Who's the New Face of The Pig?

Now that the Sox find themselves in second place, looking up at the Yankees, many questions need to be answered.

Will Buchholz permanently stay in the rotation? Can they find an everyday shortstop? Where would they put a power hitter if they can trade for one? But there's a more important question that we need answered -- Who is the new face of the Team Pig?

As Red Sox fans, even though we love all the players, they can really piss us off sometimes. We here at Boston's Tenth affectionately call these under-performing players pigs.

Now that our two favorite pigs Julian Tavarez and Julio Lugo are no longer with the club, we need a new face on our pig. Here are a few candidates and their qualifications. Check them out and vote in our poll.

Manny Delcarmen - Manny loves to walk guys -- especially the first batter he faces -- and has a bad habit of letting inherited runners score. Batters are hitting .252 against him and his WHIP is 1.46.

On the other hand, Delcarmen has only allowed 2 earned runs in his last 10 appearances and sports a 2.31 ERA on the season.

J.D. Drew - Drew is struggling at the plate as his average has dipped below .240. He's not hitting for power and seems to be up there looking for a walk every time. He strikes out looking more than anyone in the league. It's only a matter of time before he gets hurt again, which could be a good thing. Drew is also a thief. He's making an obscene $14 million this season and has 2 years left on his 5-year, $70 million deal.

J.D.'s grand slam in Game 6 of the ALCS against Cleveland may have been the single biggest hit of that championship season. That moment will live forever in Red Sox history and may have been worth all of the $70 million. He also carried the team last June after David Ortiz got injured, hitting .337 with 12 homers.

Daisuke Matsuzaka - Another thief, Dice-K cost the team $51 million just to get him out of Japan and then another $52 million for the next six seasons. He was billed as a phenom with six pitches, but all he seems to do is nibble around the plate and walk guys. He was unable to get out of the jams this season like he had done in the past and the team finally had to put him on the DL. His 2009 stats are about as bad as they come -- 1-5, 8.23 ERA, 2.20 WHIP, 59 hits in 35 innings.

Last season even though it wasn't always pretty, Dice-K found a way to win almost all the time. He finished the year 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA. He also contributed in 2007 with 15 wins and 191 strikeouts in 204 innings and a solid outing in Game 3 of the World Series.

David Ortiz - Ortiz has finally broken out of his horrific early season slump, but his numbers are still pretty bad. His average is hovering around the .220 mark, his slugging percentage is in the low .400s, and he strikes out almost once a game. The decline actually started last season after his wrist injury as he finished with a .264 average and just 23 home runs.

Big Papi is showing signs of the Big Papi of old and is now on pace for almost 30 homers. His first five seasons with the club was one of the greatest stretches any player Red Sox player has ever had. He almost single-handedly brought the team back from the 0-3 deficit to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. He is beloved throughout New England and really shouldn't even be on this list.

Brad Penny - Just when it looked like Penny was coming around he got lit up by Toronto. He has a 5.02 ERA and opponents are hitting .293 against him. He rarely makes it past the 5th inning and the team seems to have no confidence when he's on the mound.

Penny has allowed 3 runs or less in six of his last seven starts. Before he was injured with the Dodgers last season he had back-to-back 16-win seasons and has proven he can be an effective starter. He's still probably best used as trade bait though.

That's all we've got so far. If you have any other candidates you want make a case for leave a comment and we'll take it under consideration.