April 23, 2013; Boston, MA USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright (35) pitches during the fourth inning against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Steven Wright, who made his Major League debut last night against the Athletics, was swiftly optioned to AAA Pawtucket following the game. Wright was acquired from Cleveland at last year’s trade deadline for former top Red Sox prospect, Lars Anderson. Wright was borderline dreadful in his first taste of Major League action, getting tagged for six hits and five earned runs in 3.2 innings of work. It wasn’t all negative for the knuckleballer though,  as he struck out four and managed to keep the rest of the bullpen intact, due to being the last pitcher in the game before it was called on account of rain.

March 24, 2013; Clearwater, FL, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Daniel Bard (51) throws a pitch during the fifth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Bright House Networks Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

To take his place on the roster, Daniel Bard is being recalled from AA Portland. Bard is one of the few pitchers who are already on the 40-man roster, and have some experience at the Major League level. Bard hasn’t exactly been impressive and overwhelming for the Sea Dogs, having given up eight hits, five walks and five runs (four earned) in nine innings pitched. That said, he has put together a string of five appearances, totaling six innings, without allowing an earned run. Bard probably won’t be immediately thrust into high leverage situations, but some solid performances in relief would be great for his confidence and for the Boston bullpen.

Feb 25, 2013; Dunedin, FL, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright (67) against the Toronto Blue Jays during a spring training split squad game at Florida Exchange Park. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Wright was drafted in the second round of the 2006 amateur draft by the Cleveland Indians. He put up some decent numbers in the lower levels of the minors as a top prospect, but his career began to stagnate in Double-A Akron. This eventually promoted Wright to take up the knuckleball, where his career finally began to take off in 2011. He worked his way back to Double-A throwing the flutterball then, and in Double-A full time last season, he was pretty dominant between the Indians’ and Red Sox systems. In 25 starts, he went 10-7 with a 2.54 ERA and over 7 strikeouts per nine innings. Despite a rough spring, his first camp with Boston, he has been similarly good in Pawtucket this year, posting a 2.70 ERA with 11 strikeouts and 7 walks in 10 innings.

The one factor that has plagued Wright throughout his minor league career has been his control. The knuckleball is admittedly a hard pitch to control but 7 walks in 10 innings is just too many, as is the 69 walks in 141.2 innings last season. However, that could work in his favor in an “effectively wild” approach should be improve his control at least a bit. Great control is not really necessary if one is making a short stint in the majors as a mop-up reliever.

Unless Alfredo Aceves profoundly struggles in tonight’s start against the Tribe, it seems likely that Wright will be restricted to the front end of the bullpen. Hopefully the Red Sox will make room for him to pitch against his former club in this series for his major league debut. The way they have been playing this year, that doesn’t seem like it will be a problem though.

Feb 25, 2013; Dunedin, FL, USA; Boston Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright throws against the Toronto Blue Jays during the bottom of the second inning of a spring training split squad game at Florida Exchange Park. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Although the end goal is the same, Boston’s Steven Wright is in a very different and real circumstance. Wright wants to be the Red Sox’ next knuckler.  Like Toronto’s R.A. Dickey, Wright is a pitcher determined to master the mystery dance that defines dead-stopping a ball from point of release through the final hitter-defeating dip and dive into an over-sized catcher’s mitt.

Wright wrote an impressive first chapter to his story on Monday afternoon, besting 2012 NL Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey. Wright threw two baffling innings of two hit, three strike out, shutout baseball as the Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jay 4-2 at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. Wakefield was at the game to see the 28-year old righty’s effort and will be traveling to Fort Myers on Tuesday to begin working with him.

“I was a little nervous,” Wright told MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm. “I was not scared, just a little nervous, because you want to do your best in general but to have guys with a keen eye for the knuckleball…Once I got out there, I felt pretty good.” After kicking around in the minors since 2002 as a conventional pitcher, Wright has committed to the dark art and it appears Wakefield has signed on to show him more.

There are two schools of thought regarding the knuckle ball. To even the most casual baseball fan you either love the flutter and fly or you wait in breathless anticipation for Bud Selig to do the right thing and ban the pitch so that real men can throw hard, harder, hardest. I for one love the knuckler…well, except for those days when it isn’t knuckling which can be about 1/3 of the time during a bad year.

Another knuckle ball pitcher making starts at Fenway Park. I like the sound of that.

July 23, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Franklin Morales (46) throws to the Texas Rangers in the sixth inning at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Rangers won beating the Red Sox 9-1. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-US PRESSWIRE

Acquiring lefty reliever Craig Breslow from Arizona could allow LHP Franklin Morales to move back to the rotation and, with Beckett leaving his start tonight with back spasms, it may prove a timely move.

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Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Red Sox have the fifth best bullpen in baseball this year and the best since April 21, but that didn’t stop them from acquiring some more in Craig Breslow. About 45 minutes before the Trade Deadline, the Red Sox shipped Matt Albers and Scott Podsednik to Arizona to receive the left-handed reliever. Despite Andrew Miller doing a respectable job of the bullpen this year– a 2.81 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 25.2 innings pitched– the Red Sox felt the need to add more left-handed pitching. This may be because they want to move Franklin Morales back to the starting rotation, where he pitched to a 3.43 in five starts.

However, Breslow isn’t just any left-handed reliever, he’s quietly had a great deal of success over the past few years. This year, he’s gone 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 43.2 innings with the Diamondbacks. While you may be wondering why they’d trade Matt Albers for a guy with worse stats, it’s mostly his peripherals. Breslow’s 8.72 strikeouts per nine innings and 3.32 K/BB ratio are far superior to Albers’ 5.72 and 1.67 marks. Plus, he’s a lefty– always a valuable commodity.

There’s also the fact that the Red Sox traded from their surplus of relievers and outfielders to get Breslow. They have so many relievers and outfielders that solid players are being blocked– making it very helpful that they were able to rid themselves of Albers and Podsednik and still get good value in return. Even though the Diamondbacks got much more talent in this trade than the Red Sox did, I’m not unhappy and I think this was a good trade for both teams.

In other news, the Red Sox finally got rid of former top prospect Lars Anderson– sending him to Cleveland for double-A pitcher Steven Wright. Anderson is a decent player, but with Adrian Gonzalez signed, he was never going to get a chance in Boston. The Red Sox didn’t really get much out of this deal, just a 27 year old in double-A. However, he has had plenty of success in double-A– posting a 2.49 ERA this year– and one interesting fact about Wright– he’s a knuckleballer. It’s a shame it had to end this way, but it’ll be good to at least see Anderson get a shot with the Indians.