Jacoby Down for the Count

18 games. A .192 batting average. No homers. 5 RBIs. 7-for-8 stealing bases. That was Jacoby Ellsbury's season for the Boston Red Sox.

Ellsbury re-injured his ribs on Friday in a game against Texas, and reports are indicating that he fractured another rib and will miss the remainder of the season. You could look at this on the positive side and say that Ellsbury's brief season would have been on pace to steal 63 bases had he played the full year. Or you could look at it in the light that this guy was basically deemed untradeable when we had a chance to get some big pieces on the market. Having a healthy and producing Jacoby all season may have made the difference we needed. Being 5.5 games out, I'm sure Jacoby could have made a difference in 3 or 4 games, cutting that lead to less than 2 or 3 games. Was this all because we moved him to left? I mean, he doesn't collide with Beltre if he's in center. But you can't blame the team for that switch and that injury. It was bad luck. So Jacoby hits the showers for the season and hopefully works to get back completely healthy next year. And by completely, I mean being able to play all year and not go to the disabled list 57 times.

It was undoubtedly a disappointment, but the Red Sox aren't down for the count just yet with their centerfielder. There's still a lot of baseball left to be played. Like I said, this 9-game homestand is really going to be very telling. Rattle off 8 more in a row, suddenly we're not so inferior after all.