Boston ready to reconsider Bartolo

What will be on the Red Sox's minds tonight when they face Bartolo Colon in Chicago? Will it be, "I hope we rough him up?" or "I'd like to have him as a teammate?" Probably both. David Heuschkel of the Hartford Courant writes the Red Sox may well be keeping an eye on Colon with a mind to a future trade.

With the White Sox offense tanking like nobody's business and a run at the postseason looking more and more unlikely, there may soon come a time when it will become expedient for them to unload Colon, who is eligible to become a free agent at the end of the season. Will the Red Sox -- who passed on opportunity to trade he since-departed Shea Hillenbrand and Casey Fossum for Colon -- do what it takes to get him in their rotation this time around? Chances are the price won't be so dear now as it was in the offseason and the need is now much more apparent than it was then.

With the early results in, the Red Sox are in need some starting pitching help. Their most effective starter, Pedro Martinez, must be handled with the care usually afforded a Faberge Egg. As for the rest, they are mostly over 5.00 in the ERA department. Derek Lowe has managed to best that mark, but he is still a full two runs worse than last year's 2.58 showing. The Red Sox are in the middle of the pack in terms of team starting ERA. They are currently ranked seventh but are tightly bunched with a group of teams that rank between fifth and 12th. Their starters' ERA of 4.68 is just about league average.

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