Replacing Schilling

With Schilling going on the DL, the Sox are faced with an issue, who replaces Schilling. Luckily for the Red Sox their are many different options, and all bring good resumes. Basically, the options come down the 3 righties, Pauley/Hansack/Buccholz, and 2 lefties, Gabbard/Lester. Out of those pitchers, all have has major league experience and some relative success except Buccholz. What he has going for him is his incredible potential. Widely regarded as the best pitching prospect left in the minors, Buchholz has all the making of a star. The question for him is whether he is ready or not. He has yet to make the leap to AAA, but that is not always a death sentence. Lets look at the raw stats;


Player - Lvl - age - IP - ERA - WHIP - K - BB
Kason Gabbard - AAA - 25 - 69 - 3.26 - 1.22 - 58 - 23
David Pauley - AAA - 24 - 75.1 - 3.35 - 1.21 - 54 - 20
Devern Hansack - AAA - 29 - 65.1 - 3.44 - 1.18 - 64 - 16
Jon Lester - AAA - 23 - 56.1 - 2.40 - 1.16 - 28 - 16
Clay Buchholz - AA - 22 - 74 - 1.82 - 0.91 - 100 - 18

Gabbard looks good because of his solid numbers, the fact he is a lefty, and he had some success already in the majors. Pauley did not have the same success as Gabbard, but has put up equal numbers to him all season. He is also a year younger, which might mean he has more room for growth than Gabbard. Hansack looked awful in his stint with the big club. I love his numbers at Pawtucket, but he is better used as a reliever with that deadly fastball slider combo he has. Lester would be the natural choice, but he isn't striking out anyone. That is a major issue and it leads me to believe he doesn't have is stuff back quite yet. Buchholz is the future, not the present. He is the best of all these pitcher, i can't deny, but he needs some action in AAA prior to the majors.

Verdict: Gabbard wins the job. It is only going to work out to 2 starts, so it's not like this is a long term opportunity. Let Gabbard come up, get some experience, and bridge the gap to Schilling. I don't see any of these pitchers making an impact this season, so we should focus our attention on getting Schilling healthy not developing talent.