You're Joshing Me, Right?

You're Joshing Me, Right?

This has got to be some kind of Red Sox Bizarro World. Imagine someone in an "I Love To Eat Dinner At 4 O' Clock" t-shirt walking up to you last Spring in Fort Myers and saying, "Josh Beckett will finish 2010 at 6-6 with an ERA approaching 6.00. " Would you have believed him? Not bloody likely! Nevertheless, there it is. This preposterous season (the right Sox lost to the wrong Sox again, 5-2) has given us many head-scratching moments, but none more Tegrin-inducing than Beckett's performance. I still believe he has been hurt most of the year—but has refused to admit it in the same stubborn Texan way that Ratger insists he didn't do PEDs. It's just in the water down there. If Josh can return to form next year and Lackey pitches like he's pitched recently, the Sox can afford to deal Dice-K for Ethier and still have one of the best rotations in baseball. So, there is some hope. It's just positioned way out there in 2011.