It's fun to watch baseball broadcasts get started again. There is always an excitement to the start of Spring Training at this time of year. Pitchers & catchers report tomorrow.
As I watched my first few sports shows, most question marks in 2012 for the Sox are not about who will play short or who will play right. It's about whether or not our starting pitchers on the Red Sox can match up to the competition from New York & Tampa Bay.
In my opinion they can, but I am assuming that this is the year that Jon Lester & Clay Buchholz become the 1-2 punch in the starting rotation. It's their time. Josh Beckett had his time in 2007. John Lackey had his time in 2009 with the Angels. And Dice-K had his time in the World Baseball Classic.
Jon Lester needs to stop walking people when he can't throw his cutter for a strike. He has a plus fastball & a plus curveball to get batters to 2 strikes. Try the cutter when you are ahead in the count. Use another pitch to get the out. And don't try to strikeout every batter.
Clay Buchholz just needs to stay healthy. He has great command of 4-5 pitches, none more lethal than his changeup. (Maybe he can teach the change to Lester.) In 2010 I remember an interview where Buck stated that he is not trying to "K" every batter anymore. He would rather fool the batter early in the count & get a weak ground ball or fly ball, saving his pitches to keep his count down & go deeper into games.
Move over Beckett & Lackey. It's time for Buck & Lester to lead the way on the mound in 2012.
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