SOX GET AN F AGAINST A'S

It's been all or nothing for the Red Sox these past few weeks. They've looked amazing against the NL East and the White Sox. Then they looked absolutely dreadful against the D-Rays and Athletics. The Sox are now tied with the Yankees in the loss column for 1st place in the division. Frankly, I'm worried. We've only scored 20 runs in the last 5 games, which isn't enough to win consistently.

The Sox SHOULD go on a run in the next 8 games. We've got 4 against the atrocious Kansas City Royals, a makeup against Texas, then 3 against last place Seattle.

The West Coast trip coming up could make or break us. We need to start scoring more runs, getting better outings from our starters, and our bullpen needs to keep us in games.

A big question in RS Nation is what the Sox should do at the trade deadline. I don't think we should do much of anything. Perhaps pick up a veteran middle reliever, that's about it. I don't think we should trade off any of our top prospects for some 4.00 ERA starter to pitch for us for a few months.

We have a team capable of making the playoffs, and if we do get that far, it is certainly a team capable of winning in the playoffs. We have Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield, and Lester. Wells is still trying to come back. We could use another starter, especially with the doubleheaders against New York coming up. I don't think we need to go crazy about it, though. We shouldn't give up any prospect that is on the verge of making the Big League squad. We can trade some A, or AA prospects for a serviceable 5th starter. The emergence of players like Papelbon and Youkilis as top players will undoubtedly give some merit to the Red Sox farm system.