Beckett bombed

Josh Beckett in his first outing for the Red Sox this spring was not pretty. He gave up five earned runs in three innings pitched. It sounds like he was a little to pumped up in his debut.

"It's not like I was just out there trying to throw my pitches. If I was going to do that, I would have just thrown a 50-pitch bullpen. When I'm out there, I'm trying to get people out," said Beckett. "I wanted to get a feel for these guys [the Devil Rays], just like they wanted to get a feel for me. They felt me pretty good," he said.

Dude seriously chill out. I know this may be what makes him a winner but he shouldn't be trying to use all his pitches yet to get hitters out. Please just relax and don't hurt yourself. The Red Sox dearly need you. One good thing so far about Beckett is he helped David Wells decide to retrack his trade demand. With Wells in the mix the Red Sox could open the season with seven starters on their team with Curt Schilling, Matt Clement, Beckett, Wells, Bronson Arroyo, Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Paplebon. There is an extremely good problem for the Red Sox to have. I expect that they'll trade one of these pitchers probably either Clement or Arroyo. I also think Papelbon will move into the bullpen possibly as Foulke's replacement if he's not ready to be the closer.

Was that a dig Johnny Damon said about Varitek yesterday. Damon was talking about the Pedro-Zimmer throwing accident and how because he had a concussion at the time he sought out former and current teammate Jason Giambi to protect him. When he was asked what would happen if a brawl breaks out this year he said ''I definitely won't go get Varitek". Even though I hadn't read of any problems between them I wouldn't be surprised if there was tension between the two. Damon tends to be kind of goofy while Varitek is the exact opposite. Damon was often portrayed as the leader of the "idiots" but it was Varitek who received the "C" on his uniform. Don't forget that the Red Sox offered Damon the exact same contract they offered Varitek $40 million for four years.