Peek-A-Boo

Since a bad outing near the beginning of the month, Little Manny Delcarmen has turned it around. He is using a new technique. This is from the Courant. Title click for the entire article........

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- "Manny Delcarmen has practiced pitching with his eyes closed. Since doing so, he has been opening others.
Delcarmen, 25, is vying for one of the last slots in the Red Sox bullpen and has turned his spring around with three consecutive solid performances after an outing manager Terry Francona called "troubling" March 3.
The morning after Delcarmen allowed three runs, three hits and two walks in two-thirds of an inning against the Phillies, pitching coach John Farrell had the righthander out on the field at City of Palms Park, working on visualization drills, repeating his delivery with his eyes closed.
"That helped me a lot," Delcarmen said. Since allowing a one-out, two-run homer to Florida's Hanley Ramirez March 6 in Jupiter, Delcarmen has allowed one hit over his past 32/3 innings, including two shutout innings against the Phillies in Clearwater March 9 and a 1-2-3 inning against the Yankees Monday night."

Peter here. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. The important thing? It's working for Manny. Before spring training started, and based on my impressions of him from last year, I thought he would be a lock to be a member of the '07 'pen. He's now vying for one of the final spots in that soon to be determined collection of hurlers. With his curve, he should make it. The club needs at least 4 or 5 guys to have career years for the Sox to go far into October. And that's where we want to go....all the way.
Enjoy your Thursday, everyone. Weatherwise, winter wants to make a comeback here in north central Connecticut, with the prospect of a major Nor'easter hitting the area late tomorrow through the first half of Saturday, St. Patty's day. Where it stays all snow instead of mixing with sleet, a foot or more will be on the ground come late Saturday. What fun! But with only 12.7 inches of total snow so far this season, something had to give. I'll keep you updated as the forecast becomes more refined and defined. A tricky situation, to say the least.