One Is The Lonliest Number?

This from the Monday Globe, about the fewer number of pitchers who now, heading into 2007, can be considered true aces, number one stoppers supreme, not just for THEIR pitching staff but icons for baseball itself. Read on...I'll be back, and if you'd like to read the original Globe article, just click on the title! Takes you right there!!!!

"Baltimore scout Deacon Jones, who has seen major league baseball up close and personal for more than 50 years, recently raised the question, "Where have all the aces gone? How many guys now can you actually identify as No. 1 pitchers?"

Peter here...good question!!! Here's Nick C's answer......

"The answer for me is Johan Santana, Roy Halladay, Chris Carpenter, and Roy Oswalt. (Peter here...oooo! That's it? Aren't your forgetting someone? Read on!) Nick's words..........

Then it starts to get a little tougher. Yankee righthander Chien-Ming Wang is rising after a 19-win season (though it's just one year). Brandon Webb, the National League Cy Young winner, is on that path. Dontrelle Willis was there but took a tumble last season. Jake Peavy had a poor season. Bartolo Colon is a horse when healthy. (Peter here.......COLON? He's an overweight sometimes OK pitcher. But does he deserve to be mentioned here? ) Carlos Zambrano is heading that way also. C.C. Sabathia has his moments. John Lackey is heading in that No. 1 direction.
The older pitchers who were No. 1s in their day can still dominate ( Peter again, and NOW you bring up the cream de la cream? Jeez!): Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz, Jason Schmidt, Tom Glavine, Pedro Martínez, Mike Mussina, Greg Maddux, etc. But they're either hurt or declining." (Peter again! Yes, some are hurt, but others, namely one, is NOT DECLINING! Oh, I wish you knew a LITTLE bit about what to expect from Sox baseball '07...one thing we will NEVER see is Schill not give his all. Decline? No way no how, not for 2007).

OK, Peter here.....and I hope you can comment with some of your thoughts. I'm a Red Sox fan....my view will always be slanted towards the team we love. As always. Would you have me ANY other way? And I think, and this I wrote yesterday in my mailbag post, that Curt Schilling will think of his LAST 35 starts of his wonderful career, his last year, as a time to transcend time, to have the fire in his eyes, that Schilling fire that we've all known. The exact same shine as on "bloody sock night." And I know he'll try to recapture those "soon to be fleeting but not in 2007" moments that have defined his career for oh so many years!
Hey, we have 4 other great pitchers in our '07 rotation, but the focus of this Monday post is Schill and SCHILL ONLY. Just as it will be on opening day in KC.....HE IS OUR GUY!
And you know what? I feel the same way about all of you. And that will NEVER change. Promise.