Clay Buchholz-Mind Control

Bosoxinjection writer, Steve Peterson described Clay Buchholz’s outing last night as one of “hands of clay”.  Looks more like brains of mush.  We have seen this problem before, it’s not Buchholz’s mechanics, rather it’s all in his head.

There have been talks about sending Buchholz back to the minors or even down south for extended spring training.  Will that really help?  How does being shipped out help someone’s confidence?  Buchholz isn’t the first pitcher to experience this.

The two names that come right to my mind are Steve Blass and Rick Ankiel.  Buchholz isn’t wild like Ankiel was, he just resembles Blass.  Blass just couldn’t find the plate anymore; just like Buchholz.  A couple years after helping the Pittsburgh Pirates win a World Championship, Blass was gone.  Is this what the future holds for Buchholz?  He has just lost his confidence and there is no telling if he will ever get it back.

That puts the Sox in a very difficult position. What can they do? What other options do the Sox have to plug into the rotation? Certainly, it isn’t Dice-K, if and when he is ready.

Call the therapist, Buchholz certainly needs someone besides Josh Beckett and Jon Lester to talk to. The one thing going in Buchholz’s favor is for some reason the Sox tear the cover off the ball whenever he pitches. You can’t expect the Sox bats to continue to bail out the troubled righty forever.

Buchholz had “Ace” written all over him until injuries started to take their toll.  Hopefully he can get his “head” back into this before it is too late.