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What do we expect from him?!?

The Sox really need him to produce and step up. He might be a bit more relaxed now with Matsuzaka on board and the press maybe forgetting about him a bit. He certainly has the stuff to really be a top of the rotation guy.

He needs to realize that he doesn

His secondary stuff looked very good this spring. He threw a few changes in succession the last time I saw him that were outstanding because of their separation and they dropped. I guess his change has been toyed with and is more of a splitter, which will compliment his fastball and curve very well. I expect a lot better things from him this year, he got away from his change last year early on and couldn't find it until the very end of the season. If he keeps up with it this time around, I think a sub 4 ERA could be possible. mahalo
~Chach~

I think the biggest problem was that he's afraid to throw his curveball as much now because of all of his blister problems.

He's got a great curveball, he just never throws it. He needs to stop trying to be Curt Schilling and just throw the damn ball

He had some issues with the command of his curveball at times, being able to throw it for strikes. Part of that may have been because he was wearing a band-aid during his side-sessions to protect his finger. But he took the eczyma shot so I think that, especially being a year older and out of Florida, the blister problem shouldn't be a problem.

My main issue with him last year was his change because he lost the feel for it early and when he has the fastball and curve both working, he could get away without one. But if he was lacking in his curve command a bit, all he did was pound fastballs and anyone can time a fastball eventually. If that change is working like it looked like it could in spring training, he will be able to get away with not always being able to command his curve 100% of the time because guys won't be just sitting on his fastball. mahalo
~Chach~

If Beckett can mix his pitches better I think he'll be just fine. He can't just throw fastballs, it's just not going to work.

The blisters weren't because of the curve but actually the 2 seam fastball. He was throwing almost exclusively 4 seamers to prevent this problem from happening last year so he could prove he can pitch 200+ innings. I'd rather he throw the 2 seamer and maybe deal with a 15 day DL stint with blisters at some point. This will help him avoid giving up all the homeruns.