Schilling Schelved Until After the All Star Break
This goes as unsurprising news. The Red Sox have been making decisions for October since about mid-May. Schilling could easily pitch now, I’m sure, but the way they see it, he has a limited number of bullets in the gun (or pitches in his arm) and they want to make sure they save some of those for the playoff run. I am happy with this - there is no reason to have Schilling in there throwing 89. This is a more serious injury than anyone is alluding to - just becuase there is no structural damage doesn’t mean there isn’t something wrong. The fact that he needed a cortisone shot is fairly serious. Those last for about 2 weeks. In that two weeks, of course, he’ll feel great becuase the shot essentially fixes the inflammation temporarily. Its after that 2 week period that really counts and I’m sure the Sox want to make sure he’s 100% at that point before taking any risk at all.
This isn’t the only October focused decision they made. Shelfing Donnelly now is another case of sandbagging some old arms. He has a tired-arm type injury that he could easily pitch through. But Manny Delcarmen was pitching well in AAA and they need to see if he is going to be able to cut it on a consistent basis in the bigs, which means having him up here for a lot more than just September.
I would also contend that getting rid of JC Romero to make room for Timlin counts as well. Clearly Timlin isn’t quite what he used to be this year, but he is experienced and they hope that getting him back on track through June and July should have him in peak form in October.
I would think this would apply to Mike Lowell as well. I expect him to be getting more and more days off. This is a lot harder though, becuase you really can’t replace his offensive production. And the Red Sox offense hasn’t exactly been on fire this year - they are winning on quality starting pitching and every run counts. If Hinske could start hitting more, (which granted, is tough when you don’t play much) it could give Lowell some rest going into the All Star break and hopefully have him fully healthy for the second half. But right now, Hinske is hitting .214 with only 8 RBI - certainly not enough.
Either way, resting Schilling is a good move so they don’t blow him out too badly. They will need him in October a lot more than they need him next week. Schilling will be pissed becuase this devalues him for next year a bit, but screw him anyway, he was supposed to retire. No complaining, just rest up and pitch well when asked to.
Stumble it!