Schilling to Close
I guess it doesn’t matter how closely you follow a professional sports team, sometimes something just comes seemingly out of nowhere and hits you like a ton of bricks. I called on Theo to do something about this pen, and like I knew he would, he (and Francona) certainly did.
I heard Arroyo to the pen, Wakefield to the pen, Miller to the pen, and last night, Wells volunteered to close. It never occurred to me that Schilling could and should do be the one, and apparently not to anyone else who follows the team either.
It could definitely work and if it does it makes sense. If he’s not ready to give us 7 innings every 5 days, he could be perfect pitching in short stints in the closer role. When I first heard it earlier today I had all the same thoughts that are now being mentioned. Not having to worry about pitch counts allows him to reach back and hit 95 with the fastball. That combined with his nasty splitter could make him a very dominant closer.
Of course, I also had the same questions. How is he going to get stretched out enough in order to get back to starting? I guess they don’t really have the answer to that either. A lot of it will depend on how Foulke ends up after surgery.
Ideally we would like to have Foulke back at his best at the end of games and Schilling back at his best starting games. Especially in October, as great as the starting staff has been, it’s not nearly as dominant without Schilling, and that could hurt us in the playoffs.
Regardless of how it all shakes out, we still need another arm in that pen. Halama is not getting it done and I don’t see any indications that that is going to change. Nothing personal against Jeremi Gonzalez and Lenny Dinardo, but I don’t want to see either one of those guys coming in with a game on the line in October. There’s a reason why Gonzalez is a long time minor league journeyman and I don’t think Dinardo is quite ready for that yet.
Now the question becomes, what do we trade for, another starter or another good middle guy, or maybe even a closer. Moving Schilling into this role will give management more time to assess the Foulke situation and prevent them from having to make a move out of desperation.
I like this a lot for the time being. It helps out everyone involved and continues to give us a good chance of winning games. Should be very interesting to watch.
I heard Arroyo to the pen, Wakefield to the pen, Miller to the pen, and last night, Wells volunteered to close. It never occurred to me that Schilling could and should do be the one, and apparently not to anyone else who follows the team either.
It could definitely work and if it does it makes sense. If he’s not ready to give us 7 innings every 5 days, he could be perfect pitching in short stints in the closer role. When I first heard it earlier today I had all the same thoughts that are now being mentioned. Not having to worry about pitch counts allows him to reach back and hit 95 with the fastball. That combined with his nasty splitter could make him a very dominant closer.
Of course, I also had the same questions. How is he going to get stretched out enough in order to get back to starting? I guess they don’t really have the answer to that either. A lot of it will depend on how Foulke ends up after surgery.
Ideally we would like to have Foulke back at his best at the end of games and Schilling back at his best starting games. Especially in October, as great as the starting staff has been, it’s not nearly as dominant without Schilling, and that could hurt us in the playoffs.
Regardless of how it all shakes out, we still need another arm in that pen. Halama is not getting it done and I don’t see any indications that that is going to change. Nothing personal against Jeremi Gonzalez and Lenny Dinardo, but I don’t want to see either one of those guys coming in with a game on the line in October. There’s a reason why Gonzalez is a long time minor league journeyman and I don’t think Dinardo is quite ready for that yet.
Now the question becomes, what do we trade for, another starter or another good middle guy, or maybe even a closer. Moving Schilling into this role will give management more time to assess the Foulke situation and prevent them from having to make a move out of desperation.
I like this a lot for the time being. It helps out everyone involved and continues to give us a good chance of winning games. Should be very interesting to watch.
posted by Bob at 7/06/2005 09:57:00 PM
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