Pitching depth takes a hit

In the offseason, we thought our starting pitching depth was just fine, thank you. We had Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield and Jon Lester.
Then the dominoes started falling.
Josh Beckett has a sore back and is all but not going to Japan; Dice-K has a baby coming soon that may prevent him from heading overseas and Curt Schilling is out indefinitely.
That means of our projected rotation, only two will be heading to Japan — and don’t count out Buchholz not going, should he lose the No. 5 job to Julian Tavarez (a very distinct possibility in my opinion — more later).
Ah, pitching depth. It either makes or breaks a season. Fortunately, the buzz surrounding Colon has been fantastic and he may end up being our white knight so we don’t have to turn to Williamsburg in right field and beg for a spot start.
As comprised, our depth chart looks as such:
Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Julian Tavarez, Bartolo Colon, Kyle Snyder, Devern Hansack, David Pauley. (Red means injured, yellow means injury risk, green means he’s a greenhorn, purple means ‘please god no.’)
It’s a good depth chart if everyone’s healthy, but when two drop like flies and one can’t make the trip to Japan, it looks a lot sketchier. For example, let’s assume we never signed Dice-K and Beckett and Schill went down. Our rotation would be Wakefield, Lester, Buchholz, Tavarez, Snyder (and Colon once healthy). Yeesh! That’s a good rotation in a couple of years once Lester and Buchholz solidify themselves, but not now, and with a terrible back end.
This is why Bartolo Colon is increasingly important to our hopes and why the news out of Fort Myers is so encouraging. If Colon can give us a poor man’s impression of his Cy Young 2005, then all questions of our depth go away, especially since Beckett’s injury is short term.
While I’m skeptical of just how good Colon is looking, even being a league average starter would go a long way.
The long-term outlook of Beckett is not problematic — so what if he misses his first start? At least he can skip the 34-hour plane ride. What’s problematic is what we’re looking at should Colon fail to give us adequate depth.
Every team needs starting depth. We ended the offseason with it. We’re in Spring Training on rocky footing. Where will we be in the season?
Question from the mailabag — e-mail me at any time at evan[AT]mvn.com!
Why are the Red Sox playing regular season games in Japan, then coming back for some more exhibition games before they open the season here?
Well, without looking up any definitive source, the Red Sox have to make a 17-hour flight to Japan, and they’re leaving March 19. The first game is March 25, generally a full week ahead of schedule from the rest of baseball. They’re only playing two games, then flying back. They need time off after that to get over the jet lag and get back up to speed to hit the regular season running.
In addition, on March 29, the Red Sox will be playing in a significant exhibition game at a baseball stadium that hasn’t seen any games since 1962. The game against the Dodgers will be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on March 29, the former home of the Dodgers.
The Red Sox playing exhibition games is simply to get their footing under themselves back in the States and to be a part of history.