Tuesday, October 14, 2003
PROBLEMS LIKE THESE
Will Carroll wonders if the Bosox are pushing Pedro without a care about his future health because they have no intention of keeping him around next year, despite the contract extention. (The thinking is the Bosox will trade him to a contender Pedro wouldn't veto, and get a bunch of useful players in return.)
This raises two questions: 1) why is it only in Boston where having the best players imaginable is considered a hindrance (listen to Red Sox Nation bitch and whine about Manny Ramirez, who continues to be one of the five best hitters in all of baseball, year in, year out, as if he were personally responsible for the Babe leaving Beantown), and 2) who the hell takes the mound in place of Pedro for Boston?
Honesty, does Boston have anybody? The law of averages have caught up with Lowe. (He's a decent pitcher, but he's never going to repeat his 2002 performance.) Wakefield is as good (and unpredictable) as his signature pitch. Burkett's near dead, isn't he? Young Fossum has yet to live up to his billing. They don't have any arms that I know of in the high majors. And the market for starters is going to be fierce, with the Yankees leading the way needing to replace Clemens, Wells, and possibly Pettitte.
It'd be a shame if Boston yet again forcibly exiled another moody but brilliant starter less than a decade after giving the boot to Clemens.
It's one thing not to resign Pedro at $20 M a year, but quite another to run him out of town (as a withered arm cripple, no less).
Obviously, it's currently just conjecture on Will's part, but something about it seems eerily prophetic. I hope Epstein is smarter than Duquette, but maybe that Red Sox front office gives off some weird shining thing: All work and no play makes the GM a dumb boy.
