston Globe always puts out some grades for the Red Sox at certain points of the year. It’s an interesting way to clarify where they are at different points over the course of the season. The team isn’t perfect and there are a couple of players who are absolutely awful right now. There have been injuries and distractions, but overall the team has been playing very well, based on the grades and my own watching the team. They are on track for 99 wins this season, which may well be enough to take the AL East, baseball’s toughest division. It’s also going to be a lot of fun to see if they make some changes in the meantime just to shore a couple of points up, though for all the points that the team is performing badly, they could easily put someone into that position as a replacement. We’ll be watching to see where they end up, but it’s a great year for them anyhow!

Roy Halladay is perhaps on the trading block in the AL East Division. The Toronto Blue Jays, who were the best in the division early in the season but have fallen off badly this year, are looking to trade baseball’s winningest pitcher before the July 31st trade deadline. But will the Red Sox take it? A columnist with the Boston Globe says that he can imagine no way that the Sox would take it. It’s just not worth it, because the Sox have the best pitching squad right now, with a lot of great players. Even their bullpen is having no trouble. And should some catastrophe happen and the Sox need more pitchers, they have a well-developed farm system and the ability to trade for almost anyone in the league. They will be fine without Mr. Halladay.

The Red Sox were able to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners when they brought out the big bats yesterday at Fenway. Seattle had won the first 2 games of the series by just a run or two each and were hoping to get their first sweep at Fenway ever. But it wasn’t to be, as Boston, encouraged by some of their players heading to the All Star Game, was able to get 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th and win the game 8-4. The 7th was a crazy game for this team, as they sent 9 players to the plate and had 5 runs with 3 hits and 3 walks. We always love seeing games like this because it gets the Red Sox to win real games but remains exciting for the whole time too. Their manager was pleased with their resiliency in getting back at the Mariners and not letting them sweep.  Of course, getting an 8th series win in a row would have been nice, but that was already off the table yesterday.

In an exciting game, the Red Sox beat the Orioles, 6-5 in 11 innings. It looked like it was a day for Baltimore, but the whole thing turned in the 9th inning, when the Orioles gave up 4 runs and sent it all into 11 innings. Meanwhile, the Red Sox almost lost the series. But that’s ok, because they’re winning most of their games otherwise. You can also tell that they’re having a great year because the Sox will probably have several players in the All Star Game. This is a team going places this year, battling it out well in the competitive AL East and then we can make sure that we are there for all the action. While the Yankees have been sort of floating near the top, the Red Sox are pushing ahead too. Let’s do it!