Choose Your Own Adventure: Fifth Starters, Fat or Skinny?

It's a sad day when the Red Sox don't play. They have the day off Thursday.

Tear.

OK, now that WMYM has gotten the whole venting/opening up thing out of the way, let's get down to business. Because there's some business going on, let us tell you.

While Theo Epstein and his front office cabal dial number furiously in an attempt to trade Julian "Big Lebowski" Tavarez for a bag of chips - reports are they've downgraded their asking price from Cape Cod to Utz, but won't slum for Lay's ... yet - they also find themselves in the rather inauspicious situation of choosing a new fifth starter. That's because rookie Clay Buchholz, fresh off yet another road shellacking, is literally missing a fingernail.

It sounds pretty painful, and while Buchholz sounded like he wanted to take his normal spot in the rotation on Sunday, the Sox were having none of it, deciding to have him wait out this time through the pitching order to give him time to heal, bumping up a still fuming Josh Beckett to pitch on Sunday on normal rest, because of the off day today.

That's the short-term fix for the short-term problem. But a much bigger - in every sense of the word - decision may be looming on the horizon.

With that kind of foreshadowing, WMYM could only be referring to Bartolo Colon, the burly power pitcher and one-time Angels ace who made his first minor league start for Pawtucket since returning from an injury on Thursday afternoon. To say that he looked downright dominant against overmatched minor leaguers would be quite the understatement.

For what it's worth, here's Bartolo's final line:

Colon: 6 IP ... 1 H ... 0 ER ... 4 K ... 64 pitches

That's right folks, Colon cruised through six innings of one-hit ball on only 64 pitches ... in his first outing back. His minor league ERA is sitting at 0.64, and while that probably wouldn't hold up against stiffer competition, he clearly is looking a lot more like his old self than he did before multiple injuries ravaged his consistency in recent seasons. If you want more visual evidence of the veracity of his performance, the Buffalo News has video here.

Of course, Colon probably isn't ready to be slated directly into a major league start quite yet. After all, this was his first legitimate start in a good month, so he needs more seasoning, you could say. But another couple starts like the one he tossed out there for the PawSox this afternoon, and he'll be making a serious case to become the permanent starter at No. 5.

That, however, doesn't solve the team's short-term problem: Who takes the next turn in the rotation for Buchholz? With a fingernail completely ripped off, it seems almost impossible that he'd start anytime in his next two turns. Could Kyle Snyder make a case for redemption as a fill-in starter? What about a second turn of Justin Masterson, who was so impressive with his sinker in his lone outing earlier this season?

What do people think?

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