Yen and Yang

Dice K Matsuzak officially started his Red Sox career the other day with his 6 year - 51 million dollar deal. That's a lot of yen. I'll give the Red Sox some credit. They set their goals for the off season to acquire a starting pitcher, and they did that some 100 million dollars later.

Is he the next Greg Maddux? Is he going to be another Hideo Nomo? No one knows for sure, but one thing is for sure, the "Donger" can throw 4 great pitches. That's more than I could say for the late Matt Clement. Clement is having trouble finding his shoulder much less finding his way into the rotation. He's trying to find his career much like Paris Hilton.

I like our rotation as we have it set up with Schill, Beckett, Donger, Pap, and Wake. The only thing I fear is that the starting pitchers will have to go nine innings every night to keep us from going to the bullpen. Bradon Donnelly is a nice addition, but he's not a closer. If the perm that Craig Hansen wears off soon than maybe he can become our closer? That's asking a lot considering that Hansen lost all confidence in himself last year having been sent down to AAA more times than Bull Durham. With the resurgence of a healthy Jon Lester we finally have a left hander that can come out of the bull pen with a chance to help out. I like Lester. He was definitely thrown into the mix to early last year, and should be eased into the lineup during the season. He could be our only left hander to put up against that formidable Yankee lineup that has 5 guys who bat from the wrong side of the plate.

Taking the good with the bad. The recent pick up of Dice K. plus if medical science will allow it we can dump J.D. Drew (he'll still become a Sox unfortunately), and add into the mixture the fact that we have Papelbon moving into a starting position we have plenty of upside. It's not saying we don't have holes up the middle at short-stop and second base. Can someone explain to me why we didn't unload Pedrioa a year ago when our scouts knew he would amount to nothing more than an shorter version of Damian Jackson? Everytime I see him out there playing it's like someone allowed the Little League player from Worchester to be on the field. Isn't there anyway Tito can put a measureing stick on the outside of the dugout much like those on roller coaster rides? Well, that's why you have to take the good with bad. The yen and the yang.