Dojji

Agreed. And if it was Lucky that guaranteed him a job as the starter (he does seem the least unlikely candidate) then we fired the wrong guy.

That's Buchholz for you. Looks better than he is, and can't get out of an inning unscathed or strand RISP to save his life. When they catch up with the guy, it tends to be very, very hard. I wish I could trust him, but I have to admit that I spend his outings waiting for him to inevitably leave one up.

Pretty much. The history of recent MLB contracts is pretty danged spotty. Among the best of the recent ones was Stephen Strasburg, and he still overworked his arm resulting in injury. A couple years acclimating in the minors would have done him some good.

Craig Hansen was screwed up like Andrew Miller was screwed up, and for very similar reasons. They rushed the crap out of the kid when they didn't have to because of his major league deal. I'm increasingly convinced that "big league contracts" should never be handed out to any drafted player for any reason.

I don't think Bard is that badly screwed up. He's just doing what he would do as a starter -- existing as a work in progress. Of course my bar for being "screwed up" was set by one Mr. Craig Hansen, so I might be defining things a bit more permissively.

Cook wasn't terrible. Ohlendorf can take a long walk off a short pier, but Cook didn't suck. He got himself in trouble then turned around and got himself out of it. I'd rather see that than domination right now. Hope Pedroia's OK.

Mechanics is an issue that can only be solved with reps. Guys, if you throw Bard out there, you're throwing him out there to learn on the job. You throw Daniel Bard in the rotation for the sake of what he'll be in 2-3 years. Not this year. This year you take 150 innings of average baseball if that's what you get. That's not something the Red Sox are used to doing, but in this case, that's exactly what they're letting themselves in for. This kid is going to make mistakes that most starters get over before they're promoted, simply because he didn't get the opportunity to learn from those mistakes in AAA. Fortunately he has the pure stuff to atone for a lot of those mistakes, and with a bit of luck, he'll develop the rest as time goes on. Personally I don't know what Jacko's so excited about. How are Hughes and Chamberlain, Jacks? Dominating the AL and racking up multiple Cy Youngs yet?

Even Aviles is an upgrade over Scutaro.

The last time we won it all we did it with a shortstop who wasn't hitting very well, but played solid defense that year. Food for thought.

I started out as a huge skeptic on this experiment, probably the most outspoken one. And I have to admit I'm coming around.

Yeah I thought what we saw out of Bard was acceptable. Big thing it showed me -- and this is actually really, really important -- is that the kid can button down after letting in a few runs. That's not a given. Buchholz had real trouble learning to do that if you recall. So it's a good sign.

Not sure if I agree with the logic. There's a few other starters out there that go from the stretch at all times.

Umm... yeah? Why can't something be a "marketing gimmick" and still a big part of the identity of an entertainment brand? There is nothing wrong with gimmickry as long as it isn't overdone. I don't think the RSN stuff is really overdone, especially considering that a lot of Sox fans have internalized it.

I know enough that I'd take 5 of them in a rotation against any rotation in history.

Would not be shocked if he was out there working on secondary and tertiary pitches. I didn't see a lot of heat from a kid who's supposed to throw as hard as Bard. If he stanks up the Spring but masters throwing a better change and picks up a cutter or something, the Spring will be a success for him. You know what I don't get? I never understood why, when Paps was officially moved fulltime to the pen, why they didn't keep grooming him as a starter in the Spring. First two years, he was focusing on expanding and mastering his repertoire and still mixing his pitches, and he kicked tail in the regular season after he was transferred to the pen. Then in 08 and from then on, it was fastball, fastball, fastball and he lost something. Why did they never put 2 and 2 together? I mean When you have a kid, and what you're doing with that kid is as effective as it was those first two years, why change ANYTHING you were doing?

"He was never caught" =/= "he never did it."

I wonder if Curt Schilling's kept himself fit. ... almost definitely not.

One more thing he has in common with Slammin' Sammy Sosa.

But that's the thing. I'm not trying to be seen as original and unhateful. I'm doing my level damnedest to BE original and unhateful. It's a large part of what makes me me. I can't just follow the crowd. Not built to. Not wired to. Not interested in learning how to. I'd be a lot happier, healthier and saner if I could. I can't vote Pedroia because frankly, he's the professional underdog, and it can get irritating at times. It's to the point that we consider him underrated so aggressively that while Pedey's a good player I feel he's starting to get a bit overrated. Not that I wouldn't take him on my team over all but maybe 1-2 second basemen in the entire league, and would have to think hard about those final 2-3 choices. But... bleah. The last Red Sox player I was really truly in love with was probably Curt Schilling. What an epic story. I mean you couldn't make up the bloody sock game. No one would believe it. That was as franchise-altering a story as Ruth's called shot. And as if that weren't enough, that the last pitch Schill ever threw being a World Series win on top of that. That man will make the Hall. We lost a lot of our strength of personality as a team when he left.

That's so not what this thread is here for. If you want to start ****, start it with someone else. I'm not biting today.

All the starts took place last year which was his first full season. I'd like to have a game log of when those starts took place, wouldn't be shocked at all if they were towards the end of the season. It would fit the pattern considering he hadn't started the year before. If they were stretching him out, he's in position to get up to 130 or so innings this year, and 180 the next, which if they did promote him aggressively would be the AA and AAA campaigns and leave him ready to go sky's-the-limit at any point after that, which is why I jumped to that particular conclusion

From lurking here and there: Not considered a bigtime prospect. Not a lot of pro experience. Throws in the 92-94 MPH range, features a slider and change. Could start in A+ or AA, which considering he's going to be 21 next year is interesting. Has both started and pitched in relief. Looks like the Cubs were trying to stretch him out. I can see how this guy could become a solid pitcher but it does look like the odds aren't great. I'm guessing, but I'd bet he starts in A+ and starts the year in the rotation. Sounds like the thing he needs to do right now is establish his secondary pitches, and doing that against a higher level of competition may or may not work well. He's young enough that the team can afford to be conservative, so if they see him as more than roster filler, he's probably a Salem Red Sox.