Your Morning Dump...where Middlebrooks is the Sox main trade bait

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump. Ordinarily, the Sox might find it a fairly straightforward proposition to ride out the slump. Yet Iglesias’ lack of production comes at an inopportune time, with the team potentially trying to figure out if it has depth on the left side of the infield from which to deal. MLB.com is reporting that the Red Sox and White Sox have discussed the possibility of a trade involving White Sox starter Jake Peavy that would require the Sox to send Will Middlebrooks to Chicago. (No word on who introduced Middlebrooks to the talks or if Boston is willing to part with him.) UPDATE — According to an industry source, the Red Sox and White Sox have not discussed Middlebrooks “in any context” with each other. WEEI: Dilemma at third base deepens Jake Peavy appears to be target number one for the Red Sox. With Clay Buchholz's inability to play through pain keeping him off of the mound, acquiring a veteran like Peavy would be huge. Of course this means giving up a young prospect in return and all signs are pointing to Mr. Wake & Rake, Will Middlebrooks.  The Sox are too high on both Jackie Bradley & Xaendar Boegarts to ship them to Chicago and after Jose Iglesias put up the numbers he did in the first half of the year, he's earned back his "shortstop of the future" moniker. But with the way Iglesias has struggled at the plate, it appears he may be "regressing to the mean" (much to the chagrin of all of us here at Ted's Army). The Sox could easily call up Middlebrooks and hope that he could give a boost to the lineup, like he did last season before he broke his thumb.  Also, the Sox pride themselves on their organizational depth. Larry Lucchino admitted as much yesterday on WEEI: "There's going to have to be a pretty good deal to extract some of these high-quality prospects we have." They still consider Middlebrooks to be a high quality prospect so they're not just going to give him away. But the Sox will still need to decide on if they want to capitalize on the surprising success on the team and go all-in on 2013. If they do, then Middlebrooks is the first option to be shipped out.  Rest of the Links: Globe: Farrell not concerned with hitting | Rays top Sox | Herald: Long way to go in AL East | Standing pat in Sox bullpen | Iglesias sinking | Pedroia inks extension | CSNNE: Can't tag Price | Strong start, wrong matchup for Doubront | WEEI: True team player | Rays ace shuts down Sox |