THE TROUBLE WITH CURT

Curt Schilling... sigh...

One start he's got no-hit stuff, well, for 8.2 innings anyway, and another start he's got no-strikeout stuff, well, for 4.1 innings anyway, before Francona justifiably yanked him. He didn't have anything on his fastball and therefore his split was shit. (Look at me! I'm the rhyming blogger!) This means he had a difficult time getting anyone out. The Braves got a number of dinky little hits off Ol' Curt which inflated their numbers against him, but the truth of the matter is they also got a bunch of big hits off him, too.

As tempting as it is to freak the heck out (this is a family site, we don't swear here unless it rhymes), the answer is probably that Ol' Schil just had a very bad day, just as two weeks ago he simply had a very good day. The truth lies in the middle for Curt. (Whereas, politically, the lies come from the right) (I'm a parenthesizing monster today, huh?) He is 41 and not named "Clemens" or "Ryan" so its likely that his days of regularly K'ing 10 or more are behind him. That doesn't mean that he can't be a good pitcher on a regular basis though. And with the Sox offense supporting him, he should be able to keep his team "in the game" proverbially speaking more times than not.

Tune in five days from now when another Schilling stinker has me renouncing the "family blog" label to the tune of 1,500 swears a minute.

This may still be a good time to rethink the power ranking of the starting pitching. Baseball Prospectus says the Red Sox have a 94.6% chance to make the post-season, so its not too early to make note of who should get the call come game #1. Of course, theres still about 100 games yet to go, too.

On another note entirely, apologies for not posting the last few days. Its been a hectic weekend here at FPE HQ. Hopefully things calm down a notch soon. In the meantime, I'll do my best to keep posting updates after Sox games with some analysis thrown in from time to time, same as I always try do here.

One way or the other, thanks for reading. Its much appreciated.

AL East: The Yankees just keep winning, and with the lineup and rotation they have this is what we should expect from them going forward. They are old, so they will get injured (a bit) and they do have steroid cheats on their team, so they will get suspended (maybe), but they also have a ton of talent, so they will win games (definitely). Lots of games (unfortunately). The Sox better be prepared to hold down the fort, because the Yankees aren't going to make this easy.

In contrast, the Blue Jays, O's, and Devil Rays are going to make this easy. Combined, they are 93-112 (.453). As was most likely surmised everywhere but Baltimore and Toronto (you think anyone in Tampa thought the Rays were going to challenge for the division?) there is no other threat for the AL East this season.

Tonight (Tuesday): The Red Sox try to even their three-gamer with the ever-tough Braves. To do so, the Sox send Josh Beckett to the mound. Beckett will try to erase memories of his last start versus Colorado, easily his worst of the season to date. The Braves will counter with Tim Hudson, who despite a stellar 3.25 ERA, is 4-10,000 lifetime against the Red Sox.*

The Red Sox better take care of business in Atlanta because the Yankees are in Colorado to do what the Sox couldn't against the Rockies, namely, kick their collective butt. No sense scoreboard watching unless you are that rare animal who enjoys ulcers, or that rarer animal who is a Yankee fan that choses to watch the Red Sox when the Yankees are on the teley. I predict a sweep in Denver.

*not technically accurate