The Crying Game

Tim Wakefield has been with the Red Sox for what seems like a lifetime. He's the little girls with the curl, when he is good, he is very good...but...

Conversely, Andrew Miller lives at the other end of a baseball lifetime. Miller is that tall, lefthanded power pitcher out of Robert Redford's "The Natural", only Miller has struggled to find that elusive command and control that makes electric arms into Cy Young candidates. Miller has a clause that allows him essentially to become a free agent if he isn't on the major league roster by TOMORROW.

This folks, is a no-brainer. Miller has been lights out recently in the minors, harnessing that 97 mph heat and terrorizing International League hitters. Tonight in 5 1/3 innings, he allowed one run, one walk, and fanned ten.

Including tonight, in his last four starts, he has pitched 25 1/3 innings, yielded 17 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks and fanned 26.

There was talk that he should be a "nice guy" and wait a few weeks or a month until the Red Sox "need" him. That's not how it works for an ambitious, talented guy, who throws high nineties heat from the left side. If he got hurt tomorrow, would the Red Sox take care of him for life, when he might have a multi-million dollar payday somewhere else?

It's Miller time, and the Sox will find him a spot or they deserve to lose him.