Trade-bait Clay

When you root for an out-of-market team whose reporters haven't been writing much, it's a bit jarring to learn that one of your best prospects who seemingly proved himself this year is on the trading block again. I feel like I've been asleep for weeks.

There was never a question of young Clay's ability - just whether or not he would mature into a reliable major league starter. Because of a tantalizing arm that threw a no-hitter in his second major league start at 22 years old, Buchholz has often been linked in trades for big names such as Victor Martinez, Johan Santana and Roy Halladay.

It's been a tough debate whether to keep him or hold him, but I think the last half of the season proved that young Clay will be able to anchor a staff really soon. The best part is that he seems to have learned that he still has much to learn:

As much as the Red Sox like him, he knows he could be shipped out at a moment's notice if the right deal comes along.

Which would be a shame, because it appears he has barely scratched the surface of his enormous talent.

"I'm so far from mastering anything, it's unbelievable," Buchholz said in a recent conversation. "Some days it just clicks, and that goes for anybody. It's like a hitter; some days the ball looks like a beach ball, and some days it looks like a golf ball. You want it to be clicking more times than not, but some days it's just not there."

You could have convinced me to roll the dice on a Buchholz deal before this year, but not anymore. I wouldn't do it even under Nick Cafardo's scenario, which hinges on the Red Sox signing John Lackey then trading their blossoming ace for one of the big bats on the market: Adrian Gonzalez or Miguel Cabrera.

But then again, if Theo Epstein had asked me whether he should trade Nomar Garciaparra for Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera, I would have said no.