Staying healthy could prevent a "Red October"
Ian Abreu
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Sports
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Any educated baseball fan will tell you that pitching wins championships. It did so for the Sox last year (team ERA 3.87-which is amazing in this day in age), did so in '04, and that trend will presumably continue. So, if sure you're asking, "what's my beef?" I'm getting to it...
When one assembles a combination of an old/injury-prone/inexperienced pitching staff, you're just flirting with disaster. Let's begin with Curt Schilling, at the ripe-old age of 42, not only is his career possibly over with his shoulder injury, not only does this put the axe to your projected third starter, but it also puts unneeded pressure on young pitchers Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, the projected fourth and fifth starters, both of whom were outstanding during the stretch run last season. I would still like to see what happens with a full 180-200 innings pitched.
At 41years old, Tim Wakefield isn't getting any younger and had arm issues in the playoffs last season as well, so his past condition has raised my eyebrows. At least you'll have old reliable, the "Big Texan" Josh Beckett, who should have been 2007 Cy Young Award winner, to help shoulder the load. Oh wait, he came down with back spasms last Saturday and, according to ESPN.com, he'll miss the start of the season when the Sox take on the Oakland A's in Tokyo on March 25 and 26.
Despite these reports, Red Sox skipper Terry Francona says nothing has been officially released yet from the team either way. As a result, I guess seeing Beckett in the land of the samurai is still a possibility.
Personally, I don't think it's anything to worry about; these things are common with pitchers. I'd rather have him stay in the U.S., relax his back and not have to bother with a 20-hour flight. Get him set for play in April.
That leaves you with Daisuke Matsuzaka, who's coming off, for the most part, a fairly successful rookie year which saw him pick up a 15-12 record and a 4.40 ERA. Now that the Daisuke "craze" it sort of behind us and the media circus has tapered off, he's come into spring training with a new training regiment, he's bulkier, stronger, and has a full MLB regular season under his belt. I predict that for the time being, until Beckett gets his back taken care of, Matsuzaka will have to be the ace of this staff, because it sure won't be Lester, Wakefield, Buchholz, Julian Tavarez, or Kyle Snyder. AROUND THE REST OF THE INJURY WARD
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