please mr postman

Please Mr. Postman.......

With the absence of any hard Red Sox news, I'm going to delve into Ian

Browne's MLB dot com mailbag. There'll be a question about our veteran

starter, Curt Schilling. I'll print it and Browne's answer, and then

be back with a comment or two. After that, there'll be a question and

reply about our young phenom Clay Buchholz, whose stuff is so good,

it's scary! Here you go.. question numero uno.....

"What are your projections for Curt Schilling in 2008? I feel with the

incentives that were written into his contract recently, these will

prove invaluable to a productive season. Personally, I feel if

Schilling keeps his weight in check and continues to rely on other

pitches besides his once-dominant fastball, he will win 15-20 games in

2008."

-- Greg L., Owings Mills, Md.

"Schilling learned a lot about himself last season. Mainly, he learned

how to pitch without the velocity he's had most of his career. I think

Schilling is also making a strong commitment to getting in great shape

this offseason, which is always a key for any pitcher in his 40s. I

agree with your optimism, that he should have a pretty good year.

Plus, in Schilling's mind, this is going to be his last season, and

you know he wants to go out strong. This is the first time in a long

time he'll go to camp as something less than an ace or a co-ace, so I

bet that also motivates him."

Peter here, and right now Curt is in the midst of his off-season

training routine. He's not losing weight....that will come later. He

is building muscle mass, especially in his throwing shoulder. The hope

is that the "tired" shoulder problems of last year, when he missed

roughly six weeks to rehab into playing shape, will be a thing of the

past. Schill certainly knows how to pitch, that's for sure. He can't

overwhelm hitters with gas anymore, but he can mix up his speeds and

use his devastating splitter for maximum effectiveness. All we need

from Curt next year is six, maybe seven quality innings, giving up

three runs or less. He will be a 15 plus game winner if he can do

that, and that's so sweet. And not being the "top dog' of the rotation

WILL motivate him. Like the car rental company AVIS, "he'll try

harder!" Now, on to question numero dos.....

"I know that Clay Buchholz wasn't pitching at the end of last season

because of a tired right shoulder. Is he ready to go for next season?"

-- Karl M., Clifton Park, N.Y.

"Buchholz was in Boston earlier this offseason and underwent some

strength tests and the Red Sox were very pleased with the progress he

has made. The expectation is that Buchholz will be full speed ahead at

the outset of Spring Training. And as pitching coach John Farrell

recently said, the club is hoping to get about 180-185 innings out of

Buchholz in 2008."

Peter here, one more time on this still dark but balmy Saturday

morning, the first hours of an exquisite four day weekend. Clay

Buchholz is a gem in the making, a developing talent who has such

great stuff, he's a "can't miss" future All Star. Remember his

no-hitter last year against the Orioles? I sure do. He used his great

fastball and mixed in his "fall off the table" curveball to keep the

Baltimore batters off balance the entire night. His pitch count was

mounting in the later innings, however, and Theo MIGHT have had to

make a decision that would seemingly vilify him to every member of Red

Sox Nation and Red Sox International...a few more pitches and he would

have had to "strongly suggest" to Boston manager Terry Francona to

pull him from the game, no-hitter or no no-hitter. Boy, I'm glad it

didn't come down to that. He was shut down in early September of '07,

and that was a good move. As the above letter showed, 185 Buchholz

innings in 2008 will be a joy to behold. I love watching him pitch.

And with a Daisuke who will be embarking on his second run-through of

the American League and Josh Beckett continuing his dominance

and.....oh well, I could keep going, but I won't. We ALL know that the

2008 Boston Red Sox club will be a good one, fun to watch while

staying successful. What a combination! And maybe a Johan in the

starting five? We'll see.......

Click on the title of this post for an article from the Boston Globe

that illuminates, a little, the Jason Grimsley steroid tell-all "who

did this, who did that" story. There's not much Soxy stuff around

today. probably because so many people are taking the long weekend

off....time to be with families and friends, loved ones. Be well, have

fun, and I'll be back tomorrow, and every day thereafter, the Big Guy

in the sky willing. I'd love to see and respond to your

comments....comments about Schill or Clay, or ANYONE/ANYTHING.

Thanks!!

posted by Peter N @ 6:08 AM 2 comments links to this post

2 Comments:

At 12/22/2007 4:20 PM, Blogger gingerly said...

Peter,

I'm looking forward to seeing Buccholz pitch too, and I say we

hang on to Ellsbury no matter what. This is going to be a great

season . . . it just seems so far away when we're sitting here

in December.

And Peter, thanks for telling me about baseballnooz.com. I love

it. It used to be hard to find new baseball blog entries. Now

I've got a fresh page of them to view every day. Good deal.

Now if we could only fast-forward to Spring training.

Keith

At 12/23/2007 6:30 AM, Blogger Peter N said...

Keith, I'm so glad you set up an account that enables you to

comment directly...great job! And basballnooz dot com is a

great place to pick out your favorite blogs, Sox or others, and

get an overview of what's happening here and now, all at the

same place. I'm glad you like it. And for ALL of my readers,

the link is on my link list, near the top. Keith, I hope you

subscribed to the BN link to my blog, because I'm sitting at

number six on the top blog list, ready to crack the top five!

Always great to hear from you, and Clay Buchholz is as

untouchable as anyone gets! And that's good.

Happy and healthy holidays to you and yours, and again, thank

you for reading!!!!!

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