Carlos Beltran

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, Carlos Beltran is on his way to San Francisco in a trade to the Giants. Brown tweeted Wednesday afternoon, “Looks like Beltran is indeed going to SF, according to source. Logistics being worked out.”

Joel Sherman of the New York Post also tweeted, “[Beltran] is as close to being a Giant as you can be.” According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Giants’ inclusion of pitcher Zach Wheeler was a deal-maker.

Earlier today it was reported the Rangers, Giants and Braves were closing in on a deal for Beltran. No trade details have been released, but the move would confirm widespread speculation that the Mets outfielder would wind up in San Francisco.

Because of Beltran’s no-trade clause, the teams will have to wait 24 hours to make the deal official.

According to a report from Andy Martino of the New York Daily News, the Giants have a hit a sang in their pursuit of Carlos Beltran. The Giants, according to Martino, are now willing to assume most of the $6 million owed to Beltran for the rest of the season but will not give up a top prospect in exchange for the outfielder. The Mets are willing to pay the remainder of Beltran’s salary but want an elite prospect in return.

Beltran leads the National League with 30 doubles and 47 extra-base hits. He also ranks in the top 10 in walks, OBP, RBI and OPS.

Carlos Beltran

According to Tim Brown and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, the Mets have given Carlos Beltran a short list of teams they could trade him to, and the Phillies are one of them.

Philadelphia’s starting rotation has been terrific this season, but the team’s offense has struggled to keep up, ranking 14th in runs and 20th in batting average. The switch-hitting Beltran ranks ninth in the National League with 59 RBIs and is hitting .287 entering Wednesday.

The Giants and Red Sox have shown interest in Beltran as well, and Yahoo! reports that the Mets slugger would prefer to stay close to his New York home, making Boston a more likely destination than San Francisco.

Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran has already said he’d welcome a trade to a contending team, and Kevin Kernan of the New York Post reports the Giants could be a suitor. San Francisco leads the NL West by one game entering Saturday, but is in desperate need of run production, ranking 27th in scoring and 25th in batting average this season.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy made his respect for Beltran known when he named him to the National League All-Star team earlier this month. Beltran and teammate Jose Reyes will be flying with the Giants to Sunday’s All-Star Game in Phoenix.

Still, the Mets could turn themselves into contenders with a second half run. As of Saturday they sit 10 games out of first-place in the NL East.

Javier Lopez, in his second stint with the Red Sox, served as an at-times vital cog in the team. He spent parts of four years with the Sox, from 2006-09, and in 172 appearances with the club, he had a 3.30 ERA.

But the end was rough. In 2009, he appeared in 14 games for the Sox, and allowed 20 hits and 12 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings. His 9.26 ERA — and the ascent of Daniel Bard in the minors — resulted in the left-hander being designated for assignment to clear a spot on the big league roster for Bard in early May.

“I really don’t think I threw the ball all that bad,” Lopez told Alden Gonzalez in a terrific feature on the left-hander on MLB.com. “But when I decided to get hit around pretty bad, I made sure I did a good job of it. I made sure I got hit around.”

He did a good enough job of it that the Sox could not be faulted for releasing him at the end of last season. But, much to his surprise, one year later Lopez has emerged as an enormous contributor for the Giants, who now lead the World Series, 2-0.

After San Francisco acquired him from the Pirates at the trade deadline, the 33-year-old had a 1.42 ERA in the regular season. In the postseason, he has delivered many crucial outs for the Giants, permitting just one hit, one walk and one run in 5 2/3 innings (1.59 ERA) while striking out six. He has been called upon to neutralize the best left-handed hitters of playoff opponents — Jason Heyward of the Braves, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard of the Phillies, Josh Hamilton of the Rangers — and he has succeeded.

“If you told me in May or June that I’d be here, in this spot, I’d tell you you’re lying to my face,” Lopez said in the MLB.com story. “It’s a dream. These are the spots that you try to play all your life for.”

Could the Sox have had a shot at Cliff Lee, who dominated the Rays and Yankees this postseason? (AP)

Just a few thoughts while watching the World Series:

Beckett, not Lackey, might be the one who cost the Red Sox a shot at Cliff Lee

The Red Sox signed John Lackey last December 14th. The Philadelphia Phillies traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners on December 17th. Before Lee was traded, it was believed that the Phillies would do anything they could to try to re-sign the lefty. Once he was traded to the Mariners, you had to believe that it was a one-year rental.

I don’t blame the Sox for not holding out for Lee by not signing Lackey, but you could question extending Beckett knowing that Lee would be on the market at the trade deadline or during the offseason. I really thought that the Sox would hold out and wait and see how Beckett did throughout the season, and more importantly late in the season, seeing that he had struggled down the stretch in the two previous years. Don’t get me wrong, once they signed him to the four-year deal, I may have been surprised they didn’t wait, but I still thought it was a good deal at the time. But, did it cost them a shot at Lee? I think it did.

You need more than an ace come playoff time

If you look back at the American League Championship Series, there were two clear cut aces in CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee. After that, there were a lot of question marks.

Lee wasn’t available at the start of the ALCS, after pitching Game 5 against the Rays in the ALDS. So, to me, the big game to me in that series was Game 2. The Yanks used their playoff experience to come back and take advantage of a “fragile” Texas bullpen and take Game 1. It had me wondering if the Rangers could come back from that disappointing loss. It was left up to the Game 2 starters Phil Hughes and Colby Lewis. Lewis gave the Rangers exactly what they needed, keeping the Yankees bats in check early in that game. The same could not be said about Hughes, as the Rangers jumped all over him early. The same three guys in the Ranger ‘pen that got beat up during game 1 — Clay Rapada, Darren Oliver and Darren O’Day — bounced back and shut the door on the Yanks. After that game, it was over.

Fast forward to the World Series. After the much-hyped (but disappointing) pitching duel between Lee and Tim Lincecum, it was left to the Game 2 starters. Did you have more confidence in C.J. Wilson or Matt Cain?

The moral of the story: If your “ace” happens to get beaten in Game 1, you have to have confidence in the next guy to even the series.

Don’t underestimate Ortiz — a DH doesn’t come that easy

I expect that David Ortiz will have his option picked up. If you ask me, that option should be ripped up and replaced by a two-year deal this winter. I’m hearing a lot that the DH has been devalued these days. That’s because there just aren’t that many hitters in the game who can do what David Ortiz can do. Do you really think that the Tampa Rays are happy platooning Willy Aybar and Dan Johnson? No, they do because they don’t have a “David Ortiz” to plug in there everyday. (Tampa Bay tried to get a real DH with Pat Burrell. That was a failure. Burrell never produced for the Rays, who released him this summer.)

Ortiz’ struggles against left-handed pitchers are well documented. His numbers aren’t what they used to be. But at the end of the day, when the season is over, the numbers are there. Over the last two years, he has hit 60 home runs and has driven in over 200 runs. Good luck finding someone who can do that through free agency.

Bullpens are a must

I’ve always felt that World Series are won and lost because of bullpens. Obviously your starter needs to set the tone, but as we’ve seen in this World Series and ones of the past, even “good” starts may only last six innings. After that, the pressure is on. If you don’t have a guy that can get you out of a jam in the sixth and then have another two or three guys to hand it off to your closer, you are in big trouble. Which brings me to the closer. You often hear that pitching the ninth is a “different animal.” It is, but pitching the ninth in the playoffs or the World Series is a completely different level. The game has to be over if you have the lead in the ninth.

Defense…Defense…Defense

During the course of a season we see a lot of plays that, if they were made, would be considered great plays. If they are not made, more often than not they go down as a hit. In the postseason, those plays NEED to be made. The games are so intense that every mistake gets magnified. When you play the best teams in the game, you cannot give them outs by kicking the ball all over the field. Ask Brooks Conrad. If the poor guy didn’t have a meltdown in the field during the NLDS, the Giants may not be in the World Series.

Curt Young should be the next Red Sox pitching coach

Curt Young should replace John Farrell. Young was a minor league pitching coach with the A’s when Terry Francona was the big league bench coach. The Oakland A’s struggled to score runs but pitching was not their problem. Their staff had the lowest ERA in the American League. Curt Young is more than qualified and a great guy to boot.

Where did this come from with Javy Lopez?

Javy Lopez….really? Lefties hit .162 off of the former Red Sox lefty in 2010. That would have been nice to have, huh? Unfortunately for Javy, he got off to such a poor start with the Sox in 2009 that he just couldn’t recover. He is a left-handed specialist, not a mop-up guy. If you look back in April of ’09, Javy was brought in for some tough situations for someone who is asked to just get lefties out. Too often he was brought in to give the Sox innings in a blowout. Because of that, Lopez often found himself facing all right-handed hitters. That is not putting him a good position to succeed. He lost his confidence to get guys out, but as we are seeing in the postseason, he is still more than capable of getting the job done.

The Sox shouldn’t let the marketing department dictate their offseason

There is a feeling out there that the Sox need to make a splash this offseason in an attempt to create interest in their product. I don’t agree with that. If the marketing and sales department get involved in the team-building aspect of this organization, I will be shocked. The front office should not be concerned how their team is perceived by its fans. They should be concerned with doing what’s best for the organization and bringing a championship back to Boston.

All of last offseason, I listened to fans calling this station to voice their opinions of how bad this team was going to be, saying that because they let Jason Bay go, they weren’t going to score enough runs to compete. Theo Epstein and company knew that the team they put together would be just fine. I know they only won 89 games, but when they were healthy, scoring runs was not the problem. They were leading the major leagues in runs scored before they got hit with injuries.

As far as interest goes, those days are over. From 2004 to 2007, there were two seasons in this town, football and baseball. The other two big teams weren’t close to being championship caliber. Those were the glory days for both teams.

Why did ratings drop this year? It’s simple: The Celtics and Bruins were going deep in the playoffs and nobody really cared about the Sox for the first few months of the season. By the time the attention had switched over to Yawkey Way, the Sox started to lose piece after piece due to injury. Fans looked at this team and didn’t believe that they were capable of winning a World Series. That was the reality. No matter what they did at the trade deadline, the Sox could not win it all without Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury. Say what you want, but Kerry Wood was not bringing a championship to Boston.

With the end of the regular season approaching, Peter Gammons of the MLB Network and NESN joined the Big Show to discuss the upcoming playoffs, the changes the Red Sox have to make in the offseason, and the retirement of Mike Lowell.

Following are some highlights from the conversation. To hear the interview, visit The Big Show audio on demand page. Click here for the interview.

On a season of injuries for Red Sox:

If you take [Jacoby] Ellsbury, [Dustin] Pedroia, Victor Martinez and [Kevin] Youkilis, you probably have the best front four in baseball. They were together eight times all year. But there were other factors. The fact that their pitchers have a 4.99 ERA besides [Clay] Buchholz and [Jon] Lester, there’s blame there. … I never realized how important Okajima was to this team until they didn’t have him. …

I have no idea where they are going to go. I think the number of options that they have from here, there’s like ten scenarios, and I don’t know where they’ll go.

On how the Sox will proceed with David Ortiz:

I think they will pick [David Ortiz' option] up because I know they are really worried that if they don’t he’s going to be hitting against right-handed pitchers in either New York or Tampa, and I think that’s a tough thing to swallow. Now, he may not be happy about them picking up the one year … [but] he did sign the contract. I understand where he’s coming from and what he’s given to this franchise but that’s the luck of the draw.

On whether free agent Adrian Beltre might be back:

I think that’s going to be a very tough signing. I find Beltre a really compelling guy. He plays so hard. Now he’s at the point where he won’t tell them when he’s hurt because he’s afraid that they’ll make him sit down. Beltre just plays so hard all the time. I love the thing when on breaking balls he drops to one knee and hits the balls into the seats.

He has to be comfortable. He was really comfortable in Los Angeles and he’s really comfortable here. He was uncomfortable in Seattle. If he ends up in Detroit — which I think might be a stopping point for him — how comfortable is he going to be there? Very bad ballpark for him. It will be very interesting to see how he and [agent Scott Boras] come to this.

Could Adam Dunn end up in New York?

Adam is so adamant about not wanting to DH, I don’t think he’s going to have any choice. I really don’t. The Nationals are putting up a great front because people love him and he’s a great guy. They’re not going to sign him because they don’t know where to play him in the field. I can see that. He’s a big on-base guy. I could see the Yankees doing it. But the other problem there is, if you bring him in as the DH, what do you do with [Jorge] Posada?

On Carl Crawford’s free agent destination:

I’ll be fascinated by the Crawford thing. Everybody assumes he’s going to go to the Angels. I’m not so sure. First of all, [Angels owner] Arte Moreno isn’t always great with free agents. Arte likes to kind of do business, ‘OK, this is what I’ll pay you and that’s that.’

Crawford would like to move from being a leadoff guy to being a third hitter. He’d like to win batting titles. He likes this ballpark. This will be an interesting situation. If the Red Sox went to him, and said, ‘You’re going to play left field. Ellsbury is still going to be leading off. He’ll do more running. You only have to run 40 times a year and hit line drives all over the ballpark.’ That’s an intriguing guy.

On whether he thinks it more likely that the Sox pursue free agent Carl Crawford of Jayson Werth this offseason:

I think Crawford. I think. It’s clear that they believe in 2012 that [Ryan] Kalish is going to become a really good player in right field. And I buy that, I think he’s going to become a tremendous player. He’s going to hit, and I love the whole Darin Erstad, Grady Sizemore personality that he brings to a team. I was amazed — he walked in here and all the veteran players were like ‘Great, this is better than a trade, we brought up Ryan Kalish,’ which speaks volumes about who he is, what he is, the way he plays. I’m sure he’ll play at least half the season next year in Triple-A, but he’s the one guy who’s come up and made quite an impression.

Who are the contenders in the playoffs this year?

I think the shift has started to the National League. The best young players are in the National League. I think the best two postseason teams are Philadelphia and San Francisco. … Don’t underestimate the fact that the Giants’ ERA is the best in one month since May 1968 and that the three main guys [Matt] Cain, [Tim] Lincecum, and [Madison] Bumgarner are 12-1 with an ERA of about 1.20 in September, even better than Halladay, Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

I still think it’s going to be Minnesota [coming out of the American League]. They’ve got to get their pitching back. [Francisco] Liriano has had three bad starts in a row. The Yankees have lost  nine consecutive starts by opposing left-handers. If the Yankees play the Twins, who they usually have beaten, Liriano and [Brian] Duensing have to come up big.

On John Lackey’s struggles for Boston:

I think he should be better than this. He’s been OK. But it’s not just like they found a few holes. His stuff has not been as crisp. He’s been durable but his stuff hasn’t been as good as it was in Anaheim. I don’t think that that consistency he showed last year using both his off-speed pitches and his fastball was there this year. But it’s also different being here. Maybe his father-in-law is upset at him because he’s not winning all his games for the Red Sox. He has had a couple of arm problems and it will be interesting to see how he comes out next year. … In his case, it is how does he get his velocity back? In Beckett’s case, it’s how do I get my arrogance back?

Does Daisuke Matsuzaka come back:

I think they might trade him. Because his contract is not bad and he can pitch in the National League. Let’s say they lose Victor Martinez and Beltre, I can see them trading Daisuke for Carlos Beltran and putting him in left field. I think Beltran will come back and have a monster year. The Mets would love to do that if they have a general manager by Opening Day. I think there are a number of places he can be traded to. The Dodgers, Seattle. Of course, he may end up in court if he gets traded to the Dodgers.

On Mike Lowell’s retirement and legacy:

One of the most popular players in my time covering here. The number of people every day who come up and say, ‘I really love Mike Lowell,’ it’s great. He won two World Series rings, which means two more World Series rings than Ted Williams. He had great years in 2003 for the Marlins and 2007 for the Red Sox. He knocked in, what, 120 and 110 runs in those two years. He’s been a really good player, he’s played hurt and never recovered from the hip. It’s a nice thing to leave the game, or your job, and be that respected and that well-liked. I don’t think we’ll have anything to worry about Mike Lowell losing his money. He got hurt and he kept trying to play, but there was nothing he could do.