Josh Beckett, SP, Boston Red Sox

For a couple of years now, I've been oddly excited by Josh Beckett's blisters. Many good young pitchers' arms get blown out by overuse; I thought it was great for his career that Beckett wound up on the DL with hand trouble instead of arm or back trouble. The latter problems tend to be career-threatening, and while I've never heard of anyone else who get blisters as often as Beckett has, I'm pretty sure it's not a career-threatening problem.

Let's take a look at the 1980 Oakland Athletics. Now that's a great, young pitching staff. Has anyone (besides Jason) ever heard of those guys? Of course not. Billy Martin killed them. Too many pitches. 85 percent of their innings were thrown by five players. (For comparison, this year's White Sox -- who also had great starting pitching -- got 69 percent of their innings from their top five starters.)

Josh Beckett was saved from a similar fate -- thanks to his blisters. Managers have short-term goals that don't mesh well with those of their players. Look at Billy Martin: he wasn't even the manager in 1983, so it wasn't his problem that Mike Norris only threw 89 innings that year (down from 284 in 1980). Josh Beckett's manager on the Marlins, Jack McKeon, was fired. What does he care whether Beckett can pitch in 2008?

I never thought Beckett would wind up on the Red Sox. I figured he'd be a Yankee when his free agent time came. I couldn't be happier that the Red Sox traded for him. No price was too high, and I'm not all that worried about losing Hanley Ramirez or Anibal Sanchez. Sanchez will probably be a good pitcher. If everything works out right, he could be as good as Josh Beckett is right now.