Not ready for prime time

The Yankees and the Red Sox have something in common this year and its not their salaries or the fact that neither one is in first place in the AL East this late in the season for the first time in years. Nope. It's that they both are starting to realize that one of their young pitchers just doesn't have it.

In the off season, while trying to acquire Johan Santana both teams refused to part with one of their key young pitchers. For the Yanks it was Ian Kennedy and for the Red Sox it was Clay Bucholtz. After turning down the Twins' terms, the Yankee fans we excited to see Kennedy come up and become one of the key starters for their future. That has not happened. After struggling mightily at the beginning of the season and being sent back to the minors, Kennedy was back up with the Yanks this weekend to cover for Joba Chamberlain. His line, 2+ innings, 9 hits, 5 earned runs, and one ticket back to Scranton. The Yankees clearly understand that it is too early for Kennedy and he may not be the pitcher the Stienbrenner's hoped he would be.

The Red Sox may soon find themselves in a similar situation. When Bucholtz pitched his no-hitter last season, the Nation was excited that we may have our next Cy Young winner and we came from our own farm system. It was almost a given that he would become an integral part of the starting rotation and lead the Sox to great things. In fact, many felt he was more essential to keep if they were trading for Santana than Jon Lester (myself included). But that seems a little misguided now. Mr. Lester has a no-hitter of his own (which as regular readers will no doubt remember I was present at) and Mr Bucholtz is now 0-6 with an over 8 ERA in his last 7 starts and he has looked just as bad as the numbers suggest.

The problem is that there is no help in sight for him. A team that was thought to be extra deep in starting pitching coming into the season suddenly seems a little thin. Bartolo Colon is still injured from taking a ridiculous swing (gotta love interleague play!) and not Tim Wakefield is on the DL with the same problem he had at the end of last year which kept him off the playoff roster. The Sox seem convinced that Masterson belongs in the bullpen. Don't get me wrong, he has been fantastic out of there and has provided some much needed stability to a floundering pen, but he was just as good at being a starter and certainly more effective than Bucholtz has been since he was brought back to the major league roster.

The Sox are now left with the need to go to Pawtucket for yet another arm and leaving Bucholtz in the rotation. Should Wakefield's injury prove more serious, they are looking at going into the post-season with two pitchers and a key bullpen pitcher with zero post season experience. But it seems possible that the no-hitter may have been the fluke and that Bucholtz may not be reading to play in the major leagues.

Fortunately for both teams, Bucholtz and Kennedy are young and have plenty of time to still develop and become the players that their teams believe they will be able to. Unfortunately for these two kids, they play in two of the toughest markets to succeed in. The fans in Boston and New York are not very forgiving when you don't succeed. The Pedroias, Youkilis, Jeters, and Chamberlains of the word make the fan base think that all players from their systems are just supposed to come up and shine immediately. That's a lot of pressure for a young kid especially when he is seen as the weakest link on a championship caliber team.