Daily Links - The Tough Question Edition

Which is more likely to happen:

A) The Red Sox to sweep a series in Kansas City

B) The Twins to win any of their three games against the Yankees

C) The Earth suddenly sees what looks like a drunken itself but actually turns out to be a giant mirror. Earth admits it has a problem and agrees to get counseling.

Link time!

Over at SB Nation's Beyond The Boxscore Satchel Price takes aim at the Red Sox core of hitters. Are they historically good? Maybe, I'll leave that to Mr. Price to determine, but at least relative to league average they're what we in the business call "puuurty darn good." Technically speaking of course.

Has that mythical time finally come? I speak of the time when BARTOLO COLON!!!! turns back into Bartolo Colon. You remember him. He's the guy who almost ate himself out of the league and then walked out on the Red Sox in a huff after refusing a move to the bullpen. That Bartolo might be on his way back (crosses fingers!) to New York. The Yankee Analysts take a look at Bartolo both before and after his DL stint and find some interesting and encouraging -- encouraging if you don't like the Yankees -- results.

The Red Sox haven't had the easiest of schedules recently. Any time you have to play three games in essentially one 24 hour period it's going to be tough. How tough is tough? About four or five F-bombs tough according to Josh Beckett. Rob Bradford at WEEI.com has the (scrubbed) quotes for your edificational purposes.

I touched on it in last night's game story but Carl Crawford's continued inability to string together anything resembling actual production has gone from irksome, to maddening, to infuriating, to boring, and (skipping irksome this time) back to maddening. Crawford has just not been able to hit the ball hard very often. There is probably some mechanical issue at play because people usually don't just lose it at age 29. For his part, Crawford is by all accounts including this one from the Providence Journal's Tim Britton, working hard to find answers.

Over at the Platoon Advantage Mark Smith says it's never OK to throw at a batter. I wrote something about that a while back but can't find it to throw at you here. In any case, suffice it to say I'm in full agreement. The dangers are too great. There is inherent risk in standing in the batters box. Sometimes pitches slip and sometimes batters get hurt. This is unavoidable. What is avoidable and entirely so, is when a pitcher turns the hitter into his personal pin cushion for some slight, real or perceived. If it can be determined a pitcher threw at a batter on purpose the suspension should be so long and costly as to prevent him from doing so ever again. /soapbox

Maureen Mullen of New England Cable News takes a look at last year's Red Sox first round draft picks. Conveniently they are all clustered on the high A Salem, Virginia Red Sox. This likely makes her reporting easier. It's a good look at how some of the more highly touted in the Sox system have handled their first season of professional baseball.

Marco Scutaro is feeling better. So, you know, that's good, I guess.

Finally, can you believe anyone ever thought this rustbox was cool? Yeah, I can too.