Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Schill Continues to Thrill
Ok, stop the presses. Red Sox (check!) manager Terry Francona announced on WEEI's Dale & Holley that Curt Schilling will re-join the club...as a member of the much-maligned bullpen.
Myers in a situational lefty hole? Then Embree? Then Timlin? Or Schilling? First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women...
Needless to say, this is a shocker. It shows me two things. First, that the Sox have pinpointed the bullpen as a "fatal flaw" and, secondly, that Curt Schilling is a team player.
Yes, he may be bombastic. He is opinionated. My mom thinks he's annoying. But I don't. Nope. Not after this. Could you imagine Pedro or Roger agreeing to this? Even D-Lowe put up a stink.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this is like Tom Brady telling Coach Belichick: "hey, if Tedy Bruschi is out for a while, I'll play linebacker..."
This is not like A-Rod deciding to move to third.
Now, does the move make sense? Yes. Curt Schilling is not ready to go the full slate of innings as a starter right now as he would be if he were 100% healthy. So Curt Schilling as a starter would actually add fuel to the fire. What good would it serve if he could only go 4.2 or 5 innings? It would necessitate a John Halama or Jeremi Gonzalez sighting. That's not good for anyone.
Now, he can serve as the long man, but I'm not sure how well he'd respond to warming up, sitting down, warming up again. When it's Curt's time, it's Curt's time. And I'm sorry, if for example Tim Wakefield is having trouble in the 6th and Curt can come in for 2 innings or so, then that's just freaking nasty. He is a quality stopgap.
And rather than dealing away a quality prospect for a borderline bullpen arm, you work in one of the top righties in the game. And he gets in shape. And when/if Keith Foulke is back to form, they make a move. If not, then they've bandaged a major wound and can figure out the second contingency plan. Billy Wagner?
Now...what the heck would happen if the Sox ended up getting a top-line starter, like Jason Schmidt or AJ Burnett and Bronson Arroyo went to the pen. That would be downright scary.
More will be discussed on this later...but needless to say, it's big. Real big.
One.
Myers in a situational lefty hole? Then Embree? Then Timlin? Or Schilling? First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women...
Needless to say, this is a shocker. It shows me two things. First, that the Sox have pinpointed the bullpen as a "fatal flaw" and, secondly, that Curt Schilling is a team player.
Yes, he may be bombastic. He is opinionated. My mom thinks he's annoying. But I don't. Nope. Not after this. Could you imagine Pedro or Roger agreeing to this? Even D-Lowe put up a stink.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this is like Tom Brady telling Coach Belichick: "hey, if Tedy Bruschi is out for a while, I'll play linebacker..."
This is not like A-Rod deciding to move to third.
Now, does the move make sense? Yes. Curt Schilling is not ready to go the full slate of innings as a starter right now as he would be if he were 100% healthy. So Curt Schilling as a starter would actually add fuel to the fire. What good would it serve if he could only go 4.2 or 5 innings? It would necessitate a John Halama or Jeremi Gonzalez sighting. That's not good for anyone.
Now, he can serve as the long man, but I'm not sure how well he'd respond to warming up, sitting down, warming up again. When it's Curt's time, it's Curt's time. And I'm sorry, if for example Tim Wakefield is having trouble in the 6th and Curt can come in for 2 innings or so, then that's just freaking nasty. He is a quality stopgap.
And rather than dealing away a quality prospect for a borderline bullpen arm, you work in one of the top righties in the game. And he gets in shape. And when/if Keith Foulke is back to form, they make a move. If not, then they've bandaged a major wound and can figure out the second contingency plan. Billy Wagner?
Now...what the heck would happen if the Sox ended up getting a top-line starter, like Jason Schmidt or AJ Burnett and Bronson Arroyo went to the pen. That would be downright scary.
More will be discussed on this later...but needless to say, it's big. Real big.
One.
