Over at BP, Joe Sheehan thinks the Red Sox are being smart in giving some of their starting players a breather:

It would behoove Joe Torre to start doing this as well. The Yankees are up five games in the loss column on the Tigers, with a magic number of seven for the wild card. If form holds through the weekend and the Yankees’ magic number reaches three or so, Torre needs to worry less about seeding and more about making sure his aging team is ready to go on October 2. Alex Rodriguez has missed two games all year, and none since August 8. Robinson Cano hasn’t missed a game since May 6. Jorge Posada has played his usual 130-odd games behind the plate; a couple of extra days off next week couldn’t hurt. I can’t quantify the effects of rest on a player’s performance, but I can say that the cost of doing so—possibly ending up as the wild card versus winning the division—is essentially zero.

At ESPN, Buster Olney thinks that Alex Rodriguez could find a good home with the L.A. Dodgers:

Rodriguez might be a perfect addition at the perfect time for the Dodgers. He would give them the power they need, in home run production and in marketing; they could build their business plan around his pursuit of Barry Bonds’ home run record.

Friends of A-Rod don’t think he would be interested in playing in the National League. We’ll see. Some within the Yankees’ organization wonder if any team will be willing to pay A-Rod as much as the Yankees can pay him; others think that it’s all but a lock that A-Rod will leave the Yanks.

If he does go, the Dodgers would be a perfect landing spot for him, if the team is ready to spend big.

Finally, in the Times, Goose Gossage says he likes Joba. That’s not a shocker. Neither is this:

“I really don’t see how they can think about making him a starter after what we’ve seen,” Gossage said in a telephone interview. “You can find starters — I know they have other young kids — but how are you going to find another character like him? How are you going to replace him? Before he came up, those setup guys were killing them.”

Goose, we love ya, but um, got to disagree with on this one. However, this quote is more like it:

“I saw him throw those two pitchers over Kevin Youkilis’s head when they played Boston,” he said. “I loved it. The same thing used to happen with me when I tried to get it inside. When I missed, my body would get out front, my arm would lag and the ball would fly.

“And guess what? It was a great purpose pitch, only now they’re protecting these hitters every chance they get. It makes me sick. I went crazy when they tossed the kid that day. I screamed, ‘What the heck is this game coming to?’ “

Back when I played…