You can NEVER have too much pitching...

Remember this guy? Best attitude in baseball.

And ain't that the truth. The Red Sox hurlers were not spared when the injury bug attacked, as they lost starters Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Clay Buchholz for differing amounts of time, leaving the likes of Felix Dubrount and Scott Atchison to spot start.

For a team that has such a wealth of pitching on the 40-man roster, this week will mark the first time that Tim Wakefield, Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Daisuke Matsuzaka will pitch all within seven days. However, after this week, Wakefield will likely be heading off to join the bullpen band, as he's generally the odd man out when the rotation gets overcrowded.

Of course, Wake has made it clear that he's less than fond of the 'pen, which is understandable since he's not getting any younger and getting up and getting warm is more difficult now than it was, say, ten years ago. Unfortunately, he's been pretty inconsistent this season, and the only player with MORE consistency issues is Daisuke, who has been consistently bad in the first inning, which effectively eliminates the 'pen from the realm of possibility.

The importance of the return of a full, heralded rotation absolutely can not be overstated, and the impending return of players like Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, and Jed Lowrie (remember him?) could be the catalyst this team needs.

The Yankees got roughed up by the Angels last night, while the Rays lost - in embarrassing fashion - to the Orioles, so the Sox didn't lose any ground last night, despite losing a heartbreaker to the A's. Today's game is bright and early, at 3:35pm, so i'll actually be awake for the final out. Today is the first day of the rest of this season, ladies and gentlemen... I can feel it.

HA! Sports Illustrated is Silly

So, as a college student, a daily trip to the mailbox is a must.  Normally I don't receive anything more than the usual campus memos about library hours, meetings, and lectures, and the occasional takeout place advertisement.  However, today I got a package from my mom, which confused me, as she hadn't told me she was sending one, and I'll be home in two weeks anyway.

When I opened the envelope and saw that she had sent me the Sports Illustrated (my subscription gets delivered to my house) baseball preview issue, I'll admit to being pretty excited.  Even though I could have read it online on April 6th, when it was published, I hadn't, so I decided to leaf through it and see how their predictions were panning out so far.

I barely got past the first page.  Ben Reiter wrote the page on the Yankees, who SI predicts will win the AL East with a 97-65 record (one ahead of the Sox, who supposedly win the Wild Card).  Halfway through his gushing (nauseating) take on the Yankees is a sentence that made me choke (oh, that's A*Rod's job? Right.): "[New York's] success will spring from its rotation-which is second to none."  

I understand that this was written before the season started, but right now, New York's rotation is second to a lot of people's.  Their team ERA is 6.24.  Ours is 4.18.  Heck, the Kansas City Royals have a sub-4 ERA.  No American League team is pitching worse than New York so far.  All of those expensive pieces? Not panning out just yet.  However, I'll admit that the season is long, and we all know that CC Sabathia at least will work out of the current funk he's in.  If AJ Burnett can stay healthy, he should do well too... though that's  big "if" with his track record.

But really, Sports Illustrated, that was quite the proclamation...

Ohhh, I see now, Sabathia's pitching poorly due to the SI cover jinx...

Five Minute (Pitching) Musings

Sorry I've been such a slacker about this lately, but here are five (pitcher) points from this epic game:

1.) Jon Lester had an OK start:  In an eleventh inning affair, it's easy to forget those who started the game, but Lester went six innings and gave up two runs.  Lester still has not lost to the Yankees in his career, a streak he kept intact tonight with a no-decision.

2.) Okajima's disappointing outing:  Oki-Doki started off the seventh by bobbling a sacrifice bunt, and it only got worse from there.  He loaded the bases without recording an out.  Not good.  Hopefully this was one isolated bad outing.

3.) Javier Lopez was all over the place:  It even seemed like Varitek was a little exasperated with Lopez's wildness tonight, and for good reason, he was ridiculously inconsistent.  I have a bit of a soft spot for Lopez because I think he's hilarious, but come on... this is the MF Yankees, Javier.

4.)Paps was not the out machine I've come to expect: he just hasn't really looked like himself yet this season.  I'll chalk it up to April rust, for now anyway.  However, he did get through his inning (the 10th) without allowing a run, and by striking out Teixeira. Win.

5.) I LOVE RAMON RAMIREZ: Seriously. I can't say this enough.

Last thing: absolute BOMB:

And all of a sudden...

Alright, we've learned that old adage is always true: you can never have enough pitching.  The thought a week and a half ago was that the Red Sox had the deepest pitching staff in the Majors.  We had arguably the best top 3 with Beckett, Matsuzaka, and Lester.  Wake is good for 10ish wins every year, and Penny is a rehabbing All-Star.  We have a surefire future Hall of Famer slated for a June Sox debut, and the "B" triple-threat at AAA: Buchholz, Bowden, and Bard.  Try to name another team that wouldn't have rushed to have Smoltz ready in April, or who would have sent a young pitcher with a no-no to his name back to AAA after the kind of Spring Training Buchholz had.  Sure, the lineup looked a little slimmer than we were used to, but we were told to believe in the pitching.

But all of a sudden, the pitching is looking thinner.  While the bullpen was amazing last night (11 innings pitched, 1 run), it is now almost totally worn out, the man who started that game, and your 2009 WBC MVP, Daisuke Matsuzaka has landed himself on the Disabled List with what the Red Sox are deeming "mild right shoulder sprain."  Yes, well, that can happen when you ask a Major League pitcher to pitch high pitch counts with playoff intensity in APRIL.

No problem, right?  Smoltz needs another six-ish weeks, but Buchholz is ready to go... except for the fact that he went just 3 2/3 innings in his last start.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that he had a sore hamstring...? Although I can't find that anywhere so I may be "misremembering," to quote old friend Roger Clemens.   I don't suppose he's looking for a job? (Ok, that might be reaching too far).  

The Sox have recalled lefty relief pitcher Hunter Jones from AAA Pawtucket, and it's looking like Masterson will be sliding into Matsuzaka's rotation spot.  Masterson, of course, went through most of Spring Training with a starter's workload, and he demonstrated that he still has the endurance to make those starts last night when he pitched four sterling innings of relief in last night's debacle.