Tweaking the System

Posted by Mike Giardi May 17, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Anyone else suspicious that the Red Sox disabled Clay Buchholz strictly to manage his innings? Hey, Theo will never admit it, but with the club trying to keep the slender righty around 175/180 IP’s, it not only is plausible, but intelligent. Plus, it lets you see what Bartolo Colon is all about, likely on Tuesday.

I said it before and I’ll repeat it here: I think the Sox would have preferred to start Buchholz in Triple-A and keep him there until at least June. So maybe camp didn’t break the way they wanted to, but you can still find the kid some quality bus riding time and have him back for when the games really matter later this summer. Hey, its just a thought…

- The big news lately is that Hideki Okajima can’t stop inherited runners from scoring. To me, the bigger news is that the Sox have no reliable third arm in that pen, and until they do, Okie will get overworked and, subsequently, overrun at times. To me, that falls squarely on the shoulders of Manny Delcarmen, who has yet to make “The Leap,” as we all expected. Craig Hansen may get a shot by default, and its already clear - to this point - that David Aardsma (15 BB’s in 20 IP) walks too many for Tito’s liking. That means MDC better elevate. Can’t make it any more simple than that.

- Thoughts and prayers go out to Anthony Rizzo and his family. The member of the Single-A Greenville Drive and a 6th Rounder in 2007, Rizzo has been diagnosed with Limited Stage Classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He has begun outpatient treatment at MGH.