While the Red Sox are jockeying for a playoff position in the ultra-competitive AL East, Pawtucket Red Sox first baseman Lars Anderson is working hard to someday make an impact on the parent club.

The 22-year-old first baseman has been a popular name in prospect circles during his tenure with the team, making him an interesting player to monitor. The possibility of a September callup looms for the 2006 18th-round pick, in part because the Sox are all but certain to add him to the 40-man roster by this winter in order to avoid exposing him to the Rule 5 draft.

The ceiling is extremely high for the 22-year-old California native, who is considered one of the best hitting prospects in the Sox organization. He has risen rather quickly and could become an important piece for the team in the coming seasons.

Right now, however, he sounds as if he still has a lot to prove to himself and the team that drafted him just four years ago. Despite being at a relatively advanced level for his age (22), he is still struggling to live up to his own standards.

“I don’t feel that young. I feel older than [22 years old], I think I kind of lose perspective of that,” Anderson explained prior to a PawSox game earlier this month. “I don’t feel overmatched or anything. I feel like I should be excelling [in Pawtucket], and when you don’t do that you feel a tinge of disappointment. It would be nice to keep that perspective and say, ‘I’m happy with my progressions so far.’”

Anderson dominated the Double-A Eastern League to start the year, hitting .355 with five home runs in just 17 games. That successful stretch warranted a promotion, and his time with Pawtucket has been a good learning experience.

Since his promotion, however, Anderson’s numbers thus far with the PawSox have been solid but unspectacular. He is hitting .257 with a .340 OBP, .757 OPS and eight homers in 105 games.

“Like any baseball season there are ups and downs,” he explained. “I feel pretty comfortable around the guys, working on the baseball field. It’s like any year, there’s always room for improvement. Sometimes you feel like you’re excelling, and sometimes you feel like you’re struggling.”

Playing with guys like Daniel Nava, Josh Reddick, and Ryan Kalish — all three of whom have made their mark on the Red Sox this season — has enabled him to see first hand the transition required to play the game at both his current level and in the majors.

Having been drafted in the same year as Kalish, Anderson can also get a sense of what it must feel like to make an immediate impact with the Sox. He has spoken with the young outfielder, and is glad to see him succeeding.

“He’s one of my best friends,” said Anderson. “I talk to him all the time. It’s pretty phenomenal, he deserves it.”

With that said, he is not focusing all his attention on any presumed chance he will ultimately have with the Red Sox. Right now, it’s all about growing as a player and earning the reputation that has been bestowed upon him. Even though the possibility of a September call-up looms as a way for him to gain his first exposure to the big league environment, Anderson is taking nothing for granted, instead focusing on doing the work necessary to continue his development.

“Sometimes when a spot is open [on the Red Sox roster], it doesn’t happen. Sometimes when you’re not expecting it, guys go,” he said. “So, I think to try and think along with the [Red Sox] front office is futile. I just try and concentrate on what I can do.

“It would be great [to be called up], I just want to earn it,” he added. “I would love to help out, I just want to make sure I earned it.”

Josh Beckett

Heading into their four game series with the Yankees, the Red Sox knew they needed to take at least three out of four to stay within earshot of the top spot in the AL East. Even with Saturday night’s setback, the Sox still have an opportunity to prove that despite the wave of injuries and inconsistent play that has plagued them all season, they still have a shot at postseason play.

Josh Beckett (3-1, 5.70 ERA) will take the mound Sunday night, looking to extend his current streak of success. Since returning from the disabled list on July 23, he has yet to give up more than three runs in any of his three starts.

Last time out against Cleveland, Beckett pitched tremendously, going eight strong innings while only surrendering three hits and one run. He also struck out eight Indians’ batters, tying his season high in that category.

With that said, Beckett has struggled against the Yankees in 2010. In three starts against the pinstripes, the big righty has thrown 14 2/3 innings, allowing 17 earned runs and four home runs.

Beckett’s former teammate A.J. Burnett will take the ball for the Yankees. Burnett (9-9, 4.93 ERA) has had a maddeningly inconsistent year, at times showing ace-like stuff, while at others looking like a career minor leaguer. His last start on August 2 would fall into the latter category, as he was touched for eight hits and eight runs in only 4 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays.

Against the Red Sox this year Burnett is a 0-1 with a woeful 10.61 ERA in two starts. A match up to look out for is Burnett vs. Adrian Beltre. Beltre is hitting.323 with seven RBI in 33 plate appearances against him.

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John Farrell

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell joined the Dale & Holley show Tuesday afternoon to discuss the urgency the team feels approaching the end of the season, what to expect from Josh Beckett in his third start since coming off the disabled list, as well as his take on the heavily discussed bullpen problems.

Regarding Beckett, Farrell said, “There’s been no restrictions, no evidence that the lower back is causing him to do anything differently from a pitching standpoint. He gives us a huge boost here as we get into the final two months, and we expect more starts tonight and going forward like he’s had in the first two.”

Following are highlights of the interview. To hear the full interview, visit the Dale & Holley audio on demand page.

Is there a playoff urgency right now?

Coming into spring training, I think we have that urgency every day we come to the ballpark. The expectations and standards are clearly high, we have those, but we’re also sitting here looking at a 6 1/2-game gap to the two teams ahead of us. One, we have to play with some consistency, which I think we’ve done better of late. Still, we’re always talking about the injuries and waiting for guys to return, so those two key ingredients are what we feel will get us in contention by the time this thing is over.

Are you in sync with what John Lackey can bring to the table at this point in the season?

I think throughout a full spring training and the first half of the season you get to know what guys’ tendencies are, what their work routines are like, what their checkpoints are in their delivery. When in-game adjustments are needed, you can have those quick discussions to point some things out.

John has been as advertised. he has done a great job for us. You can probably look at some numbers and say they’re a little bit different from when he was with the Angels. Part of that could be new surroundings, a new division. I think he has given us everything, from a performance standpoint and from a leadership standpoint. He’s really contributed great to this team. He’s a low-maintenance personality but really a fierce competitor. His approach to the game has rubbed off on other guys in the rotation, and certainly other guys in the clubhouse.

Have you seen signs that Josh Beckett is returning to his former self, and do you think he will pitch well toward the end of the year?

Well, the answers are yes and yes. What he’s shown in the first two outings, not only from going 80-85 pitches in but to 105 in his second outing, but to get into the sixth inning and start the eighth inning, or go seven full innings in his second start. He’s pitched low-run games, he’s pitched in tight ball games in the first two starts he’s had. And what he’s shown us is what he’s accustomed to showing us in the four years he’s been here. And that’s keeping us in a ballgame and making big pitches in key spots.

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Josh Beckett

In order to have any chance at playing baseball in October, the Red Sox need to pile up the wins at a fairly consistent rate, and hope that either the Rays or Yankees begin doing the opposite. Monday night, the Yankees lost to Toronto, but the Rays won and now are tied for first in the AL East. The Sox’ tough 6-5 loss left them back 6 1/2 games, not an insurmountable deficit, but one that will require a string of wins in the month of August.

Josh Beckett will be taking the mound at Fenway for the first time since returning from the disabled list, looking to shut down the Indians and pick up where he left off his last outing on July 28. Beckett (2-1, 6.33 ERA) went seven innings against the Angels last time out, allowing three runs while striking out five. Since his return he has pitched a total of 9 2/3 innings, allowing only four runs.

In his career against the Indians Beckett is 2-4 with a bloated 6.56 ERA. Travis Hafner has had some success against him, posting a .333 average in 16 plate appearances. Ultimately, the big Texan has not gone deeper than the seventh inning in any of his starts, and has yet to eclipse double digits in strikeouts for a single game. Beckett will look to take advantage of an offense that is ranked 26th in all of baseball with only 427 runs scored.

Opposing Beckett will be 25-year-old David Huff. Huff (2-9, 6.04 ERA) has struggled to find his groove this year. Since pitching a complete game four-hitter against Texas on April 15, the young lefty has yet to pitch more than six innings. This will be Huff’s first start since June 19, when he was optioned to Triple-A Columbus. Last time against the Sox on June 8 he went six innings, giving up three runs in an eventual 3-2 loss.

The Sox do not have much experience against Huff, although Bill Hall is hitting .333 with a double in seven plate appearances.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka

Daisuke Matsuzaka has had quite an interesting season for the Red Sox. In 14 starts he has compiled a 7-3 record with a fairly decent 4.09 ERA. However, the Japanese right-hander has pitched more than six innings only twice, and has walked three or more batters in nine of his starts.

His last three outings have been relatively stress-free — save for the five walks he issued against Seattle on July 25 — to the tune of giving up only four runs in 18 2/3 innings of work.

Matsuzaka has had a fair amount of success against this current Tigers roster, with only Johnny Damon sporting a batting average over .200 in at least 10 at bats against the righty.

For Detroit, flamethrower Max Scherzer (7-8, 4.45 ERA) will be taking the mound, looking to bounce back from his last appearance against Tampa Bay. In that outing July 26, he and Rays starter Matt Garza had dueling no-hitters going into the sixth inning, but then Scherzer was touched for a grand slam by Matt Joyce and was subsequently taken out of the game.

In his last outing against the Sox on May 14, Scherzer struggled, allowing six runs on three home runs in only five innings in an eventual 7-2 loss. The Sox do not have much experience against the righty, although Mike Cameron is hitting .333 in six at-bats against him.

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NESN baseball analyst Peter Gammons joined The Big Show on Friday afternoon to discuss the trade deadline, what is out there for relief pitching, and how trade rumors spring up out of nowhere.

Said Gammons: “A lot of times people like to guess. I think agents like to throw it out there. … Some of it makes a lot of sense, but the fact is we have so many media outlets. I find it a lot of fun, but it can also drive you crazy trying to chase them all down.”

Following is a transcript of the interview. To hear the whole interview visit The Big Show audio on demand page.

What do the Red Sox do between now and the conclusion of the deadline tomorrow at 4 p.m.?

I don’t think they’ll get the outfield bat they’d like to get. There was some talk today, once the [Houston] Astros made that deal to get [Brett] Wallace to play first base, they made it clear to everybody they want to move Lance Berkman, who’s not had a good year. I think it has something to do with a knee operation he had in spring training, but apparently that doesn’t fit because he can’t play the outfield. And I’m not really sure where Berkman’s going. My guess is they don’t come up with an outfield bat and they’ll pick up a reliever or two. I was actually working on something this afternoon where I was taking 35 of the available relievers and I was going to a 30-team trade. You took all these different guys, move one for another, one for another, and then the same guy, Joe Beimel, still ends up in Colorado [Rockies], he’s the 30th trade and he ends up back in Colorado on the same day. That’s how valuable all these guys are. There isn’t a relief pitcher out there that you could say, this guy will have an ERA under 5.00 the last two months of the season. I would put Matt Capps right in that category.

Looking at Capps and what he went for, but catchers are hard to find.

Everyone that has talked to me about that trade, every general manager, that Washington [Nationals] made a great trade. [Wilson Ramos] is going to catch for them for 10 years, he’s going to hit 20 home runs in the big leagues, and call a game, which most of the college catchers never learned to do. He’s really good, that was a surprising trade. Out of all the guys out there, Scott Downs is considered to be the best, not great, not as good as Hideki Okajima his first three years in Boston, but OK. Right now Toronto [Blue Jays] want a primary guy or they’ll gamble and take the two draft choices.

Does it seem like a lot of relievers appear out of nowhere, have good years, then disappear?

Well, I mean look at Joe Borowski, he saves 47 games one year, and he’s out of baseball the next. That’s sort of the nature of relief pitchers. If you think about where the Yankees and Red Sox were two years ago, and Joba Chamberlain. We used to be on alert, “Joba Chamberlain may pitch tonight.” And now, you couldn’t possibly think about Joba Chamberlain and Daniel Bard being in the same league. Bard is three times the player Joba Chamberlain is. It’s a really unpredictable thing. The guys that are there; the [Chad] Qualls, the [Aaron] Heilmans, the [Kyle] Farnshworths. Kevin Gregg is OK, he’s been alright in the past, at least you kind of know what you’re going to get with him. He’s nothing great, but he can pitch the sixth or seventh inning. You’re right, they are bottom feeders. Even Brandon League in Seattle, I had a general manager say to me today, “Just promise me you’ll never talk about how good Brandon League’s stuff is, and just go look at his results over the last four years, and remember exactly who he really is.” It’s really hard when you’re doing this, but you can get lucky for two months. Qualls was great for the Astros in the playoffs in 2005. He currently has the worst earned run average of any relief pitcher in major league baseball, but he still throws 95 [mph]. He can go some place: Tampa, Boston, someplace, and put together two good months pitching in the sixth or seventh inning.

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Dave O'Brien

WEEI Red Sox play-by-play man and ESPN baseball broadcaster Dave O’Brien joined the Dale & Holley show on Friday to discuss the impending non-waiver trade deadline, what he thinks of the steroid era, as well as how high the ceiling is for the Sox this year.

Said O’Brien: “You look at the veritable All-Star team that was out over these last several weeks as the Red Sox faded to 7½ games back. Now, getting all these guys back, undoubtedly the Red Sox have a run of 20 wins in 23 days coming up, and will put great pressure, on the very least, Tampa Bay.”

Following are highlights. To hear the full interview visit the Dale & Holley audio on demand page.

Do you think the Red Sox need to be active as we approach the deadline?

I don’t think the Red Sox have to do much at all. I know Theo [Epstein] is looking at bullpen help with the possibility of acquiring another guy there. I’m for that, I like the  the idea of changing up the look. Maybe late in the game, obviously not with [Daniel] Bard or [Jonathan Papelbon], but whoever gets them to that, the bridge guy to Bard. I wouldn’t mind that, just to give teams you’ve seen before, like Tampa Bay and the Yankees in particular, something else to have to plan for and think about. That would be great.

You’re getting all these pieces back [from injury] now, the Red Sox are now becoming, finally, at last, a whole ball club. I thought [Josh] Beckett coming back was just a gigantic thing. Maybe it wasn’t treated that way back he because it was out on the West Coast, but he just pulls that whole rotation together as everyone knows. Those guys now are going to be competing against each other, to see if they can top the outing from the night before. I think that works to a teams advantage. We saw it with [the Braves], and we’ve seen it here in Boston before. Getting healthy was huge.

Could asking starters to go longer help you later on?

It might. I don’t think it will with Beckett because he’s had all that time off. He’s a horse to begin with and he’s fresh. You don’t want to worry so much about the load on [Jon] Lester because Jon’s a big kid and loves to throw a lot of pitches; that’s his style. [John] Lackey might be the guy we don’t know about here in Boston. John’s 6-foot-6, he’s a big tough guy. Those three in particular I don’t know if you worry so much about. It’s Daisuke [Matsuzaka]‘s way to throw lots of pitches. Unfortunately its over six innings, you know 5 2/3 [innings], and that has to stop, he’s the guy who puts the most pressure on the bullpen as everybody knows.

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