| 25 March 2009
John Smoltz threw a 40-pitch bullpen session today, and though he said he was only working at 70%, the expected John Smoltz intesity was there.
"All I cared [about] was getting the ball to the catcher," he said. "But in my mind I was trying to hit the outside corner and the inside corner, but that's for times to come. I've got to remind myself. I'm a pretty hard critic. It's allowed me to be the kind of pitcher I've been in the sense that I don't take lightly anything that I do, but I'm a pretty hard critic."
Pitching Coach John Farrell this is just the beginning, but he liked what he saw today.
"It was more a matter of repeating his delivery, controlling his intensity level, which I think he did very well," Farrell said. "I think he felt good coming away from it. He's dealing with the subtleties of adjustments in his delivery. Today was the first day he's thrown a bullpen of this structure since early December, so there's going to be some familiarity to regain with the mound and the intricacies with his delivery."
Bottom Line: Smoltz has been dedicated to the slow program the Red Sox have had him on since signing him this off season, but he'll continue to chomp at the bit until he's ready to start a major league game sometime in June. Depending on the health of the other starters, the Red Sox might be looking for a way to squeeze Smoltz and Clay Buchholz into the rotation by then... but that's not such a bad thing, right?
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