Question: Does Higginson have the same agent that Jody Reed had?

Question: Does Higginson have the same agent that Jody Reed had?

Question: Does Higginson have the same agent that Jody Reed had?

Question: Does Higginson have the same agent that Jody Reed had?

From everything I am hearing, the No. 1 starter in Arlington next season will be Chan Ho Park.

With just a fastball and a change (though it's probably the best change in the majors), do you think Foulke might need another pitch to be a starter?

I do think the Sox would be wise to consider that and look for a closer elsewhere, Smoltz perhaps?

Voros,

Right on with the Foulke situation! I'd love to see him in the rotation, at least for a half-dozen starts or so to see how he does. Kip Wells pitched very well in relief (according to my memory) so I think he could take Foulke's position in the pen. With all the chances Wells has had in the rotation, I think it's time Foulke got the same chance.

"I've always been a bit underwhelmed by the "needs more than two pitches" dogma."

Wouldn't it depend on how good those two pitches were?

Thinking it over, Voros, I think that in Foulke's case you are right. I still believe your average bear needs more than two pitches, but Foulke has good enough control and wide enough variance in speeds with both his fastball and change (I've seen the gun at Comiskey register from 68 to 82 on changeups in the same at-bat, and the fastball from 86 to 92 on the next guy) that he could probably get by. There is a bit of a difference between Pedro's fastball and Foulke's though.

"Moyer apparently only has a change-up. How does a change-up work with no fastball?"

Jonathan,

Moyer is having more success now than he did while with the Orioles from 1993 to 1995. The one thing I noticed about him during that period was, when he's pitching well, every pitch looks the same. This is not to say that they are all the same pitch, they're not. It is to say that his wind up, arm motion and release point happen exactly the same on every pitch. It's off of this that he varies the speed of his pitches and having good command of the strike zone. The batter can't tell if he's being thrown an 84 mph inside "fastball" or a 68 mph outside change or even one of his dinky 76 mph curves that looks so juicy until it practically drops on the plate. Look in the dictionary under "crafty southpaw" and there's a picture of Jamie Moyer...! ;-) ...

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I think Foulke's more valuable to the Sox as a closer than as an attempted starter conversion; they'd be wise to try to tie him up for a few, say three, years, and get through the last year of arbitration and the first couple of free agent years. You know the Sox won't go longer than that on a pitcher, and I think that that is pretty smart; pitchers break down far more than your position player does, and three years is about tha max I'd go.