The Boston Red Sox have been cursed to find a consistent and reliable shortstop ever since trading Nomar Garciaparra in the middle of the 2004 season. 

Scratch one more player off of list of possibilities at the middle infield position.

The Red Sox announced yesterday that Casey Kelly, who split last season between the mound and the infield, will focus on being a starter for the remainder of his career. GM Theo Epstein made the announcement at this year's general manager meetings in Indianapolis.

Kelly is heralded as the top prospect in the Red Sox farm system and was involved in the heaviest of trade rumors between the Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays for ace pitcher Roy Halladay. Epstein emphasized that Kelly is not on the trading block.

Kelly went 6-1 with a sparkling 1.12 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 48 innings during his time at Greenville in the second half of last season. Greenville is one of Sox single-A affliates (considered as A++, i.e. a step above A+ Salem).

It was also announced that Kelly will be offered an invitation to Spring Training to get him acclimated to the feel of big league pitching. Epstein said that they feel that Kelly has an excellent possibility of pitching in the "upper minors" this season, meaning making it at least to double-A Portland and possibily triple-A Patwucket.

Kelly will be only 20 years old when he reports to Fort Myers in February. The decision of which position to play, according to Epstein, was ultimately left up to Kelly, who called the GM earlier this week with his decision. While the Sox have been looking for a long-term option at shortstop, Kelly's decision was not altogether suprising. While compiling excellent pitching statistics, Kelly batted only .136 with three home runs and 16 RBIs in 136 at-bats in the minors last year.

The baseball world was already aware that Manny Ramirez was at least at one point in his career using performance-enhancing drugs thanks to his positive test at the beginning of this season.

The breaking news today came from a New York Times report that announced that fellow longtime Boston Red Sox David Ortiz was, along with Ramirez, on the list of 103 players that had tested positive for a banned substance during the 2003 season.

Surprised?

You shouldn’t be.

First, take into account the mathematical odds. There are 30 major league teams, each with a 25-man roster. That is 750 players. If we throw in even another five players per team that average significant enough time to be on the roster, that would give us roughly 900 players who were in the majors in 2003.

That means that one out of every nine players is on that list of being caught using PEDs, or about three per team. Some teams, no doubt, will have significantly more players on that list because of the environment in each clubhouse and the notable players that have already been identified as users: Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, San Fransisco Giants, Houston Astros, etc.

Throw the Boston Red Sox into that distinguished mix.

Second, and this is in no way to be interpreted as racially prejudicial or demeaning, there is clearly a seperate PEDs ring in the Dominican Republic. By that I mean that it seems that in the DR, it is much easier for individuals to obtain PEDs of varying nature.

Believe him or not, if anything that Alex Rodriguez said in his press conference addressing his usage was true, it was that he was a young kid who was able to get drugs that he had no idea what they were, except that it would make you stronger.

We have seen a trend that many of the top-level players who are caught using PEDs have a Dominican connection: Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, Ramirez and now Ortiz, just to name a few.

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, was that Ortiz was a castaway from the Minnesota Twins – a player deemed too big, too slow and too one dimensional to play in the majors. That expendable piece of the Twins organization went on to hit 41, 47, 54 (franchise record) for the Red Sox during the ’04-06 seasons.

At the time, we did see a large, very strong left-handed hitter that reminded us of Jim Thome every time the ball jumped off of Ortiz’s bat. He was 28 in 2004, the first year he hit 40+ home runs in a season, which is right in the middle of the prime of a hitter’s career.

While we thoroughly enjoyed Ortiz’s best years in Boston, and the two World Series titles that he and Ramirez helped the Sox win, this is by far the biggest moment of Ortiz’s career in Boston.

Bigger than walk-offs against the Angels and Yankees in the 2004 play off series; bigger than the Red Sox single season home run record; bigger than solidifying himself as one of the best clutch hitters and best designated hitters in the history of the game.

David Ortiz replaced Nomar Garciaparra as everyone’s favorite Red Sox player. He was always outgoing, gregarious and accepting of the media. Even through his recent struggles, Ortiz forced a smile on his face. No one outside of New York (and perhaps a few other teams still looking for ball that he has launched over their fences) had a bad thing to say about him.

Until now.

Ever since July 31, 2004, the Boston Red Sox have had issues with at least one position on their roster.

Shortstop.

Yes, it was on that Saturday afternoon when it was announced that the Sox had traded the face of the organization, Nomar Garciaparra. Since Garciaparra left, the Sox have been hard pressed to find a replacement.

This season, the prospects for a dependable shortstop seemed best as the Sox had two legitimate players contending for the job in spring training. Julio Lugo was the veteran, entering his third season with the Sox, while Jed Lowrie was, like Garciaparra, a homegrown product and had only a half season under his belt.

Lugo is considered a more offensive-minded shortstop, although that may be due more to his downright terrible defense than anything else, as his offensive numbers are hardly remarkable. Lowrie is a much more solid defender, having made no errors in 45 games at shortstop last season (compared to Lugo’s 16 in only 81 games), but has not proven that he is anything more than an average hitter.

Although Lowrie played well as a rookie, it would be hard to bench Lugo given the kind of contract (4 years/$36 million) he was given. But then Lugo injured himself during a very impressive spring training, and was forced to the disabled list to open the season. To many, this was an excellent excuse to bypass Lugo’s lucrative contract and give the job to Lowrie.

Fans were optimistic about Lowrie, and with good reason. Fans were hoping he would be the next in the long and impressive list of homegrown talent over the recent years. However, he struggled mightily to open the season, recording only one hit in 18 at-bats. After this abysmal start, it was discovered that he was playing injured, and he underwent surgery to fix a wrist injury that has been bothering him for sometime.

The Sox now had to turn to their third-string option at shortstop, and they were lucky to have Nick Green, who has been somewhat of a journeyman in his first few seasons in the majors. Green also had a very good spring training, despite not playing at all in the majors in 2008.

Now almost three months into the season, Green has so far weathered the “shortstop curse” left behind by Garciaparra. In fact, his play has impressed manager Terry Francona to the point that although Lugo has rejoined the club for sometime, Green has taken over the everyday shortstop duties.

Through 53 games played, Green is sporting a very respectable .292 batting average, to go along with four home runs and 26 RBIs while spending most of his time in the ninth spot in the lineup. However, shortstop is not his natural position, and he struggled some early in the year defensively, but his defense has picked up of late.

But Lowrie is now at triple-A Pawtucket rehabbing from the wrist injury and figures to rejoin the team by the All-Star break just a few weeks away. While Green, Lowrie and Lugo have all played several positions at times throughout their career, it is unlikely that all three will remain on the roster. The remaining bench players (George Kotteras, Mark Kotsay and Rocco Baldelli) are not going to be moved anywhere, which means that one of the three shortstop options will not be with the big league club in a few weeks.

The Sox will try (and likely tried last year) to move Lugo at the trading deadline, but will be hard pressed to find a new home for him given his poor play and ridiculously over-priced contract.

Green has exceeded expectations, not just for himself but he has given the Sox better play from the shortstop position than they had likely expected regardless of which of the three they put out. The team would much rather have Lowrie and Green, but likely one of them will have to go. However, with his continued lack of play, Lugo may land on the disabled list with some kind of mystery injury ala Daisuke Matsuzaka and his strained shoulder.

 The Sox will try very hard to keep both Lowrie and Green on the team. What do you think they should do?