Is there such thing as too much pitching? I say no such thing. The reason I bring up this topic is because the Red Sox run a five man pitching rotation but they have six starting pitchers going into spring training. Like I said, there is no such thing as too much pitching as we learned last year with Daisuke Matsuzaka having such a poor season due to injury that he received during the World Baseball Classic last year. Then you had Brad Penny, who is a natural National League pitcher who as we saw last season proved he doesn’t belong in the American League. They also had a short stint which future hall of famer John Smoltz who coming off injury didn’t have much to offer the team. So the team was down the stretch using pitcher Paul Byrd who had been throwing batting practice to his kid’s team all season instead of even going to spring training and didn’t start the season until August. But hopefully all that is in our past.
This season we go into the season with six starting pitchers we have in my opinion three ace pitchers in Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey who all be the number one pitcher. Then we have three pitchers who can feel the four and five spot, in Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz, and the veteran knuckle baller Tim Wakefield.
Who will feel the four and five spot? Well it is reported that Matsuzaka is in great shape as He has been preparing for the season in Arizona and that he will be ready for the season. I feel He will hold the four spot not only because he is ready for the season but also because of his $104 million contract that they don’t want to waste by having him on the bench. Plus we know that he can be a winner when he is healthy he has had an 18 win season in the past so we know he has it in him some were.
So know we move on the youthful Buchholz, last season Buch went 7-4 in 16 starts, with a 4.21 ERA. This will make his fourth season in the majors but I feel this will be his first full season in a Boston Red Sox uniform. He has not yet proved to be a great pitcher but I feel He is growing in to the spot more and more each year. His clam to fame is his 2007 no hitter against the Orioles. Though life time pro winning percentage is below .500 but I feel a full season will help him.
But we also have Wakefield who has gone in front of the press stressing that he deserves a spot in the line up. He is coming off his first all-star season and also coming off of a back surgery. It makes me iffy as to weather he will have a great season or not, He is a knuckleball pitcher which means he is not a consistent with his wins. This will make Tim’s 18th year in the league and his 17th as a member of the Red Sox. He is on a 2 year contract so he is looking upon retirement soon, so should the organization respect him and give him a spot in the retirement? I say yes but if we look back to last year he was so broken down by the all-star break that he had to set out several games. So what should you do allow him to pitch until he gets hurt again or just save him for the second half of the season? I do you think that Wakefield would be happy if he was saved for the second half so what do you do?
I have a solution to this problem we know that the spots 1 through 4 are filled but we have to fill the 5 spot but we have two pitchers and only one spot. I say allow them to share the 5 spot that way Clay can work his way up to becoming a great pitcher of the future that we know he can be, and Wake gets his starts and doesn’t over work his body to allow him to play a whole season. The 5 spot pitch in most cases doesn’t get to pitch in the post season, so it isn’t they are your most important pitcher they are in there to win a game every 5 days. If you share the spot you only have to worry about winning a game every 10 days which will make the body fresher and allow you to work on the mechanics in the off days to allow them to make the win on the days they are called on.
The Red Sox have one of the best starting pitching in all of baseball this season as long as everyone stays healthy. If what they say about pitching wins championships, then this is the year for the Sox.
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