Pedroia returns to Red Sox tonight

Will the return of This Manager’s Little Cribbage Buddy be enough to help the Boston Red Sox make one final charge toward the 2010 postseason?

Pink Hat Nation will be holding its collective breath tonight and hoping that Dustin Pedroia can put one foot in front of the other for nine innings. Boston’s second baseman has been officially activated off the disabled list and will be in the lineup at Fenway Park when the Red Sox host the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim and Orange County and Wherever Else Arte Moreno Would Like to Claim in California.

Pedroia and fellow DL sufferer Kevin Youkilis are this team’s heart and soul, and Youkilis isn’t coming back this season after having thumb surgery. It’s going to be up to Pedroia, who cracked a bone when he smashed a foul ball off his left foot in San Francisco on July 26, to try to rally a team that is 5.5 games out of a postseason spot with just 43 to play. There’s very little chance that Boston can do much of anything to catch the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay Rays in that short a time frame, but Pedroia’s return at least brings the Red Sox a little closer to full strength. Boston went 23-21 without Pedroia and scored a full run less per game. Its team batting average dipped 20 points to .258 without him in the lineup. There’s no doubting the impact that a guy who won the American League Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in back-to-back seasons can have on a lineup.

Still, don’t expect Pedroia to fix everything. Daisuke Matsuzaka is still maddeningly inconsistent. John Lackey continues to be the biggest free agent bust in baseball this year — as we here at Ramble On told you he would be. The Red Sox bullpen takes on water by the day. Last time we checked, Pedroia doesn’t pitch the ball. He also doesn’t play on the left side of the infield, an area in which Marco Scutaro (15 errors in 114 games after committing 10 in 143 last year) and Adrian Beltre (16 errors in 115 games after averaging 13 per season from 2004-09) have combined to commit mayhem all year when faced with a ground ball.

We try to take the big picture view on this blog, and we hope Boston isn’t doing something foolish and allowing Pedroia to talk his way back into the lineup prematurely. We all know that This Manager can’t say no to his little favorite, but the cost of a mistake this time and another broken bone in Pedroia’s foot will mean up to eight months out of action. If the 2010 season is actually lost already, it would be a shame if the Red Sox got a head start on throwing away 2011 as well.

Ellsbury, Red Sox headed for ugly divorce

Jacoby Ellsbury and the Boston Red Sox look even more likely to divorce in the offseason after the outfielder hit the disabled list on Saturday.

It’s the third time in 2010 that Ellsbury has been placed on the DL, as he aggravated the rib injury that he’s been fighting since the opening weeks of the year when he fell to the ground running out a ground ball in Boston’s 10-9 meltdown against Texas on Friday night. The smart money here says that Boston will fade from contention from the American League East and wild card races and Ellsbury will be shut down for the year. It might be the last we’ve seen of No. 2 in a Red Sox uniform.

Make no mistake about how ugly this situation has become. Ellsbury insists that he can’t play. The Red Sox think that he can. That never ends well. Perception tends to become reality, and the perception that’s being crammed down the throats of Pink Hat Nation is that Ellsbury is soft. We here at Ramble On aren’t about to take a guess about how much pain another man is feeling, but we can still examine the situation and render a verdict that Ellsbury won’t be in Boston next year.

Let’s review. Ellsbury suffered an injury two weeks into the season this year when Adrian Beltre absolutely train-wrecked him chasing a foul ball in Kansas City. He cracked five ribs and landed on the DL. The Red Sox, through published reports, characterized Ellsbury’s injury as soreness or discomfort. They never said anything about a fracture, never mind multiple fractures. Translation – they thought he was milking it. Boston wasted no time reporting when and how Dustin Pedroia broke his foot, Victor Martinez broke his thumb or Jason Varitek broke his foot. The Red Sox clearly established a double standard when dealing with Ellsbury’s status.

That shouldn’t be anything new for anyone in Boston who has followed Ellsbury’s career. They rewarded him for hitting .438 in the 2007 World Series by trading for Coco Crisp in the offseason and forcing a platoon situation in center field. They rewarded Ellsbury for batting over .300 and stealing 70 bases last year by bringing in 37-year-old Mike Cameron to play center field, shoving Ellsbury to left and creating some ill will before the season even started. The fact that Ellsbury would have been safe in center and away from Beltre while Cameron, who ended up injured anyway, is cruel irony.

The notion that Ellsbury was the worst every day defensive center fielder in the majors last year is laughable, whether it’s based on UZR rating or anything else. Defensive metrics are much too new and subjective to be quantified, and showing a slavish devotion to them doesn’t guarantee success – ask the basement-dwelling Seattle Mariners how they’re doing in the American League West. Those same ratings clearly have never watched Marco Scutaro dive for a three-hop ground ball that is 10 feet to the left of second base and not come up with it – he’s ranked seventh in the majors according to fangraphs.com in range runs above average. Some of the names behind him include super-quick players like Alcides Escobar (MIL), Elvis Andrus (TEX), Yunel Escobar (TOR), Erick Aybar (LAA), and Jose Reyes (NYM). Think Scutaro really has more range than any of them? We didn’t think so, just like we never thought Cameron would be a better alternative than Ellsbury in Boston.

How much is one man supposed to take? We can’t blame Ellsbury for not being too eager to get on the field and play in a place where he doesn’t feel wanted. The Red Sox have done nothing but try to push him out the door since he flashed onto the scene as one of their elite prospects, and the final shove looks like it’s going to happen this offseason.

Youkilis, Sambataro split

This had to have been Enza Sambataro’s idea.

There’s no way that Kevin Youkilis would leave his smokeshow girlfriend and their seemingly perfect little life in the Boston suburbs, is there?

That’s what you initially might think. You’re wrong.

No new details have emerged over the course of today, but news broke this morning that Youkilis and Sambataro are on the rocks. She resigned as the CEO of his charity, Hits for Kids, and is moving out of the home they shared with her son from a previous relationship. Sambataro, who previously dated Ben Affleck, shouldn’t have much trouble snagging someone rich and famous to help her land on her feet.

As for Youkilis, don’t worry about him. You actually thought he was traveling with the team to avoid a similar controversy to the one Jacoby Ellsbury endured while he was on the DL? No chance. The road offers and endless supply of women in various cities, and Youkilis is officially back on the market. Pay no attention to the fact that he might beat Shrek and The Donkey in an ugly contest – that $40-million contract makes him pretty damn sexy to plenty of females out there.

As we’ve told you here at Ramble On many times before, professional athletes play by different rules. Look no further than Tiger Woods to figure out how different life is when you’re rich and famous beyond your wildest dreams. Tiger was married to one of the most beautiful women in the world, the ravishing Elin Nordegren, and cheated on her with a collection of skanks, escorts and pornstars that would make Ron Jeremy blush. The message was clear – show me the world’s most beautiful woman, and I’ll show you a man who’s tired of sleeping with her. Don’t think for a second that Youkilis would be any different.