What Does Gary Peters Have to Do With It?

Gary Peters (http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/peterga01.shtml) was a pretty good lefthander who pitched mostly for the White Sox and parts of three seasons for the Bosox. I remember Peters mostly for two contributions, hitting and his thoughts on 'wildness'. Although Peters won 19 games for the Pale hose one season and twenty the next, he was an excellent hitting pitcher (a .222 career average and 19 homers) and he described the 'worst kind of wildness'.

The 'worst kind of wildness' is wildness in the strike zone. Peters was struggling at the time, from throwing too many strikes, in too many hittable places. Red Sox' righthander Jin Ho Cho, a career two game winner, couldn't help but throw strikes, which meant too many hits http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/choji01.shtmlAll of which brings us to the case of Curt Schilling, a potential Hall of Famer, and Sox legend 'Curtesy' of the Bloody Sock. Although Schilling's calling cards have been an overpowering fastball and diving splitter, he's best known as a master of command and controlhttp://www.baseball-reference.com/s/schilcu01.shtml . He is frequently among the leaders in fewest walks per nine innings, testifying to his control. Unfortunately for us, he's been victimized recently by the gopher ball, 'wild in the strike zone'. He'll get it together.

Last night's loss doesn't fall on the feet of Willie Harris. It took an entire game lacking offense and a Big Papi two-run homer to set up the fiasco. Still, a successful steal reduces the number of hits needed to plate the tying run from two to one, so for me, it's acceptable risk.

Now for the bad news, Interleague Play, which until last year has generally disagreed with the Sox. First up, the Phillies, with less than auto-Mattic Clement and Lenny DiNardon't put him in going. Of course, there is the Beckett-Howard rematch to look forward to.

As the Sox approach the quarter pole (40 games), they lead the AL East by half a game, which isn't too bad considering that the Coco Crisp trade hasn't even started to work yet, and the rotation could use a little tuning.Offensively, the Sox are seventh in runs scored, and sixth in OPS. Defensively, they're night and day improved, especially in the infield. Wily Mo sometimes gets the Opposite George jump on the ball, but has been more than acceptable in center. On the mound, the Sox are fifth in ERA, 4th in WHIP, and third in K/BB so they have reasonable (and improving) balance.All-in-all a most acceptable start.