If I never provide any useful information or insight for the rest of my life I’ll be OK with it. Because I knocked the Clay Buchholz thing out of the fucking park. No, this is not another rant about how awesome I am and me saying I told you so again, two lines is enough for me, it’s just me saying that Clay Buchholz is the man.

During another dominating performance yesterday, Buchholz lowered his American League leading ERA to 2.26 allowing no runs in six innings spanning two rain delays while striking out seven. The kid now has gone 23 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. During this run he has seen his ERA drop from 2.66 to 2.26. Now sitting at 15 wins for the season, the kid has exceeded even my lofty expectations.

I remember watching a game back in May when he faced the Yankees. He allowed five runs over five innings walking five and only striking out one. He lost the game and his record dropped to 3-3 for the year. Daisuke was about to come back off the DL and people were calling for Buchholz to be sent to the pen rather than Wakefield. It was almost as if Buchholz was pitching scared, being safe, trying to save his job rather than going out and simply pitching his game. Luckily, Tito announced that it was indeed Wake going to the bullpen and Clay proceeded to string together five consecutive starts allowing less than three earned runs.

Why is this significant? Because his entire time in the big leagues he has always had to look over his shoulder and wonder if this start was going to be his last. Never was he sure than he had solidified a spot in the rotation, not until this decision was made at least. Putting Wakefield in the pen gave Buchholz the confidence he needed to go out there and be himself. He no longer had to worry about making a bad pitch and losing his job, the Sox were behind him 100% and he has since taken off.

Now, if the Sox had one game to win and you asked me who I wanted to pitch all things being equal I wouldn’t even hesitate before calling #11. And it’s getting to the point where everyone else in Red Sox Nation is starting to figure that out too.

Figures, no more than six hours after I make a post that includes comments about how I am starting to feel good about this bullpen, Papelbon comes in a screws up what should have been an easy win. What makes it even worse is that he has been pitching great of late. It’s rare that the Red Sox are in a position to win a game that John Lackey starts these days so to let one slip away really is a kick in the balls. Now, instead of climbing to only 3 games back of the Rays we sit at 4 back and lose any momentum we had built during the three game win streak. It’s was likely a real long plane ride to Texas, but at least they can look forward to not having to face Cliff Lee this weekend. It could be worse though, Paps could have beat the shit out his father in law like Francisco Rodriguez of the Mets.

Notes…

- David Ortiz hit his 25th home run of the year yesterday marking the seventh time he has done it during his time with the Red Sox. Only Jim Rice (7) and Ted Williams (14) have as many 25 home run seasons for the Sox.

- Jarrod Saltalamacchia made his debut in the starting lineup and boy did he impress. Not only did he have no problems getting the ball back to the pitcher, but he gunned Aaron Hill down at second base, and went 2-4 at the plate with two doubles. Sure, it’s only one game, but it’s hard not to think we may have gotten a future all star in this deal.

- When Pedroia comes back, Lowrie needs to play first base. He is now batting .313/.441/.500 on the season and is hitting everything in sight. He doesn’t need to play every day, but he can’t simply go back to not playing at all, not when Mike “I have no lateral movement” Lowell is first on the depth chart. Maybe have him play once or twice a week at short and second and than two games at first. Marco has only had four days off this year so odds are he would welcome a few breaks here and there.

- Despite yesterday’s performance, I’m still not impressed with John Lackey. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but this just isn’t his year. His velocity is down, his location is off, his strikeouts are down, and he is giving up way too many hits. I know it’s kind of stating the obvious, but I had still been holding out hope for him. Not anymore. Consider me officially off the John Lackey bandwagon. When we make the playoffs I want Lester for game 1, Buchholz 2, Beckett 3, and Daisuke 4 (wow, that was hard to write).

Ryan Kalish can play for me any day – It’s only been four games, but how can you not love the way Ryan Kalish plays the game? The guy is a reincarnation of Trot Nixon (although Trot certainly isn’t dead). He plays the game hard and is above average in every aspect. I’m pretty sure no one in the park realized what was going on after he threw out Shelly Duncan at the plate on Monday night. I mean, a left fielder who can throw? Who’d have thunk. Obviously he isn’t going to hit .500 for the rest of the season, but he really impressed me in his short stint thus far, and I was already pretty high on him to begin with.

The Jeremy Hermida era was short lived – I mentioned last week that Hermida’s days may be limited. I said I would rather have Hermida than Eric Patterson, but unfortunately, Hermida got the axe Saturday. I’m still kind of puzzled by the move. Patterson adds no value to the club. As long as Lowrie is healthy, he will never see the infield, and once Ellsbury comes back, he should never see the outfield again. Long term, I still think Hermida is going to be a decent hitter. It would have been nice to find a way to keep him around for next year.

Grant Balfour hit the DL this week when he strained his oblique wrestling with his pitching coach. You know how I know he’s gay?

Kevin Youklis tore a muscle in his hand swing a bat. Could this injury have happened to anyone other than the Red Sox? I don’t know who sold their soul to who but this team is cursed. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the amount of injuries this team has overcome is unfathomable. If they do any damage in the post season it has to go down as one of the best seasons ever, right?

On that note, looks like I need to start being nicer to Mikey Lowell – With Youk down, Lowell is going to see some significant playing time. Either that, or Kevin “I couldn’t drive in a run with the bases loaded in slow pitch softball” Cash will catch and V Mart will play first. Hopefully, it is the former. He started off right Tuesday hitting a two run homer and playing good D at the one bagger, keep it up and maybe I can go a few weeks without ripping.

Where was Jacoby Monday night? – I’m not blaming this on Jacoby as it seems like it was the teams decision, but why would they not activate Ellsbury on a night when Mike Cameron goes on the DL and your team is desperate for help in center field, even if it means doing nothing more than making the routine plays? He had already played five rehab games and showed no ill effects other than a little soreness. At a time where every game is magnified and every loss kills, you have to think, does Jacoby turn a 6-5 loss into a 6-5 win?

I love the Shaq to Boston news – Sure, he only averaged 20 minutes, 12 points, and 6.7 boards per game, but that’s right in line with what Perk would give you. The C’s needed a big man, and if Shaq was willing to come here for the veterans minimum, you’d have to think he is motivated to win a championship. If nothing else he will give you big man minutes that otherwise would have been for some stiff like Scalabrine. Best case scenario he gives you a down low presence on offense and grabs you some boards on D, something they couldn’t do against the Lakers.

Remember when the Rangers wanted Clay Buchholz for Salty? – Ha, those were the days. Instead we get him for a couple of prospects who will never become anything more than fringe major league players at best and a couple hundred thousand dollars (that was strange to say). Salty has been plagued by injuries and a case of the yips throwing the ball back to the pitcher but Red Sox scouts are confident that it is all behind him. He is still only 25 and at a position that usually develops late. After only a couple of games with Pawtucket they are already raving about his play behind the plate. If he can figure it out a little bit with the stick that this could become the deal of the decade for the Sox. And the best part is, we got to keep Clay.

I love the Patriots young defense – Obviously it’s impossible to judge players based on written reports of training camp practices, but the young players on this Patriots team really give you a reason to be optimistic about the future. Just from the past week I have read good things about TE Aaron Hernandez, CB Darius Butler, ILB Brandon Spikes, OLB Jermaine Cunningham, WR’s Brandon Tate and Taylor Price. The first pre-season game is a week from Thursday and it should be even more fun than normally with all the interesting young players on the squad.

I am not worried in the least about Tom Brady not being under contract – Would it be nice if he was locked up for the rest of his life? Sure, but I don’t think Robert Kraft is willing to risk the PR disaster that would be Tom Brady leaving the Patriots organization. Once it is all settled, Kraft is going to have to spend far more than he ever would have wanted to in order to sign Brady, but everyone knows it is for the best. I would advise Kraft to get a deal done sooner rather than later though as it would be advantageous for him to sign Brady before Peyton Manning and the Colts set the new ceiling for quarter back salaries. If this drags into the season I would be surprised. If I had to guess I would say a deal gets done a couple weeks for opening day.

There is a zero percent chance Brett Favre retired – This is nothing more than Favre being a media whore. He has tried to retired elevnty billion times to this point and has never stayed that way. Plus, as Jeff pointed out already, it wouldn’t be right if Favre didn’t come back to somehow screw the Pats. I do think he will miss some time in the regular season as he seems to come back later and later each year, but the dude is set to make $13 million this year. If he doesn’t play 75% of the games, I may be forced to quit this whole blogging thing.

I love that the Celtics open the NBA season against the Heat – Good work with the scheduling NBA. Lebron has opened the season against Boston two years in a row, so why not keep the tradition going? All everyone wants to see is a Heat/Celtics finals next year, so giving the people a sneak peak to open the year is brilliant. And at least now we can safely say, one of these teams won’t go undefeated.

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Beckett picked up only his 2nd win in 10 starts yesterday, hopefully he can build on this momentum

A week and a half ago, the night before this west coast swing started, I wrote a state of the nation address. The main thing to take out of it was that the Red Sox were starting to get players back and all they needed to do was stay within striking distance of the Rays over the next ten days. Although it seems like they went 2-8 over the past three series, the Sox actually fared pretty well and won six of ten. I just happen to have each of the losses firmly entrenched in my brain due to the ridiculousness of them. Regardless, the Sox entered the trip only 3.5 games back of Tampa and came out of it 4.5 games back. And that is fine by me.

What excites me most about the coming weeks is the way the starting pitching has performed of late. Other than Clay Buchholz struggling in his first game back from the disabled list, the starters have been lights out. Of the six wins, the starter accounted for four of them and only two of the four losses. Hell, there were even two legitimate no hit bids (although one of them turned into a loss and the other took 13 innings to finish off). What we now have is everyone on fire at the same time. There is not a single weakness on this staff. Ignore the bullpen issues if you may. The way the last ten days have gone you should be disappointed if the starter goes less than seven innings making it difficult for even this bullpen to screw up too much, especially with Bard and Paps ready to go on most nights. I’m telling you, the way this team is now positioned they have the ability to win games in bunches. Do not be surprised if they win 20+ games in August and September. Call me optimistic, but (starting) pitching wins championships, and I’ll take this starting rotation combined with Paps and Bard over any team in the league. Enough said.

I missed this play, did he get it?

Despite Dusty Brown doing his best to prevent any Oakland runners from touching home plate, the Red Sox offense couldn’t muster enough runs to make up for what was a shaky first start back for Clay Buchholz. Buch hadn’t started a big league game in a month and it showed. He had trouble repeating his delivery which lead to inconsistencies with not only the effectiveness of his pitches but also their location. The result was 6 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, and 2 home runs allowed over four innings. It was not vintage Buchholz. Giving up two home runs in one start is something that doesn’t happen for him, especially in a pitcher friendly park like Oakland. He had only given up three total on the year.

The real problem though was not the starting pitching, it is that for the eighth straight game, the Sox scored four runs or less. This is the first time it has happened since 2004. Lowrie, Youk, and Beltre went 6-10 with all four RBI, three runs scored, and a walk. The rest of the lineup only mustered one hit. What’s particularly discouraging is the production they have received of late from Darnell McDonald, David Ortiz, Kevin Cash/Dusty Brown, and Bill Hall. I can deal with Hall, the catcher, and McDonald sucking, it’s not like anything was expected out of them anyways. But David Ortiz needs to get his shit together. Especially after all the shit he was talking back in May/June when he started hitting.

The offense will receive reinforcements soon enough, but until then they are going to need to find a way to win ball games. I don’t care who is in the lineup, the production the Sox have been getting of late is embarrassing. We could put the PawSox in there for eight games and they would probably have more success than the big boys have had recently.

Quick hits…

- Got to love Dusty Brown after today’s effort. Not once, but twice, he blocked the plate on a throw home saving a run. Hopefully cash is the odd man out when V-Mart comes back, because this guy deserves a shot. We know what Cash is. All he is good for is catching a knuckle ball and throwing out runners. But what can Brown do for you?

- Jed Lowrie has been back for only one game and I already love the kid. Sure, he made a throwing error in the field but he was probably pretty jacked up being his first action in a while and having Rajai Davis bolting down the first base line. But what impressed me most is the two walks. You really start to appreciate patience at the plate when you have career backups starting everyday and swinging at more balls than Vlad Guerrero.

- For the second straight day, Victor Martinez hit in the cage from both sides of the plate. The problem that still remains is actually catching the ball. If the finger broken was on his right hand, he probably could have been in the lineup tonight. But trying to squeeze a broken finger into a catchers mitt and handling a 90 mph fastball is a different story. Joe McDonald of ESPNBoston is sticking by his prediction of next Monday to be his return date.

You saw yesterday that Mike Lowell was about a 7-10 days away from returning to big league play, so how about the important players?

Dustin Pedroia has been seen taking ground balls from his knees, taking batting practice from a chair, and playing catch while on one leg. The guy is doing everything he can to stay in shape and be ready for an immediate return to the lineup. He has recently been allowed to bear weight on his broken foot after it was determined that it was healing ahead of schedule and has been all over the field as a result. While the foot is still in an air cast, it is a good sign that the crutches are gone and he is acting as if it wasn’t there. Pedroia will be reevaluated soon, and there is no time table for his return, but I would expect to see him in the lineup no later than two weeks from now.

Victor Martinez has been out longer than anyone expected from the get go when the consensus was that he would miss only a week or two. A couple days ago he played catch but described the glove as fitting tight. Things seemed better yesterday during batting practice as he took swings from both sides of the plate. He looked good from the left side, but still wasn’t entirely comfortable from the right. It was said that he didn’t have his hands completely together on the bat. Joe McDonald of ESPNBoston thinks a realistic target is next monday, lets hope he is right.

Clay Buchholz is schedule to pitch tonight. He made a rehab start last week and seemed healthy. The Sox were likely being overly cautious and it is in my opinion that he could have been pitching in the big leagues right out of the all star break. Look for Clay to be 100% tonight throwing with no restrictions.

Josh Beckett has been out since the beginning of May after slipping on a wet mound in Yankees stadium and straining his back. It has been a long hard road back, but it looks like Beckett is ready for the stretch run. Knowing how important he is to the Sox they took it extra slow with him. He no doubt could have been back on the mound a couple of weeks ago but there was really no rush with the amount of depth this organization has. At the end of the week we will now have our top five starters for the first time in two and a half months. If they can all stay healthy there is no doubt in my mind these guys will make the playoffs, even if they have AAAA players up and down their lineup.

Jed Lowrie should be activated from the disabled list either today or tomorrow. Always a promising you player, his career has been riddled with injuries. First, the nagging wrist injury and most recently his bout with mono. He has gone 11-30 (.367) in 10 minor league games this season playing short, third, and second. He should finally provide a decent utility infielder that this team has desperately needed. No disrespect to Bill Hall and Eric Patterson, but they just aren’t good. It’s uncertain how quickly Jed will be worked back into the lineup but he feels great and claims to be 100% healthy, so hopefully we see a lot of him, quickly.

(Photo via Boston.com)

During my weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the Boston sports world I only heard rumors of the damage that the injury bug was doing to my beloved Red Sox. I caught wind Saturday morning that Pedroia fouled a ball off his foot, but thought nothing of it. I knew Sunday that Buchholz only pitched one inning the prior day after coming up lame running into second base but figured it was all precautionary. Finally, I read briefly Sunday night that V-Mart broke the tip of his finger, but it looked like a DL stint was unnecessary. Now, I sit here Tuesday morning baffled and dumbfounded as our two most important position players hop on the express train to the disabled list and arguably our best pitcher thus far could miss a start or two.

The fact that the Red Sox are only two games out of first place after what they have had to go through is amazing in itself. If they can make it these next two months and still are in a position to make the playoffs this will have to go down as one of the all time greatest seasons in Red Sox history. I don’t think people fully appreciate what it is this group of misfits have accomplished. Remember, your opening day pitcher has a 7.29 era and hasn’t pitched since May 18th; your starting center fielder has only 1 HR, 8 RBI, and 94 total at bats; your starting left fielder, also your backup center fielder, has played in only nine games; David Ortiz didn’t hit anything for the month of April; Jon Lackey is struggling to keep his era south of 5.00; Daisuke Matsuzaka has had multiple DL stints, and the bullpen has been suspect at best. The problem the Red Sox are going to run into now is that it was guys like Pedroia and V-Mart who carried this team during such a rough period.

Luckily for the Sox, the sudden rash on injuries couldn’t come at a better time (if such a thing is possible). To start, the Sox have six off days in July when you combine scheduled days off and the All Star festivities. And the opponents when they are forced to play a game don’t exactly make you quiver in your boots. Starting tonight there are five games with the faltering Rays, three against the pathetic Orioles, and three each against Toronto, Oakland, and Seattle. The only games against legitimate teams are four game series against the red hot Rangers (who I am still not sold on), and two against Detroit, both series at home. Then a three game series in LA against the Angels.

Now, more than ever, this team is going to need to win using the mantra they entered the season with, “pitching and defense.” I’m not too worried about Buchholz. With two off days this week the Red Sox should be able to give him the time off he needs without screwing up the rotation. Him, coupled with Lester, will need to continue leading this team. Even without Josh Beckett, the rotation has been strong despite a slow start. As long as they remain healthy they are perfectly capable of carrying this team. The fact that the Red Sox are among the league leaders in most of the offensive categories is a luxury. This team was built on pitching and defense and come the post season that is what they are going to need to rely on in order to win it all. If the Sox can play .500 baseball through the month of July then they will be setting themselves up perfectly for when the reinforcements start coming off the DL. That, however, is a big if when you have the heart and soul of your team injured and on the bench.

Is there anything that can stop a hot streak faster than back to back nights of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield on the mound? Sure, each of them were fantastic their last time out but that was more of an aberration rather than the norm. Wake gave up 9 earned runs on 12 hits 3 walks and only one strikeout while only making it two outs into the fourth inning. This just one day after Daisuke failed to make it out of the fifth allowing 8 total walks and three earned runs. Talk about bullpen killers.

The Red Sox now have a two game losing streak and have to face the great Zack Greinke tomorrow (Saturday). Buchholz is on the mound so we will probably win 1-0 but there is also a good possibility that we lose our third in a row. Fucking Kansas City. When you see a team come into town with a 19-28 record you are definitely not expecting them to step in front of a fast moving train and stop it in it’s tracks, but that’s pretty much what they have done.

It’s a good thing the Celtics have been on to distract people. Hopefully by the time they finish off the NBA Finals everything will be back to normal around here. Otherwise, it could get real ugly, real fast.

Notes…

* Wake now has a 1-3 record and a 5.28 era on the season. When are people finally going to wake up and realize this guy is no longer a quality major league pitcher. Sure, he still has his moments, but in the long run he will be exposed if left in the rotation.

* I have tickets to next Wednesday’s game. Earlier this week I looked ahead to see who was pitching and it ended up being Wakefield’s turn. As you can tell, I was severely disappointed. Well apparently I am an idiot because there is no game Monday night meaning Wake isn’t scheduled to pitch until Thursday leaving me Daisuke on Wednesday. Not the best, but better than Wake IMO. But again, my stupidity got the best of me because Josh Beckett is actually taking Wake’s spot the next time through. While Beckett is frustrating in his own right, he is still more fun than Daisuke. So to recap, Wake < Daisuke < Beckett and I am an idiot.

* Victor Martinez continues to rake going 2-4 with a home run, double, and four RBI. He is now batting .262 and for whatever reason is looking a lot more comfortable in the fifth spot in the order. This is strange because he was so good batting third for us last year. As long as Papi continues to produce I can see this becoming permanent, but if he struggles again, Martinez is going to need to step in like he did so well last year and help carry the load in the heart of the order.

* Dustin Pedroia is struggling, big time. He went 0-5 tonight and is now batting .259 on the season after getting off to a ridiculous start. On May 15th Pedroia twisted his knee against the Tigers. The injury has been downplayed the entire time but since that day he has been terrible.  ESPNBoston.com does a good job breaking down the numbers.

He has had a couple of games where he has hit the ball hard just right at people. I don’t think we need to make too much out of this injury, but it is telling. Especially after the whole Ellsbury debacle, one might question whether or not Pedroia is healthy enough to be out there playing.

* Speaking of Ellsbury, I may have been a little harsh on him yesterday, but the fact remains that he doesn’t have the best history with injuries.

* Are people finally starting to appreciate what Adrian Beltre is doing for this team. Theo Epstein deserves a lot of credit for this signing, and myself as well for saying how much I wanted him all winter. This is just one thing that I wrote:

The Red Sox are in love with this guys defense, and for good reason. The two time Gold Glove winner has gotten rave reviews from scouts and managers alike. Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon says he is the best defensive third basemen he has ever seen. Even if his bat continues to be slightly below average, bringing him in to play third, along with the addition of Marco Scutaro, will give you one of the best defensive infields in the game, if not the best.

Even I didn’t think he was going to come here and bat .340, but after a shaky start, his defense has been as good as advertised. He obviously isn’t going to continue at this pace but .290-.310 is not out of the question. He is certainly lining himself up for a big time contract next year and good for him. The dude plays the game right.

So you know that feeling you used to get on Christmas morning when you opened up your presents and got exactly what you wanted and more? No? Well that sucks for you, cause it is pretty much how I feel every time Clay Buchholz takes the mound these days. It has been a long road back for him after a miserable 2008 season, but I think it is safe to say that he is finally living up to the lofty expectations that everyone set for the lanky righty after he raced onto the scene tossing a no hitter on September 2, 2007, in only his second big league start.

Sadly, I was one of the few people in this town who still believed in him, which I guess makes sense considering the win now or die mentality of the Nation. Clay started the 2008 season in Boston but struggled with his fastball command walking 41 batters in only 76 innings pitched. Still, his failure wasn’t due to lack of talent. Clay showed flashes of brilliance and was for the most part excellent until runners got on base. With the bags empty opponents batted .256 off him with a 2.56 K/BB ratio. With men on base that ballooned to .348 and only a 1.24 K/BB ratio. Ultimately, he ended up spending a lot of the season in the minors and despite a brilliant spring training last year started in Pawtucket to begin the 2009 season.

Rumored to be included in many trade rumors that same summer, people around here seemed to get a little trigger happy optioning to send him away in any package imaginable for an immediate upgrade. Now don’t get me wrong. I would have traded Clay Buchholz in a heart beat for Roy Halladay or Adrian Gonzalez. He was still unproven at that point and you would be getting established super stars in return. However, the asking price always seemed to include a combination of Buchholz, Casey Kelley, Ryan Westmoreland, and Daniel Bard. No thanks. We made it through July 31st with Buchholz still a member of the Sox and also added Victor Martinez to boot.

Buchholz went on to impress during his stay in the majors from that point on registering a 7-4 record for the year and an impressive 3.98 era for the month of September. He also held the red hot Angels to only 2 runs in 5 innings pitched in game three of the playoffs before Jonathan Papelbon choked it away in the ninth.

Yet despite this run of success Buchholz was still an after thought with many in the area. He had to once again compete for a spot in the rotation out of spring training and always seemed to be stuck in the shadow of Tim Wakefield while competing for the fifth spot coming out of camp. I would like to think that the Red Sox brass would have been smart enough to choose Buch over Wake but instead Daisuke got injured and the decision didn’t have to be made.

Buchholz now boasts an impressive, and team leading six wins on the season to go along with his team leading 3.07 era. After Lester, there is no doubt that Buchholz is the best starting pitcher on this team. Now comes the part where I say I told you so. The next time anyone thinks about doubting me when it comes to my opinion on a player, they may want to think twice on the matter because my player evaluation skills are top notch, especially pitchers. I ran Julio Lugo out of town before he even got here. I told you Jon Lester was going to become something special after seeing him in Portland in 2005. I knew Dustin Pedroia had what it took despite hitting .255 in Pawtucket in 2005 and then starting off his rookie season below .200 for two months. And that is just to name a few. After his performance last night in Tampa Bay I feel confident putting Clay Buchholz into the same category.

I have been saying this for over three years now since the day I saw him pitch up in Portland during the summer of 2007; Clay Buchholz is a special pitcher. Sure, the road to big league glory has been up and down but I’m telling you, this kid is a future ace and currently is far and away the best starting pitcher on the team. On a night where Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, and Hideki Okajima were all unavailable the Red Sox needed a big start from Buch. Clay responded by throwing 8 innings allowing only one run while striking out four. The strong effort brought his record to 2-2 on the young season and lowered his era to 2.19. He also has 22 strikeouts in 24.2 innings to only 9 walks. His era is now less than half of John Lackey’s 5.09, the second best on the staff.

When Beckett, Lester, and Lackey finally get their shit together the Red Sox are going to be able to trot out by far the best rotation in the game. I honestly believe that the Red Sox can be 15 games out of first place come June 1st and still be in good position, that is how good this pitching staff is going to be. Yes, it blows watching Lester and Beckett pitch like they are little leaguers getting their tips wet for the first time on a regulation sized field but the reality is that they were both just as bad last year to start the season. Soon they will both go on a run where they are practically unhittable and the Sox will win 25 out of 30 games in a month. Call me a homer, but I am not even close to panicking. Especially after watching Buchholz come into his own to start the season.