(C is for Curly…and that’s good enough for me)

Much like P Curt Schilling, I’m a mere spectator for Boston’s ALDS clash with the Angels, and while the lumbering Everquest Enthusiast will certainly have better seats tomorrow night at Fenway than I, he exercises his typical strained judgement via 38 Pitches (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory). Never mind the swipes at Dan Shaughnessy, is it really a good idea for Schilling to compare Jason Varitek to the Hooded Casanova in light of the former’s martial problems?

For all the folks in 2004 that wanted to lynch Tito, even after we won, this guy knows how to manage people. Sabermetric your ass off but at the end of the day the best managers are the guys that can quote œ% of chance to score runs with runners in scoring position and less than 2 outs. Don™t get me wrong, baseball IQ is important, data does matter, but at the end of the day the best managers in the game are what they are because they can manage PEOPLE better than the other guy¦.

These are the new Red Sox, and that™s not something I see changing as long as Theo is calling the shots and building this team. They™ll run through your starter most nights and expose the one thing few teams if any ever claim as a strength, middle relief. Show me a team with GREAT middle relief and you™re looking at a team that likely sucks. Middle relief is what you have when your starters can™t get into the 6th. Teams like this one have good middle relief because they™ve gone back to what I think is the best possible method in bringing up and acclimating young pitchers. Middle relief, lower leverage innings to get your feet wet. Then to the rotation at the right time, or move back deeper into the pen, whichever role you were groomed for.

Oh and I know I claimed I™d never mention him again but I can™t pass this up. CHB, no one that™s EVER worn a major league uniform has uttered the term ˜cookie fastball™¦ Where the hell did you hear that? A fastball down the pipe is a cookie, or some of the products Keebler makes are cookies, but there is no such thing as a ˜cookie fastball™ you dork.