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By now, you'll have heard the unfortunate news about the extent of Cody Ross' foot injury. If not, then you can just scroll down a little bit, and Marc has it covered down there.
I guess you can just click that, too, if you're lazy. Or clicked directly through to this article or something.
While the news is big enough in its own right, Ross' situation may well have an impact on other parts of the team as well. To be more specific, it could keep Will Middlebrooks on the Red Sox beyond the return of Kevin Youkilis.
Ross is, of course, headed to the disabled list in the very near future. One does not simply play through a broken foot. With Kevin Youkilis in need of a roster spot, it's an easy switch to make, though it does leave Mike Aviles as the team's fifth outfielder.
Beyond that, Middlebrooks would offer some insurance to the Sox in case Youkilis is still the same player as he was before the trip to the disabled list. If Youkilis still can't provide at least a bat, if not a glove, then the Sox could find themselves with ten days of a very depleted lineup, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia batting fifth and the bottom of the order a terrible sight to behold.
The Sox would of course prefer that Middlebrooks have as many at bats as possible, and they will give Youkilis a shot to prove himself, be it for trade value or to keep him a standard part of the lineup. But returning Middlebrooks to Triple-A Pawtucket would mean the possibility of ten games with a lineup depending on the likes of Aviles, Saltalamacchia, and Nava staying hot to avoid having all of three decent hitters on the team.
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The other news of the day comes from David Ortiz. Up first: his opinions on the DH:
"Who wants to see a pitcher batting? What's the point of seeing a pitcher batting?" Ortiz wondered.
"You're running the risk of a pitcher getting injured, running the risk that a lot of things happen. You'd like to see a hitter, someone that knows how to hit. There are a lot of situations, a lot of times when you lose a game because the pitcher is hitting."
I think Ortiz' thoughts on this probably are in line with many of our readers. While Josh Beckett managed to hit a ball to the wall in Sunday's game against the Phillies, and that's always a fun thing for fans of an AL team to see, we also saw the negative side of things. Ortiz at first, Gonzalez in right, and Beckett watching five pitches in his first at bat and avoiding any sort of baserunning risk. It didn't really look very much like baseball.
I'm sure there's 14-going-on-15 teams that would be happy to see the end of pitchers hitting. Time to maybe make it a reality. All it does now is lead to injury risks and unfair interleague games.
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Papi had a lot more to talk about than just the DH rule when he called a players' only meeting ten days back, after the team's 3-8 loss to the Indians.
Per Ken Rosenthal, the "heated" meeting involved the hitters, who had been doing a pretty good job of providing runs (albeit not with the greatest consistency) calling out the pitchers who were so often putting them in early holes.
It's not the first players' only meeting the Sox have held this year, but it is the first one that was followed by an 8-2 run that's got the Sox back up near .500. It may be nothing more than a convenient coincidence that the meeting coincides with the sudden winning form, but at least for now it makes a nice story. Perhaps it actually will prove to be the turning point in this so-far disappointing season.