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Projo SoxTalk: Sean McAdam on Beckett, the Blue Jays and the Yankees

Live from Toronto, Sean McAdam is the guest on today's edition of Projo SoxTalk. Click here to listen to the full audio file. Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments. Editor's Note: Tonight will be Josh Beckett's first appearance of 2007 against the Blue Jays.

On Beckett: "He has been much more consistent, and I think we're seeing a guy who's in the middle of sort of determining for himself the difference between being purely a thrower and a guy who is really learning how to pitch in his second year in the American League. And you can see some changes in his approach: not so reliant on his fastball, doesn't throw it up in the zone to challenge hitters when things get tough, mixes in his secondary pitches far better, relies more on Jason Varitek and trusts him more to call the game. So I think all those things are positive signs."

On the last-place Toronto Blue Jays: "I think they are looking at this homestand that starts tonight with three against the Red Sox as a pretty key series, or a pretty important stretch for them, even though it is only the second week in May. They have some ground to make up in the American League East already. They're seven and a half games in back of the Red Sox and should they get swept, they could be double figures behind the front-runner by the end of the week, and you certainly don't want to be in that situation on May 12."

On the Yankee bullpen, the day after Mariano Rivera's latest blown save: There aren't a lot of other reliable arms in there. In fact, Scott Proctor looks to be one of the few guys that Joe Torre can trust, and for the second year in a row he runs the risk of really running Proctor into the ground in the first couple of months in the season, because he doesn't have anyone else he can trust. So that may be one of the rude awakenings that Clemens discovers when he comes back late this month: that it is not Mike Stanton and (Jeff) Nelson and some of the guys that they had working as ace setup guys to get to a younger Mariano Rivera. Now it is an untested bullpen -- sort of patched together -- and an aging Mariano Rivera who is having difficulties.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:58 AM to Martone , McAdam | Permalink