El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

Baseball Prospectus’ Med Writer, Will Carroll, is reporting that Nixon will follow the same protocol as Vlad last year - “therapy, then injections, then surgery.” Surgery was not necessary for Vlad. Hopefully, the same will be true for Trot. Carroll thinks that we should know shortly if the shots are effective. If so, Nixon should be back by using Vlad’s timetable last season. As for Nomar, “…tendinitis is in an area [Achilles] which isn't subject to much blood flow, extending the recovery time” combined with his history of extended recovery time and lack of spring training at-bats, we may not see the real Nomar until May.

Speaking of Nomar...

Tony Massarotti thinks Nomar and the Dodgers are a perfect fit but excludes Paul DePodesta from the article. Nomar is not a Depo player (not enough walks) and unless Depo is trumped by McCourt, the Dodgers will not give Nomar $15 mil. per season. Massarotti does make a good point:

In the end, here is the thing about our superstars in Boston: We take them for granted. We get so accustomed to the high level of performance that we ask for more without realizing that we could get less. We could have shown up at Fenway Park for the last seven years and seen someone like Izturis or Cristian Guzman or even Carlos Guillen, all shortstops for playoff contenders in recent major league seasons.

As I have written before, I never fully appreciated the 1999 and 2000 brilliance of the Nomar and Pedro.