We've seen this before

I just got a text message from my buddy Olderman, saying that The Trade (the Ramirez trade has taken on a life of it's own) is starting to feel like the other huge trade in Red Sox history (the Nomar trade). The trades are very similar, in each scenario the Sox traded a guy who is considered to be the face of the franchise and or a hall of famer candidate for a guys who were considered to be good players, playing on bad teams. Orlando Cabrera have similar make ups, coming from Montreal (perhaps the worst franchise in baseball history) and Pittsburgh (the worst team in baseball right now).

Though it's something else that is giving me the warm and fuzzy's about this team right now and yes their latest string of good fortune does have something to do with it. In each of the Red Sox World Series years, there was a series late in the season (mid-august through the end of the season) where the Red Sox would make the White Sox look second rate, gain a sweep and take a ton of momentum. This series might be it, though it just got a lot tougher because as I am writing this Jim Thome just raked a 2-run home run off Tim Wakefield in the first inning. I still have a good feeling about today, there's something about Dustin Pedroia batting clean up that just makes me feel secure. Plus, has a team ever hit more doubles in a month?

Back to the original point of this column, Jason Bay is exactly what this team needed when Manny apparently went AWOL at the end of last month. Bay has 30 rbi this month, his first with the team, he has played good defense, he has hit a few home runs and has been a seem less addition. He hasn't been the only one, just like in 2004 when everybody focused on Orlando Cabrera and overlooked the deals that brought Mike Myers and Dave Roberts to Boston. Roberts ended up getting his due as a great addition but for some reason Mike Myers never did the credit that he deserved, he was a terrific weapon in that bullpen. (Has anybody ever looked more uncomfortable than Hideki Matsui did against Myers in the ALCS that year? I say no.) The post trade deadline moves right now look incredible, bringing in Paul Byrd for a wad of cash that John Henry had sitting in the cup holder of his car and then trading a 19-year old for Mark Kotsay look like moves to make this team the deepest contender in the League. Darin Erstad said it best after the Red Sox swept the Angels in the 2004 ALDS:

"Those boys are winning the World Series, that's the deepest team I've ever seen. They have every piece of the puzzle. I don't see anybody beating them."

Key late season additions will do that, and they might be doing it again.

Sterling Pingree