Colon Impresses--Bye Bye 'Belli

There was good news and sad news for the Boston Red Sox on Thursday. First, the club released old friend Doug Mirabelli, the personal catcher for Tim Wakefield. Taking over the knuckleball catching duties will be defensive specialist but ultra light hitting Kevin Cash. Dougie's batting average had plummeted from .281 in '04 to .202 last year. Thank you for everything, Dougie. You were there when we needed you, and you will be missed.

Bartolo Colon made his Sox pitching debut yesterday and opened some eyes. Wide. Here is what some said after his performance...

"...a good two-inning performance in a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Rays proved to be good news for the Red Sox. Colon allowed two hits, one run, a walk, and a home run in two innings. He struck out one of the 10 batters faced.
"I thought he was way up in the zone," said a scout, "but for his first time out, pretty good. HE'S GOING TO HELP IF HE CONTINUES LIKE THAT."
There were a lot of scouts on hand to watch Colon, and the consensus was, "WISH WE'D SIGNED HIM."
"It was a lot more velocity than we expected," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. "He had good arm strength for his first time out. Much more life on the ball than the side session he had, which is what we wanted to see."
"I'm thrilled," Colon said. "My arm is responding. I didn't know how hard I was throwing, but it felt great."

Bartolo, we're thrilled, too! And you were consistently throwing between 92-94MPH. Pretty darn good!! The club hopes Bartolo will be ready by April 12th, which is the first day a fifth starter will be needed. That's just about a month away from now, so I hope that gives him plenty of time to hone his skills, skills that still remain after two years of injuries. This could be a stellar pickup for the World Champs and it might allow Clay Buchholz the chance he needs down in Pawtucket to treat his young arm right.

In another news note, Curt Schilling has been placed on the 60 day disabled list. No surprise there. But the most important news of the day was the first mound appearance by Bartolo Colon, our "probable" fifth starter. As many of the scouts who watched his two inning stint said, "...wish we'd signed him." Well, tough luck. He wears a Boston Red Sox uniform now, the best garb in the baseball world.

Click on the title of this post for the entire Colon article from the Boston Globe, and have yourselves a very merry Friday. Thanks for stopping by, and as always, BE WELL. That's the most important wish of all. Forever.