Daily Links - The Well That Sucked Edition

What a crappy series. I don't have anything particularly witty to say about it. That probably doesn't surprise you. I'm sorry it doesn't.

Link time.

I may not have anything to say about the just past series with Tampa (it's Tampa, by the way; Tampa Bay is a body of water), but Tim Britton at the Providence Journal notes that the series was a historically bad one for the Sox bats. I'd bet so without doing the research, though to his credit Mr. Britton isn't so lazy. It's tough to imagine even a bad team going three games in a row without A) getting four hits, and B) taxing the opposing starter in any way at all.

Despite the offense's no-show, there was some small gold lining to that dark cloud overhead. John Lackey... Ok, stop laughing. Now, seriously, John Lackey pitched a pretty good game. He wasn't perfect -- the inexplicable change-up launched by BJ Upton after four straight fastballs for strikes, three of which were swinging, comes to mind -- but he wasn't bad by any stretch. That 3-0 pitch that Evan Longoria hit to Venus was a pitch 99% of batters take. The Rays scored their first on a weak single, an error, a walk, a wild pitch, and a ground out. Look up "getting hit hard" in the dictionary and you won't find anything because "getting hit hard" isn't a word, but if it was in the dictionary there would be no picture of Lackey there because he wasn't.

As Marc discusses on the latest episode of the OTM Podcast (available now on iTunes, released here later today) Ryan Lavarnway may find himself in a Red Sox uniform sometime soon. With the injuries and thus the need for another bat mounting there could be a spot opening up. Or, more likely, a spot may be created by someones release (Marc speculates it might be Drew Sutton). In any case, it might finally be Lavarnway Time in tha 6-1-7.

Sox Prospects gives us the lowdown on the goings on in the minor leagues. Some players have been crushing it. Crushing what? You're going to have to click to find out (hint: not bears) (hint 2: OK, fine, bears).

Jim Callis of Baseball America has a post-signing deadline chat that might be of interest to those of you who dork out on these sorts of things. I mean, I haven't read it because I don't dork out on anything, cause I'm coooool like a Stuart Scott catch phrase, but you might like it, maybe, if, you know, you like those sorts of things. Dork.

Relive Jon Lester's no-hitter right here.

Finally, the image for this article is more than enough for me to recommend you read it. Then there's the Yankees being ridiculous again, which is another reason. But still, I get caught up on the picture.