Shifting Rotational Forces: Arms Races

It was interesting week in the pitching camp of Red Sox world. Daisuke Matsuzaka made his official return, though you could hardly tell. Justin Masterson proved human, or at least had a human outing at home. Curt Schilling now officially won't return, but based on the stunning performances turned in by both Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield, he would have had to fight to get a rotation spot anyway.

Oh, and Josh Beckett proved that, even in a loss, when he's on, he's as good or better than anyone in the game.

Sounds like a mixed week, you say? Well, it was. Here's how WMYM graded it out:

Josh Beckett: A-
Inside Edge gave Beckett a B+, and we were tempted to as well, if it weren't for taking another look at his final line, which went something like this: 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R. That's right, he allowed two runs OVER EIGHT INNINGS. Better yet, he struck out eight, compared with just two walks. Sure, at his best over the past couple years, Beckett has had outings where he's walked none. Still, eight innings with only two runs is an outing in the A's absolutely any night. You can book it.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: F
The Dice-man cometh? Not so much. This is only the second game in what will hopefully be a long Red Sox career that Matsuzaka-san has received a failing grade from the back-room brass at WMYM -- the other was his September debacle on a Saturday night in Baltimore last year as a rookie -- and after that outing he immediately hit the DL with shoulder soreness. Could that be an omen for what's to come? After the loss on Saturday, the Sox might hope so. Or, better yet, maybe they should just avoid having him pitch on Saturdays. Maybe that's what it is.

Jon Lester: B
Say what you will about Jon Lester's first full season in a big league rotation -- we're not willing to count the previous part-campaigns as one when added together -- but he IS getting a lot deeper into games on the same pitch counts. By the time he hit 101 tosses against the Cardinals, Lester had been throwing for 7.1 innings, and he'd only allowed 2 ER. Sure, those runs came on a lot of hits -- nine, to be exact -- but Lester continues to show an uncanny knack for scattering opponents' base knocks across innings, and he keeps getting big outs when he really needs to. Now that we've said that, WMYM is heading to a lumber yard to go knock on every piece of wood available to make sure we didn't just ruin a solid Lester season.

Tim Wakefield: A
Raise your hand if you had Wakefield as the winner of "outing of the week" in your office pool. That's ok, we didn't have him picked, either. After all, when you're dealing with a knuckleballer closing on his 40th birthday like Big Brown running away at the Kentucky Derby (or any race, providing a shoe isn't falling off his hoof), it's pretty hard to predict performance start-to-start. Like, 7 IP, 2 H, 1 BB and O ER, for instance. That being said, a fairly inauspicious start to the year for Wakefield is starting to shake up as another fine vintage season for the pride of knuckleball fans everywhere. After all, he's the only thing GOING for knuckleball fans everywhere. After his shutout on Wednesday, even Dougie was smiling somewhere. Trust us, he emailed.

Justin Masterson: C+
Everyone deserves the right to toss out a bad game once in awhile. Masterson used that mulligan Tuesday. The sinkerballing rookie put pressure back on his attempts to stay in the starting rotation when he struggled to get through the sixth inning. Sure, three of his four runs allowed came on a single swing -- a three-run homer by Chad Tracy in the third -- but that's what made Masterson's outing so curious: he got stronger as the game went along. Rain could have been an interesting x-factor, too, with Masterson forced to sit through an uncomfortable delay while the slightly more experienced Doug Davis cooled his jets in the opposing dugout. But that's just speculation,and as Theo Epstein has proven time and again, speculation and potential don't earn a player a continued roster spot. Good starts earn that, and Masterson needs one the next time or two out to make sure he'll still have one in Boston a month down the road.

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