Smoltz On Verge Of Deal With BoSox

John Smoltz has pitched his entire major league career with the Atlanta Braves, but he is on the verge of a deal with the Boston Red Sox, according to sources.

The Captain touched on this before, but I wanted to throw my opinion in on this. Smoltz is 41 and coming off surgery, but I do think he could be a very effective weapon for us. As of right now, we have 6 starters, Beckett, Dice, Lester, Wake, Penny, and Smoltz, not bad at all. The signing of Smoltz will make us overloaded at the SP spot and have injury protect and allows us to trade one of our young starters such as Buchholz and Bowden for one of the Texas catchers. Smoltz is tough to figure out because I have no idea on how much he is going to pitch. He does have some relief pitcher experience under his belt, but I don't figure he would want to do that. He is one of my favorite pitchers of all time, hell I will take him.


BMack's Take:

I have to agree 100% with Pearce. Smoltz could be the guy that puts the Sox over the hump in the playoffs, and even if he doesn't do anything the Sox have plenty of pitching to be just as good as they were last year. If he is healthy, he has some of the best stuff in the majors. The best thing about the Sox for aging pitchers is that they are very good at giving them ample rest. They always seem to come up with some way to get them extra time off at some point in the season (putting them on the DL with a non serious injury, ect). He is also one of my favorite pitchers of all time, and I think guys like Buchholz, Lester, Bowden, and maybe even Beckett could learn from this guy.

The Baldelli signing is a little more of a question for me. As a 4th outfielder I think he is great, but the thing with playing for the Sox is that J.D. Drew is going to go down at some point in the season, and I just don't know if Rocco can play everyday. When Baldelli plays, he can be one of the better corner outfielders in the AL, but he was that problem where he gets tired very easily, so he can only play like every other day. I hope Drew can stay healthy, but he never does. I wonder if the Sox will go after another outfielder, like Kotsay, since he can play outfield and 1st.