Red Sox Injury Update: Clay Buchholz, Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford

There have been plenty of disappointing injury updates for Red Sox players this year, as 20 players have landed on the disabled list in 2012, some of them multiple times already. Of the 11 currently on the DL, there's impending good news for more than a third of them, so, at least this time around, injury news is a positive thing.

Clay Buchholz is on the DL with intestinal bleeding, and while that's not good on its own, the update here is that doctors have figured out what's wrong with him. The right-hander is suffering from esophagitis, and that in turn has "eroded his esophagus" and caused the intestinal bleeding. He's expected to make a full recovery, even if no one is quite sure when that will be.

Kids, Zantac and other antacids are cheap and available at your local pharmacy and convenience stores. Be nice to your esophagus, okay?

In news that doesn't have me worrying about my insides, Jacoby Ellsbury is expected to begin his 20-day rehab assignment on Friday with Fort Myers. Assuming there are not setbacks that reset the assignment, the full rehab schedule would bring him back on Thursday, July 19, in the last game of a four-game set against the White Sox at Fenway. If his shoulder responds well, and his timing is back sooner than anticipated, then it's possible he could be back earlier. After all, unlike a pitcher like, say, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who might need all of those games given they start every fifth day, position players can ramp up with a few games a week.

The All-Star break begins on July 9, and games resume on the 13th; my guess is he's back with the Red Sox for the start of that series against the Rays.

Josh Beckett, who didn't think he needed to go on the disabled list to begin with, will be removed from his prison in order to pitch against the Seattle Mariners in Seattle on Saturday. Beckett's shoulder, suffering from inflammation, was given time to heal by the Red Sox with placement on the 15-day disabled list.

Franklin Morales started in his place during the two turns through the rotation -- the beauty of a starting pitcher on the DL is that it can be retroactive to the day after their last start, meaning they don't need to miss three opportunities to start with a minimum stint -- and dominated, with the Sox winning both contests. The club as a whole didn't miss Beckett on the mound, a surprising revelation given that Beckett has arguably been Boston's best starter in 2012, as the team has gone 10-3 since his last start on June 11. The Red Sox won, Josh Beckett was able to rest -- that was a successful two-week stint.

Last, there's Carl Crawford, whose only update is that there's no update. It's not his fault, or any kind of setback in his recovery from the platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow. No, it's just the rain. It's raining all up-and-down the east coast, and doing so hard in Florida, where Crawford is attempting to rehab. He's had two-straight rehab games rained out with the Gulf Coast League Sox, but he might be better off staying put than moving up the coast, given the way weather patterns work.

Crawford's own rehab clock started to tick on June 23, putting him on track to return right after the All-Star break were he to complete the full assignment. Having both Crawford and Ellsbury return to the lineup immediately following the non-mathematical half-point of the season would be a fine way to kick things off.