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One month ago and this conversation would not have even scratched the surface of Red Sox nation.

But after Jed Lowrie’s 4-for-4 performance (including a home run and three singles) in a 10-8 win over the New York Yankees, the debate suddenly becomes a valid one.

Lowrie has become Boston’s starting shortstop after a rotator cuff injury sidelined opening day starter Marco Scutaro.

Scutaro will be healthy for 2011 and will be in the final year of his contract. Lowrie, however, will also be healthy for a change and offers more upside than the 34-year old journeyman. 

So who will manager Terry Francona decide to go with?

Here is a breakdown of the case for each player and a suggestion of what the final decision might be. Share your thoughts below.

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Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays right fielder, became the 26th player in major league history to hit 50 home runs when he launched a Felix Hernandez pitch into the left field bullpen in the first inning of a 1-0 Toronto win.

It’s a special number, no doubt.

Nobody in baseball has done it since 2007, when both Prince Fielder (50) and Alex Rodriguez (54) accomplished the feat. Other players on the list include Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, Andruw Jones, and a few other guys who probably know their way around a pharmaceutical supply store (Bonds, Sosa, McGwire).

But Jose Bautista?

This is a guy whose previous career high in home runs was 16 in 2006, his first season as a regular player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The next three years his production stayed very consistent, hitting 15, 15, and then 13 in 2009 in his first full season with Toronto.

So how does he get to his current total of 52 seemingly overnight?

The popular answer in today’s modern era is through the use of performance-enhancing drugs. But Bautista flatly denies the idea.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I understand (the question) because of the history of what happened in the past. Those days are gone. It’s been six years since we have a new (testing) program in place. It seems to be working. It’s the most strict in all of professional sports. I don’t see why those questions really come up. The only reason why is the history of what happened in the past.”

So unless Bautista discovered an untestable drug that somehow eluded the rest of baseball (Manny Ramirez still probably has a team of scientists on speed dial), the odds of him juicing are virtually zero.

But the astronomical rise in production is still astonishing. Bautista‘s slugging percentage has never been above .420. This year it’s .635. 

At 6’0″ and 195 pounds, Bautista does have the body to be an elite power hitter. He’s also only 29 years old and may just be entering his prime.

We’ll know more about whether Bautista is the real deal or a one-year wonder (Luis Gonzalez) after next year. In the meantime, the best explanation for his sudden prowess is the change of scenery and his comfort within a new system.

After all, who has succeeded recently as a Pittsburgh Pirate?

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Baseball general managers throw their millions around as if they were candy.

Sometimes the money is well spent and a team’s front office is handsomely rewarded by a great season at a low cost.

More often, though, general managers quickly realize how much they overpaid for declining stars or uninspiring role players just to keep them away from rivals.

Then they try to compensate for their mistake by spending millions on reclamation projects.

Sometimes they even admit their mistake and agree to swallow a bad contract in return for cutting ties with an underachieving player.

It’s an iffy business that is full of rash, under-researched, and financially inexplicable decisions. The 2009 free agent period was no exception, so let’s take a look at the 10 worst signings from last season.

This is the second part in a series about the 2009 free agent class. To check out the first part, click here.

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Stephen Strasburg will likely require Tommy John surgery after an MRI revealed a torn ligament in his right elbow.

Strasburg first aggravated the elbow after throwing a pitch to Domonic Brown during his start against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

The surgery will end Strasburg’s terrific rookie season and sideline him for 12 to 18 months. He will probably not pitch again until 2012.

In 12 starts, the 2009 No. 1 overall pick pitched 68 innings and struck out a sensational 92 batters while sporting a 2.91 ERA and a 5-3 record.

It’s a major blow to the Washington Nationals, who were relying on Strasburg to be their ace. But it’s an even bigger blow for baseball.

The Nationals, sitting at dead last in the NL East with a 54-74 record, are still a few years away from being competitive. They have several talented players on their roster between Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, and Drew Storen, and they have a stocked farm system with guys like Wilson Ramos and Bryce Harper waiting in the wings. But they are still far away from having a complete roster capable of contending for a championship.

For baseball, though, the loss of Strasbug is about more than just wins and losses.

His entrance into the league was accompanied with the sort of hype and fanfare that we get to see maybe once a decade. To his credit, Strasburg lived up to all the acclaim and was well on his way to becoming one of baseball’s best and most marketable players.

The league hasn’t had a player like Strasburg in quite some time. It takes a special kind of talent and personality to sell the game of baseball to its millions of fans. Strasburg is, in essence, baseball’s unspoken spokesperson.

Why?

The biggest superstar in the game today, Albert Pujols, is a native of the Dominican Republic. In fact, most of baseball’s stars are not natives of the United States, making it difficult to use them as marketing tools in a U.S. dominated market. Other stars like Roy Halladay and Mark Teixeira are too deep into their careers to be able to relate well to the league’s young audience.

Strasburg is not only American-born (he’s from San Diego), but he also has the talent and the drive to be able to be a role model for young baseball players everywhere.

This is the guy who had no interest in pitching in the minors because he couldn’t wait to face the best. This is also the guy who had no problems calling out his now teammate Harper for engaging in a contractual dispute with Washington.

Commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t have asked for anyone better. Having him pitch for a franchise in one of the largest markets of the country is an added bonus. What will happen to the game without Strasburg?

Football revenues are growing every year, and the very real possibility of an 18-game season makes it a serious threat to baseball revenues. Basketball is also popular again with championship-caliber teams in Boston and Los Angeles, and the three-headed trio in Miami. Baseball, meanwhile, is simply treading water.

The success rate of Tommy John surgery is as high as ever, so Strasburg will be back to embarrassing opposing hitters eventually. But what can the league do to sustain interest during his absence?

Strasburg was one of the few captivating stories in the game. The Nationals will recover from his loss, but can baseball?

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Baseball free agency is often what separates the the pretenders from the contenders.

In the offseason prior to the 2009 regular season, the New York Yankees spent over $200 million to bring in Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett. The moves paid off as the Yankees waltzed their to way another World Series title. 

With little more than a month remaining in the 2010 regular season, it’s time to take a look at which 2009 free agent acquisitions paid off the most.

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Baseball records are like those treats at the bottom of a box of cereal. Some are unexpected. Some are weird. Some are funny.

Then there are some records that are just plain unbreakable. Over the course of the sport’s history there have been thousands of memorable moments, hundreds of great players, and a handful of incredible accomplishments.

Here’s the 10 most unbreakable records in the history of the game. Share your thoughts below.

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Roger Clemens flatly denied allegations of HGH or steroid use on Twitter yesterday after news was released of his impending indictment for lying to Congress.

“I never took HGH or Steroids. And I did not lie to Congress. I look forward to challenging the Governments accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial. I appreciate all the support I have been getting. I am happy to finally have my day in court,” said the Rocket.

Clemens already had his day in court, back in 2008 when he voluntarily participated in a House committee hearing. He denied steroid use then and, despite an FBI investigation that suggests otherwise, Clemens is stubbornly upholding his claim today.

The court documents say he’s lying. But what do the numbers say?

Clemens, whether he’s being truthful or not, was unquestionably one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball history.

Over the course of 13 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Clemens went a remarkable 192-111 in 383 starts. His ERA while with Boston was 3.06 and he struck out 2590 batters, at a rate of 8.4 SO/9 IP. 

He won three Cy Young’s and an MVP over that period en route to establishing himself as one of baseball’s premier pitchers.

In his last season with the Red Sox in 1996 while 33 years old, Clemens’ ERA dropped to a still respectable 3.63 and his WHIP rose to 1.33. He went 10-13 and struck out 257 batters in 242.2 innings. While his numbers were still very good, they paled in comparison to the seasons he had in his prime years (1986—1992).

Then in 1997 Clemens signed with the Toronto Blue Jays and had one of the best seasons of his career. He went 21-7 with a 2.05 ERA (career high 222 ERA+) and he struck out a career high 292 batters, while pitching in the same division no less.

Clemens won his fourth Cy Young that year as he lowered his ERA by over a point and a half, and lowered his WHIP by three-tenths of a point from 1.33 to 1.03.

A career year at the age of 34? Seems fishy.

Then Clemens did it all over again.

In 1998 during his second season with Toronto, Clemens went 20-6 with a 2.65 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, and 271 strikeouts in 234.2 innings. It was good enough for another Cy Young award.

There are some pitchers who get better with age. But after throwing almost 3000 innings while in Boston, it seemed unlikely that Clemens would be able to improve on his craft, let alone maintain it.

Brian McNamee, Clemens’ trainer at the time, would be inclined to agree. According to reports, McNamee injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and HGH from 1998—2001.

Indeed, Clemens went on to have several more excellent seasons with the New York Yankees through 2001.

After a somewhat shaky 1999 season, Clemens pitched over 200 innings in 2000 while sporting a 3.70 ERA and helping lead the Yankees to another World Series title.

In 2001 Clemens was brilliant again, at the age of 38. He went 20-3 with a 3.51 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP and struck out almost a batter per inning. He won his sixth Cy Young award.

After that season, the drop off in Clemens’ production was noticeable. In his final two seasons with the Yankees Clemens’ ERA ballooned to 4.95 (2002) and 3.91 (2003). His strikeout numbers went down and he surrendered an unsightly 42 home runs over those two years.

Clemens retired after 2003 at the age of 40. He un-retired a year later to sign a one-year deal with his hometown Houston Astros and had three more excellent seasons, winning his seventh and final Cy Young in 2004.

However, the difference in leagues is probably the best explanation for the upwards trend in performance in his final years. 

We may never know for sure during what periods Clemens was juicing. But for a pitcher to enjoy career years in his late 30’s after over a decade of pitching is not just unprecedented, it’s illogical.

Clemens may continue to deny that he used steroids or HGH until he’s old and decrepit, but there’s one thing we will always know for sure.

The numbers don’t lie.

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Roger Clemens was indicted today on federal charges of lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs.

The announcement comes as no surprise, as Clemens has already suffered through public scrutiny about his alleged steroid use. Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, testified in 2008 that he had personally injected Clemens with human growth hormone (HGH).

Clemens flatly denied the accusation and the FBI began investigating him for perjury. Turns out McNamee was right. 

Now with Clemens’ legacy officially tarnished, and Barry Bonds gone from the sport, can baseball move on past the steroid scandal?

Unfortunately, no.

Even with its two biggest culprits exposed, Major League Baseball still faces an uphill battle.

For starters, there is still no technical way of knowing whether the league’s drug-testing program is actually working. Positive tests have been on the decline for years, but that could just mean that athletes have gotten smarter about not getting caught.

There is also controversy surrounding several active players that has been swept under the rug and forgotten.

For instance, Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games for violating MLB’s drug policy by showing an elevated level of testosterone. Ramirez never publicly addressed the allegation. Neither did his former teammate David Ortiz, after reports surfaced that he had tested positive in 2003.

Most recently, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez was suspended in April for testing positive for a fertility drug commonly used by athletes between steroid cycles.

There’s still so much we don’t know about all the allegations over the years. Nobody from the 90’s through the early 2000’s is safe from suspicion. And no matter how sophisticated testing has become, athletes will continue to try to circumvent the rules to get a competitive edge.

So what does baseball have to do?

There have been a myriad of proposed solutions, from increasing the frequency of testing to making the punishments more severe. However, these are nothing but temporary solutions.

In time, players will find a way around them.

To fix the problem, baseball officials have to go the root of it—to where the do-or-die competitive spirit is first born. Yes, they have to go the schools, to the Little League programs, where a kid picks up a bat for the first time, and to the coaches who teach aspiring ball players about the game of baseball.

Educating athletes about the dangers of steroid use while they are young is the only surefire way to combat the mentality that they need to win at all costs. 

Knowledge always breeds good decision-making.

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The deadline for amateur players to sign with the teams that drafted them is tonight at midnight. Bryce Harper, the No. 1 overall pick to the Washington Nationals, remains unsigned.

Harper, only 17 years old, is to baseball what LeBron James once was to basketball and the city of Cleveland (he’s referred to as LeBryce in some circles). He’s young, he’s talented, and he can be a savior for an organization tired of losing.

The Player

At the age of 16, Harper appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “Baseball’s Chosen One”. Inside, author Tom Verducci detailed Harper’s accomplishments.

At three years old, Harper was playing T-ball against six-year olds. As he grew older, his body filled out, reaching 6′ 3″ and 205 pounds. He played for travel and all-star teams across the country. At 15 years old he was the starting catcher for his Las Vegas High baseball team, hitting 570-foot bombs and pummeling opposing pitching.

Harper has been described as a “baseball rat”—someone who eats, breathes, and sleeps baseball. His talent is such that he could just show up and immediately be the best player on the field. But that’s not enough for him. His goals?

“Be in the Hall of Fame, definitely. Play in Yankee stadium. Play in the pinstripes. Be considered the greatest player who ever lived.”

Those are lofty goals, but Harper has the work ethic to make it possible. In between plane trips to another showcase game, Harper goes to the batting cages and works on his swing. There’s no such thing as “good enough”.

“I’m going to play against you the way Pete Rose did,” Harper said in the SI piece. “I’m going to try to rip your head off. That’s just the way I am.”

The Talent

Eager to get to the majors as fast as possible, Harper got his GED after his sophomore year and left his high school. This past year, he enrolled at Southern Nevada Junior College, a move that would make him eligible for the 2010 draft. Like everywhere else, Harper was above and beyond the competition.

He hit .443 with 31 homers and 98 RBIs en route to winning the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur player. Yeah, he’s pretty good.

His bat speed has been compared to that of Manny Ramirez and Ken Griffey, Jr. His tools have scouts comparing him to former No. 1 picks Alex Rodriguez and Justin Upton. He’s fast (he stole 36 bases one season for his high school team), he’s strong (hit the longest homerun in the history of Tropicana Field) and he can pitch too; reportedly sporting a 96 mph fastball.

Is there anything he can’t do?

The Savior

The Washington Nationals currently sit in last place in the NL East, a position they have occupied for most of the decade (they finished fourth in 2007). For years there was very little Nationals fans could get excited about, accustomed to occupying the National League cellar. But then something amazing happened—the losing paid off.

Blessed with the worst record in baseball after the 2008 season, the Nationals were rewarded the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 first-year player draft. They took none other than Stephen Strasburg.

Hailed as one of the most polished pitchers to come out in years, Stasburg immediately brought excitement and energy back to the fan base. It’s not often that players live up to the hype. But in Strasburg’s case, he actually was as good as advertised.

Between him, several other rising stars (Ian Desmond, Justin Maxwell, Drew Storen), and a loaded farm system, the Nationals seem poised to start making some noise in the next few years. The only thing they lack is a true leader.

Strasburg is phenomenal, but the problem is, he only pitches once a week. He can only do so much. The Nationals need somebody they can put in their everyday lineup. They need someone who can be a positive voice in the clubhouse and someone who other players can rely on to come through in a big spot. Bryce Harper is that man.

The Problem

The problem, as always, is Scott Boras. Boras, Harper’s agent, is seeking upwards of $10 million for his young slugger. He got Strasburg $15.1 million last year, and it’s hard to imagine the going price for Harper to be any lower than that. Negotiations have stalled and there are some indications that Harper is prepared to leave money on the table and return to school.

“If he doesn’t want to play here, then we don’t want him here,” said Strasburg over the weekend. 

Whether Strasburg is weary of sharing the limelight with Harper or just voicing the sentiments of Washington’s upper management, the truth is that the Nationals do want Harper there. They need him. And Harper needs them.

Harper may want to be the next Babe Ruth, but the chances of him ending up on the Yankees any time soon are virtually zero. If he wants to help lay the foundation for his Hall of Fame legacy, Washington is the place to do it. 

Like LeBron did for Cleveland, Harper can make the Nationals relevant again. He can make baseball in Washington important. He can revitalize sports in a city that has to endure the likes of Gilbert Arenas and Albert Haynesworth. Most of all, with a promising roster around him, Harper can win.

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There was a time when Jonathan Papelbon was considered one of the elite closers in baseball, among the likes of Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, and Francisco Rodriguez.

Between a mid-90s fastball that could hit 98 MPH, a plus splitter, a solid change-up, and a slider of the same description, Papelbon had a deathly arsenal that he could unleash at will on opposing hitters.

In his first full year in 2006 as the Red Sox closer, Papelbon was brilliant. He threw 68.1 dominant innings, striking out 75 and walking only 13 en route to a 0.92 ERA and an All-Star selection.

He was just as dominant in 2007 and had perhaps an even better year in 2008, striking out 77 and walking only eight for a ridiculous 9.63 K/BB ratio (Roy Halladay’s is 7.64 this year).

Then, in 2009, something happened—Papelbon became human.

Despite posting a 1.85 ERA and saving 38 games, Papelbon was noticeably shakier on the mound. His WHIP ballooned to 1.147 (previous career high was 0.952 in 2007).

The culprit?

He couldn’t control his pitches anymore.

Papelbon walked 24 batters in 2009 as his K/BB ratio rose to 3.17. He blew three saves and allowed 25 percent of inherited runners to score (awful for a closer). In the playoffs, he was atrocious as he allowed three runs, walked two in two innings, and watched as the Red Sox got eliminated by the Los Angeles Angels.

In 2010, things just got worse.

His K/BB ratio is 2.37 (Daisuke Matsuzaka’s is 1.78). He’s blown six saves in 35 chances. His ERA is a career high 3.26 and his WHIP stands at 1.148. He’s even striking out batters less, only 45 in 49.2 innings (he’s never struck out less than a batter per inning in his career).

His inherited score percentage is a ghastly 36 percent.

After blowing another must-win game against Toronto on Thursday, the four-time All Star has hit an all-time low.

Papelbon can’t throw strikes consistently and, even when he does, he is getting hit hard. The biggest hole in his game this season has been the splitter, a pitch that—when thrown correctly—looks exactly like a fastball coming out of the pitcher’s hand. Without it, Papelbon is simply a fastball pitcher who can’t throw a fastball for a strike.

Questions are surfacing regarding whether he will finish out the season as the Red Sox closer or give way to the closer-in-waiting in Daniel Bard.

That scenario seems unlikely, especially since they need Bard as the set-up man.

However, the big fella’s run with baseball’s best closers seems to be over. He’s still a better pitcher than 90 percent of the relievers out there, but if you’re contending for a championship you need to be able to trust your closer to finish the game.

There’s no way Jonathan Papelbon deserves that trust anymore.

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