I wasn’t the biggest Ken Rosenthal enthusiast until I started reading him a little more often right around this season’s July 31 trade deadline, and I found that he was breaking stories and tracking down sources that others weren’t – and needless to say I was impressed. Caught a little bit of him with Dale Arnold and Mike Holley this morning on WEEI, and here are a couple of local nuggets in a largely national news-filled conversation about baseball, Barry Bonds and Bud Selig.

Also, a quick update, friend of Hacks Rob Bradford, on www.bradfordfiles.com, is reporting that Pena has cleared waivers and as such could be dealt out to any team in baseball at this point in the waiver trading period. But more than likely he has 'DFA' written across his forehead in permanent ink.

The Red Sox fourth outfielder right now is Wily Mo Pena and he’s hitting .218 – if the Red Sox were to designate him for assignment he’s a free agent and can sign with any team in baseball. Who is the first general manager that would pick him up? What team feels like they can work with Wily Mo Pena?

KR: You have to look at the American League first since this is the waiver process and that’s likely how it would
go down. I think a number of teams…you look at Kansas City and they could use position players. The White Sox clearly had some level of interest in the trade talks regarding Jermaine Dye. I think a number of teams would take a chance.

It doesn’t mean that the Red Sox are going to make a poor decision [with Pena], because he’s a poor fit with the Red Sox. The Red Sox just signed Bobby Kielty and Bobby Kielty crushes left-handed pitching when he’s playing. He’s got 35 at bats this year.

I know they’ve been in this spot with Pena and it’s exacerbated by the fact that they traded Arroyo for him, but at the same time I think they do a very good job of this: they’ve got to keep the best 25 man roster at all times. If someone else is a better fit then that’s what is going to have to happen.

In the last couple of weeks the Red Sox have added Jon Lester, Curt Schilling and Eric Gagne to their pitching staff and rotation altogether; has any team in baseball been able to add anything close to that in terms of helping out on the pitcher’s mound?

KR: In terms of pitching I would say no. I think the Braves, what they have done is significant. But I think both the internal help and external help they’re getting from those three is pretty significant. I thought Schilling was pretty good last night. I was watching some of that game.

The velocity is still not where he’d like it to be or where anyone would like it to be, but maybe that will come a little bit as he gets healthier. He still knows how to pitch; he can still do some things. I kind of look at him as a better version of [Mike] Mussina right now. Mussina is not at the end, but he’s getting close to the end it seems to me.

There are days when he has it and there are days when he doesn’t, and I think that’s going to be the same with Schilling. Lester is obviously a fresh arm and Gagne, I love him. I think he adds a lot and he was a great move. It could cost them, I guess, in five years if that kid Beltre turns out to be a player, but Gabbard probably wasn’t going to be in their future and David Murphy was certainly expendable.   

Also accoding to an LA Times account of Sox reliever Eric Gagne's return to his Southern California roots, Gagne was asked about his possible steroid usage during his Cy Young days with the Dodgers:
Referring to the Dodgers and Red Sox, Gagne said, "It's pretty special to pitch for two great organizations like that."

Gagne said he was glad to be back in Southern California and emphasized that he had no hard feelings toward the Dodgers, who cut ties with him in the winter after two injury-plagued seasons. Only in one moment during his pregame meeting with reporters Monday did Gagne turn sour. That was when the topic of steroids -- and the suspicion that he used them -- was brought up.

"I'm not even going to go there," Gagne said.

To land in Boston, Gagne had to waive his no-trade clause and customary role as closer. He saved 16 games for the Rangers. He saved a major league record 84 in a row from 2002 to '04 with the Dodgers, including 55 in 2003 when he won the Cy Young Award.

With the Red Sox, his job is to set up Jonathan Papelbon. "I'm here to win," Gagne said. "It was either 15 more saves or a World Series. I picked the World Series."

But he conceded that he was still in the process of discovering how to make his adrenal glands respond the way they used to when he burst out of the bullpen gates for the ninth inning.

"I'm trying to put in my mind that I'm closing the eighth inning," he said.

Red Sox Manager Terry Francona doesn't think that will be an issue, saying that the packed houses at Fenway Park should trigger his system.

Gagne gave up runs in his first two outings with the Red Sox, the most recent coming in a win at Seattle, but Francona liked what he saw.

"I saw him in Seattle, he hit 96, he was between 92 and 94 with a changeup and a breaking ball from hell," Francona said.




I'll have an interview I did with Mike Hazen about Brandon Moss for a story in today's Metro a little bit later today, so stay tuned.