Links - Political Rants - Philosophy - Music - Quotes - Movies - Random - Worst of the Web - Guest Writings - Ratings

My Take on The Red Sox

Chas Andres

This year, the sox have a much better pitching staff than they've been given credit for. All last winter, (and summer, for that matter), you'd hear the stories about Pedro and a cast of unknowns. Than, over the winter, the sox fail to get Mike Mussina, who Dan Duqette was 'positive' he could sign. Right then, the crouds thrrew up their hands, and said 'Here we go again!' The signing of Manny helped that quite a lot, though, and for a few weeks, everyone was all exited about the prospect of adding another real hitter to a lineup 12th in the league in runs scored. Soon, however, doomsaying began to creep back in with the pitching staff. While the Yanks seemingly had a staff of four aces, the sox were still left with Pedro and some unknown slobs. Not so. Last year after Pedro we had Ramon as our #2 and only other decent pitcher. (He had somthing like a 17.50 first inning ERA) Yes, our #2 was also last in the league in endurance, getting pulled quicker than any other pitcher. Our #3 was Jeff Fassero, who was very old, and coming off of surgery. Again, this pitcher had no endurance, and was pulled quickly in almost every game. #4 we had Pete Shourek, who was downright awful most of the time. More injury-prone that Fassero, Shourek lost quite a lot of games before ending the season with back problems. In addition to these three, we had Tim Wakefield, who is a workhorse, but has a 70 MPH fastball, Brian Rose, a rookie who would fail at many of his starts before being traded to the Rockies, and Tomo Okha, who wa,s coming up from AAA, and was largely unproven. Now, let's look at this year's cast of unknowns: Our #2 is Hideo Nomo, who pitched a no-hitter in his debut, and was one of the domiating pitchers in the NL for years. Our #3 is Frank Castillo, who is coming off his best season ever, with a 10-5 record and an ERA in the 2's. #4 we have Ohka, who has proven himself a great pitcher, and is off to a very solid start, and the #5 we have Paxton Crawford, a rookie, who's been amazing in all of his starts with Boston so far. Still not good enough? How about the previous Cy-Young award winner Brett Saberhagen due to come back soon, and bolster the rotation? What about David Cone, 2 years off a 20 win season, and who's now working with the best pitching coach in the majors? That still leaves our old friends Arrojo (who took over from Ramon as the #2 halfway through last season, and did fairly well, but too little too late), Wakefield, and Shourek in the bullpen, along with our relievers Pichardo, Beck, Garces, and Lowe. Yes, our staff is full of no-names after Pedro, but they are a whole lot better than last years. Add Manny to the mix, and you have a team capable of winning it all.

Go Back to Randomness

Go Home!