Although he’s been put on the 15-day DL as of May 14, 2007 with an injured right middle finger, The Boston Red Sox pitcher extraordinaire, Josh Beckett has once again been ripping it up. In this 2007 season Beckett has posted a 7-0 record with a 2.66 ERA and 50.2 innings pitched and has been leading The Boston Red Sox to a commanding 9.5 game lead over their competitors in the American League East (It is worth noting the BoSox are a full 10.5 games up on the New York Yankees in the division).

Josh Beckett was a 1st round (2nd overall) draft pick by the Florida Marlins in 1999, and became the first high school pitcher to be selected in the first round by The Florida Marlins, bypassing college baseball and moving straight into Single-A ball. Josh was named Marlins Rookie of the Year by the South Florida chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America after going 2-2 with a 1.50 ERA (4 ER/24.0 IP) in 4 starts for the Marlins after a September 1 promotion from Double-A Portland.

In 2003, he posted a career-best 3.04 ERA, with a 9-8 record in 24 games (23 starts), recorded an impressive 152 strikeouts in 142.0 innings (an average of 9.6 strikeouts per 9 innings) for the Marlins before turning in an MVP performance in the World Series to help the Marlins to the World Championship. Josh Beckett was named MVP of the 2003 World Series and went 2-2 with a 2.11 ERA (10 ER/42.2 IP) with 2 complete-game shutouts in the 2003 postseason, including a complete-game 5-hitter for a 2-0 win in Game 6 of the World Series against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium to wrap up the championship. It was the first World Series complete-game shutout since Randy Johnson turned the trick for Arizona against the Yankees October 28, 2001 (editors note: Darn, seems like all those records are against the Yankees).

To the dismay of many Marlins fans, Josh Beckett joined the Boston Red Sox for the 2006 season and set career highs with 16 wins, 33 starts and 204.2 innings pitched, reaching 30 starts and pitching for more than 200.0 innings for the first time in his five years in the majors. He led the Red Sox in wins, starts and innings pitched and on July 19 The Red Sox announced a 3-year contract extension with Beckett with a club/vesting option for 2010.

Although I’m a diehard Florida Marlins fan and a fan of the Cleveland Indians, I must admit that Josh Beckett is my favorite MLB player, and to the guy in my Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League who keeps trying to trade me for Curt Schilling, if you want Schilling, you’ll have to trade me Beckett.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.