Curt Schilling agreed to a one-year, $8 million deal and may not know it yet but has also agreed to be the mentor to part of the Red Sox pitching staff.
Better get those notebooks handy Mr. Schilling.
As you all know Schilling can earn an additional $2 million in incentives (based on six weigh-ins), $ 3 million based on innings pitched and an another million if he wins the Cy Young Award for the 2008 season.
Schilling’s students will be Clay Buccholz and Jon Lester. Two pretty good students with incredible upside and unlimited potential.
Those students should appreciate a man who took a pay cut to stay here and has all the hardware to make it to the Hall of Fame. Learning from Mr. Schilling can only benefit Buccholz and Lester.
Constant preparation and in game changes and adjustments will be valuable lessons taught by Schilling to the young guns. Schilling’s kids certainly will not have to be taught how to man-up as Lester has fought off cancer to come back and pitch for the Red Sox and not just “pitch” but pitch effectively slamming the door shut in game 4 of this past World Series. Buccholz has pitched a no-hitter which is something that Schilling has never done.
For a guy who has reinvented himself this year pitching differently from when Schilling was the over powering hurler to the finesse pitcher of his later years he has a lot of knowledge in how to be successful in baseball. A win-loss record of 216-146 over the course of 20 seasons has some merit to it and Schilling’s kids need to take away everything they can from Schilling this season and his pick his brain as much as they can.
Mentally, Schilling’s kids are right on track in a lot of stages in their game, but Schilling can offer up some new lessons on the baseball chalkboard. Teaching these youngsters how to stay healthy (again 20 seasons is a long time), what kind of philosophies to have going into a game against hitters, and he certainly can teach them not to shake off Jason Varitek.
Sorry, I had to; even Schilling still has some learning to do.
Food for thought:
What do you guys think about this move and how will the presence of Curt Schilling affect Clay Buccholz and Jon Lester this year? Will their numbers go up partially because of his teachings?
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