Lowell out, Yankees in, Bud reluctant

Mike Lowell is on the DL until the 25th (if nothing else goes wrong) due to the sprained left thumb. He’ll try to keep up some conditioning, etc…, but how good did Casey look last night when he stepped in? A veteran who could have been a starter for a lesser team, Casey is a professional and rumored to be a hell of a teammate. We’ll see if he can stay focused and give the Sox the production they’ll need to protect Papi and Manny.

Hey, don’t look now, but the Yankees are coming to town for the first of 19 games. With Wang coming in to face Buchholz, this might be interesting. I want to see Buchholz pick it up and pitch better. He has the potential to be a solid #2, but he’s going to have to seriously control his pitches and learn how to stay out of the mental side of things when he doesn’t do well. Derek Lowe could not be reached for comment.

It looks as though this is the end of the Mitchell report fallout. Bud Selig, whether truthfully reluctant or not (hey, he could certainly be crying wolf here), is going to accept the recommendation made in Senator Mitchell’s report and not punish any of the players, former or current, for their alleged steroid and / or PED use.

If you’re looking at the sheer expense of bringing some modicum of justice to a steroid or PED user, then sure, this is the right call. I’m not so certain it gives any closure to the players who came in #2 in voting for some award that had both financial and Hall of Fame impact on their career when they, themselves, played clean. I’m being biased, but Mike Greenwell would love more phone calls to discuss how insanely pissed off he is at MLB in general.

The new players agreement for PED use / distribution will be out soon and we’ll see how serious everyone is THIS time (that’s the third time they’ve been “really serious” if you’re keeping tabs).