Teams win baseball games at the intersection of run generation and run prevention. Management decided that run generation offered a more "buyable" commodity than run prevention.
The Sox obtained Victor Martinez at a lower base price (Justin Masterson and Nick Hagadone) than obtaining Roy Halladay for Buchholz, Bard, and more. Red Sox Nation always embraces now over the future, and Theo Epstein balanced the opportunity with his calculus of future value.
Meanwhile, on the field, John Smoltz continues to struggle. Do we have an aging veteran, recovering from surgery who can turn it around or have his skills abated beyond the point of no return?
The concept of "never enough pitching" again comes true with Beckett, Lester and pray for bad weather, with injuries to Wakefield and Matsuzaka, coin-flip Penny, the enigma Buchholz, and Cy Old.
Adam, we barely knew ye. Goodby Adam, hello Casey Kotchman. Maybe Kotchman's return to the AL will help. He's a prototypical Red Sox on base percentage guy.
Victor Martinez has got to play. Who loses in the rotation? Martinez can show up as catcher, first baseman, or DH. If he DH's against most southpaws, then does he eat up starts at first (Youkilis to third), and catch (Jason Varitek didn't look ecstatic to hear of the trade). Can he catch the knuckleball. What of George Kottaras? Curious, George?
Presumably, the Sox bring up somebody, and right now Michael Bowden seems to be the guy, while Junichi Tazawa continues to assimilate. Tazawa allowed one earned run in his first PawSox start, walking none.
The best news coming out of the deadline was the Sox didn't give up their top talent, and set themselves up to compete, if the starting pitching can regain some semblance of consistency. A very big if.
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