While the Prez Holds Court, the Sox Play Rotation Roullette

Before anything else, the most important news of the day: The answer to yesterday's great debate was, alas, panini. That's right, if you had panini in your personal "what is WMYM eating for lunch pool", pat yourself on the back. Good for you.

Unfortunately for all of us, you SHOULD have had crabcake sandwich in the pool. Seriously. Has anyone figured out who foisted the panini on this country? What a waste. The sad thing is that, because it sounds Italian, WMYM is ALWAYS falling for the panini, then feeling extremely disappointed with the results because it turns out to be a lackluster sandwich on flatter bread. If they want to sell us a crappy sandwich, they should tell us that panini is Italian for crappy sandwich. Ridiculous.

OK, that's enough of lunch pool betting. Let's talk about something much more interesting like, say, Red Sox pitching. While his new prospective teammates visited the lame duck figurehead in the White House, Bartolo Colon declared this morning that he could be ready to pitch in a spring training game by March 9. That's right folks, the Stay Puft Pitching Man could slap on a jersey in as little as 11 days. Wow. Supposedly he'll throw a bullpen session tomorrow that may give additional insight into just how much he can contribute. At least supposedly. Hmmmm.

The bigger news - if it's possible to have news that's bigger than Bartolo Colon - is that another erstwhile ace was seen visiting Sox camp in Ft. Myers yesterday. According to Amalie Benjamin on Extra Bases, buried at the bottom of a post about the (then) upcoming Colon presser, is a note about Freddy Garcia being checked out by the Sox. Garcia has bounced around a handful of camps this spring - he made some waves in Mets camp last week, where he claimed to be "just visiting close friend" Johan Santana but somehow brought his agent and somehow started his visit at Omar Minaya's spring training residence - but so far hasn't been able to convince anyone that he's completely recovered from shoulder surgery which ended his season last year in Philadelphia after just two wins. That's right, he cost the Phillies $10 million per win. It's distinctly possible that the Sox see Garcia as additional insurance, essentially that two make-right contracts for past superstars are better than one. We'll see.

Still, of all the pitching news today, the most interesting and, amazingly, significant pitching news for the Sox could revolve around Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Herald's Rob Bradford drops a bomb - ok, note to self, bad choice of phrase when discussing Japanese players - on the rest of the Red Sox beat by disclosing that Dice-K (giving a nice honorific bow to Bush-san in an AP photo at right), the man of eight pitches, is now the man of nine. That's right, the Gun from the Rising Sun has thrown a two-seam fastball into the mix. It's an interesting development. Last year, a number of critics were calling for Matsuzaka to cut back on his arsenal of pitches. Instead, he's adding to them. So what does that tell us? Easy. It tells us that Matsuzaka isn't going to change his style just because stateside critics tell him to, and that could be a very good thing for the Sox.

Remember, this is a guy who, before last season, was used to a six-man rotation. Well, the Sox aren't talking about a six-man rotation anymore, they just trust that he will have adapted enough to thrive in his second season in Boston. Additionally, instead of imposing more limits on the Japanese righty, the Sox are willing to trust that his own adjustments will take effect in season number two. That's a high level of trust but, as Matsuzaka's resurgent World Series appearance showed, and his Game 7 start in the ALCS for that matter, sometimes Dice-K's self-admonishment is what he needs more than anything else. He's made it clear that he was disappointed with the personal results of his first campaign, so that should bode particularly well for future performances.

Or at least that's the way WMYM sees it. Of course, WMYM would love to see Tim Wakefield turned into a reliever, so he could pitch every day and bring Dougie Mirabelli off the bench for a couple at bats where he could send the stands into a frenzy. But we all think that would be sweet, right? I mean who WOULDN'T want more Mirabelli?

Clearly, some kind of a panini fan.

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