The opposite of Han Solo's brohug with Chewy comes to mind.
On the heels of the Andrew Bailey thumb injury news comes the what in the Sam Hill is going on with Josh Beckett's thumb now news. Yes, as this Blog writes Beckett is on his way to Cleveland to meet up with Bailey in the waiting room of hand specialist Dr. Robert Graham. Thumbs? Thumbs? Really? And I know Drew Carey sang about Cleveland Rocking and all, but Cleveland as a mecca for medical care doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
With that said, is the Red Sox sky falling? This Blog has already written about Daniel Bard being the equal or better than C.J. Wilson as a starter (spring training numbers don't count, can't Bard get a real start or two before we judge him please?), and the lineup should still be one of the tops in the majors. Starting Pitching depth is key to be sure, but the first under the microscope is assumed fill-in closer Mark Melancon. Small sample sizes caveat, here are some trends from the last three years from baseballreference.com.
Innings ERA WHIP K/9 BB/9 W L SV
2009 NYY 16.1 3.86 1.408 5.5 5.5 0 1 0
2010 NYY/HOU 21.1 4.22 1.266 9.3 3.4 2 0 0
2011 HOU 74.1 2.78 1.224 8.0 3.1 8 4 20
As a rookie with the Yankees in 2009 he got his feet wet, started to figure it out over his brief time in 2010, and really put things together in 2011. His stuff appears to be pretty good, getting a lot of strikeouts with those K/9 rates, and just as encouraging are the declining BB/9 and WHIP trends. Of course the guy did most of his good work in the National League, and got rocked in the 2 games he pitched in the American League in 2010. The outlook is decent, a little bit to write home about, and he is entering the sweetspot for pitchers, his age 27 season. Looks to this Blog like this is a reasonable stop gap with a chance to be solid major league closer. From this rose colored glasses wearing Sox fan that's not exactly a ringing endorsement. We'll see what he does when Fenway is rocking in the bottom of the 9th with Robinson Cano strolling to the plate with two outs and a batter at second.
Until next time,
The SAHD
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