The Red Sox are trying to decide between Brad Penny and Clay Buchholz for the fifth starter role. It does seem to me that if a pitcher is battling for a job in spring training and clearly wins, he should get the job. I understand that the Red Sox have more flexibility with how they use Buchholz because of his age and experience, but if he’s solved the problems of last year, Boston could easily send four aces to the mound every five games. Given Tim Wakefield’s spring, Brad Penny may need to take over the fourth starter role.
I saw Buchholz pitch in Pawtucket in 2007, a couple months before his no-hitter. In the PawSox game, I believe he allowed one run over seven innings; that run being in the sixth. By the fifth, it dawned on me that Buchholz had so much control over the game that, before the sixth, only a couple of balls had made it out of the infield. Buchholz was clearly ready for the big leagues then, and if that’s the Buchholz who pitched this spring, I can’t see how the Red Sox can send him back down to Pawtucket. He’s ready.