The Schill Factor

With so much talk about the ridiculous steroid scandal, it kind of went unnoticed that pitchers and catchers reported to spring training this week and so the baseball season begins at last. Maybe now we can all finally start to talk about baseball’s on-field issues. One of the biggest is the Curt Schilling situation with the Red Sox. As was reported, Schilling is expected to miss part or all of this season rehabbing a severe shoulder injury, leaving the Red Sox a man short in the rotation. The question everyone is asking is how much did Schilling know about the injury and when did he know it? Who knows? We’ll never find that out anyway. It is not the best news for Boston but I’m actually not all that worried about it. Schilling was a 50-50 proposition at best for the Sox this season. I don’t think Curt was winning more than 13 games this season and even that is an overly optimistic number. He was erratic toward the end of last season despite a good performance in the postseason so his loss, to me, is not the end of the world. The Red Sox can work around this just fine as long as the following three things happen. Number one, Clay Buchholz must step in and be the pitcher everyone thinks he can be which is the Boston answer to the Yankees Philip Hughes. Buchholz must be ready to fill the Schilling void with 10-12 wins of his own. I believe management thinks he can do it even if his innings are limited to under 180 for the season. We’ll see what happens, but I think Buchholz will be OK and seize the opportunity. Number two, Daisuke Matsuzaka must step up and pitch like a #2 starter. He needs to show more than he did last year for his $102 million price tag. It is time. He must give Josh Beckett legit support from the #2 hole. That is what Sox management had in mind when they signed him last year. I believe another year with pitching coach John Farrell will help Dice-K refine his pitch selection so that he throws what is most effective for him more often. I am confident Farrell will drill the idea home to him all spring that less is more in terms of how many different pitches he throws. Finally, the team has to hope Tim Wakefield holds up in the #5 spot. I am not a big Wakefield fan because I don’t trust knuckleballers and Wakefield broke down at the end of last year. Hopefully they can squeeze one more season out of him. It always seems to come down to Wakefield being a key part of the staff and with the Schilling injury, that is again the case. I know it’s asking a lot for these three things to line up favorably but I think they will. (Although I think Wakefield holding up has the least chance of succeeding) If not, I’m sure Theo Epstein has a backup plan so that’s why I am not panicking about this injury as some Red Sox fans are. I’m not second guessing not getting Johan Santana. I didn’t want to give up Jacoby Ellsbury for him which is what it probably would have taken. After all, the Sox are the defending champions and the Curse is long dead. Life is good in Red Sox Nation, so everybody relax. Once again all the pressure is on the Yankees and their crazy fans to finally win one in the 21st Century.