Gonzalez has been rumored to be headed to the Boston Red Sox over the past couple of days as GM Theo Epstein is looking for another bat to jump start a suddenly dormant offense. The Red Sox are 2.5 games behind the AL East leading Yankees, who are 10-1 since the All-Star break. Gonzalez would provide the Red Sox with a potent bat in the middle of the lineup. He is hitting a weak .249 but he has slugged 26 homeruns and driven in 56 runs in 2009.

Gonzalez has 123 career homeruns and 381 career RBIs, which Boston would love to have him add to those totals while playing at Fenway for the remainder of the season. In 2008, prior to the deadline, the Red Sox traded away slugger Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers in a three team trade for Jason Bay from the Pirates. Bay added a potent bat to the lineup for the Red Sox stretch run and has played an important role in the team’s offense in 2009. Bay has amassed 20 homeruns and 73 RBIs in 2009 for the Sox.

The other Padre possibly on the trading block is closer Heath Bell. There are plenty of teams out there that could always use another arm in the back end of the bullpen and Bell could provide that stable arm for teams in contention. Bell has 24 saves in 25 opportunities and has accumulated a 2.06 ERA. Bell has racked up 46 strikeouts in just over 39 innings pitched. With just one blown save in 2009, Bell could stabilize the back-end of a contender’s bullpen immediately for the stretch run.

The Boston Red Sox have drafted OF Reymond Fuentes out of Fernando Callejo out of Puerto Rico with the 28^th overall draft choice. Fuentes is a small thing standing at 6-0 and 160 pounds, but makes up for that with his speed. Fuentes, the nephew of New York Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran, has great bat speed and quick wrists, which does give him some pop at the plate. His style at the plate has been compared to Alfonso Soriano as he is very much a free swinger but does cover most of the plate while in the batters box. He can cover a ton of ground in the outfield but his arm is extremely weak. He seems to be somewhat in the same mold as current Red Sox centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, as a player that can do a lot of the little things right. The Boston Red Sox currently sit tied for first place in the AL East with a 34-24 record along with the New York Yankees. In 2008, the Red Sox selected shortstop/pitcher Casey Kelly of Sarasota High School in Florida with the 30^th overall selection. So far in 2009 at Class A Ball with Greenville, is 6-1 with a 1.12 ERA in 9 starts and has only allowed 41 base runners in 48 1/3 innings.

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The list of position players that have taken the mound in 2009 are Nick Swisher of the New York Yankees, Cody Ross of the Florida Marlins, Jonathan Van Every of the Boston Red Sox, Paul Janish of the Cincinnati Reds and Josh Wilson of the Arizona Diamondbacks. When a position player takes to the mound during a regular season game it is looked at as a very embarrassing situation for the team but some of the position players that have to pitch take their new assignment in stride.

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The first position player to grab the honors in 2009 was Swisher of the Yankees. Swisher had to pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 13th. Swisher threw one scoreless inning, 22 total pitches, and topped out at 80 MPH on the radar gun. This fad has continued to become popular over the years. There have been 107 position players to pitch in a regular season Major League game since 1979. 55 of the 107 position players to take the mound have left the hill with a 0.00 ERA like Swisher.

The Arizona Diamondbacks fired manager Bob Melvin late at night on May 7th and replaced him with Farm Director and former Major League catcher A.J. Hinch. Hinch used a position player to pitch only six games into his managerial career when Josh Wilson took the mound on May 11th when the Diamondbacks lost to the Cincinnati Reds 13-5. Wilson tossed a scoreless inning of relief in the loss.

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The position player with the most appearances on the mound right now is Aaron Miles of the Chicago Cubs. Miles made three appearances for the St. Louis Cardinals over the past two seasons. Some of the most famous position players to pitch in a Major League game during their career includes Jose Canseco, Wade Boggs, John Russell (manager of the Pirates) and Terry Francona (manager of the Red Sox). Canseco pitched for the Texas Rangers in 1993 and injured his elbow while doing so for manager Kevin Kennedy. Canseco missed the final three months of the season due to the injury.

Some may think it is embarrassing to toe the hill as a position player but others like the challenge of throwing ‘heat’ to Major League hitters since they might never get the chance to do so ever again during their career. Let’s face it folks, with the continued bashing of the baseball throughout the league more and more position players will continue to make pitching appearances for their team to save the rest of the pitching staff.