Well That Sucked

I’m not talking about the “best bullpen in baseball” looking like their opponent’s bullpen and blowing a 10-1 lead. Nope, I’m talking about Mike Lowell going down again. After getting a shot and fluid drained from his right hip, Lowell is now headed to the 15 day DL retroactive to June 28th.

So besides the fact that it’s another guy on my fantasy team going down (maybe I should put all Yankees on my team and see what happens) it’s another bat out of the line up for the Sox. So I’m going to ask the question that many are too afraid to ask because he really is a great guy.

Was Mike Lowell on steroids?

The numbers certainly speak volume to the speculation. 32 home runs in 2003, 27 in 2004 and followed that up with 8 in 2005 when baseball started testing for steroids. Now I know when he came to Boston he hit 20 in 2006 and 21 in 2007 but that blip on the radar of eight combined with the fact he has the same injury to his hip that a known steroid user in New York has, you have to scratch your head.

Now Lowell is in the second year of his three year contract and is on the books for $12 million and change next year. What if he doesn’t come back from this? Sure he’s optimistic and wanted to play this week in Baltimore but will he be back after the All Star break? At what point does Theo use this as an opportunity to go out and grab another bat for the line up? Sure Jeff Bailey was a decent fill in last night but he batted .188 when he was called up earlier this year.

I say you make a blockbuster deal with Arizona. Give up Buchholz and one of the other young guys and snag Mark Reynolds. Or same package to Texas and grab Saltalamacchia and Hank Blalock. Sure Blalock doesn’t hit for average, but he does give you power.

We’ll see how this shakes out. Hopefully the Sox beat Baltimore tonight too, even with a tired bullpen.