I come back for the first time in a week (I’ve been busy with finishing up classes for the semester), and I’ve been averaging almost 100 new people a day since my rant on Jacobs. I almost don’t want to ruin it.

Almost.

I haven’t talked about the Schilling deal yet in depth. I didn’t talk about it during the “speculation” time, because I don’t want to add to the craziness of mindless speculation, and because I’m still superstitious, I didn’t want to jinx it.

Essentially, The Red Sox traded for one of the best starters in the National League, by giving up the potential vested in Casey Fossum’s and Jorge de la Rosa’s left arm, Brandon Lyon’s right arm, and Michael Goss’ shocking ability to prolifically make outs. But Goss looks like he might be a big leaguer someday in the future, in the same way that Tony Womack, Doug Glanville, and Herb Washington put in some major league service time.

At 37, Schilling is a big time power arm, who doesn’t walk any guys. Those players tend to age very well. In fact, he doesn’t really comp well to any pitcher in history, with a nod to being vaguely similar to Jim Bunning in 1968, Burt Blyleven in 1987, and Kevin Brown in 2001. Thanks to BaseballProspectus’ PECOTA cards to help me get the similar pitchers. It’s also neat to notice that Dennis Eckersley, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Bob Gibson, Don Sutton, David Cone, Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins, and Steve Carlton are also on the list. I’m a geek.

As of right now, the Boston rotation ranks among the best in baseball with Martinez, Schilling, Lowe, Wakefield, and Kim.

Dare I say that it’s better then the Yankees’ starting five?

No, because they got the second best starter in the National League in 2003. With the addition of Javier Vazquez, the Yankees’ rotation is Vazquez, Mussina, Contreras, and then some combination of Jeff Weaver, John Lieber, Jorge de Paula, and Pablo the Party Donkey. I don’t think the Yankees are done, and because of that I’m reluctant to anoint any rotation the King of the AL East.

Free agent Update

                  Po  Old   NewMike Cameron      cf  SEA	Luis Castillo     2b  FLA   FLABartolo Colon     sp  CHW   ANAKeith Foulke      rp  OAK	Eddie Guardado    rp  MIN   SEAVladimir Guerrero rf  MON	Javy Lopez        c   ATL	Greg Maddux       sp  ATL	Kevin Millwood    sp  PHI	Rafael Palmerio   1b  TEX	Andy Pettitte     sp  NYY	Sudney Ponson     sp  SFG	Ivan Rodriguez    c   FLA	Gary Sheffield    rf  ATL   NYYShannon Stewart   lf  MIN   MINMiguel Tejada     ss  OAK

As far as I know, Colon and Sheffield haven’t officially signed yet, but Sheffield going to the Yankees is the worst kept secret in baseball, and the Angels have a press conference scheduled for today. Here is to hoping that I can put a BOS next to Keith Foulke soon enough.