This is what I’ve lived for my whole life is to — my whole baseball career, I should say, to have this opportunity to go out there on the biggest stage and have a chance to help your team win a World Series game and a World Series title. I’m as prepared as I’ll ever be, physically, mentally, and we’ll go out there tomorrow night and see if we can execute pitch by pitch, and find a way to win.”

via Full Count » Red Sox starter Jake Peavy says he’s ready for biggest game of his life against team that almost traded for him.

Nice Job by Alex Speier.

As I eluded to in my previous post. This World Series could hinge on the perfomance of Jake Peavy tonight as well as the possibility of him starting a game 7 (hopefully ala Derek Lowe results).

I trust him, but then again my memories of him are mostly when he was a Padre.. with a 98mph heater. Now, I definitely have more faith in him than Dempster, Doubront and Workman.. and quite frankly.. that’s why we traded for him. This is why he is here. Much better then sending unproven Allen Webster against Joe Kelly, not that that was an option, but that’s how money ball could have played out if our organization was a bit more frugal. I also love the idea that we get Peavy for another year, and I’ll be hopefully even more sweet as a defending champ. Because otherwise, I’d see it as a logjam in the rotation of which we need to start throwing our minor leaguers into the fire and testing them at the game’s highest level.

Next years rotation is:

Lester, Lackey, Clay, Peavy, Doubront (Leaving off Dempster)

I feel it could definitely succeed with:

Lester, Lackey, Clay, Doubront, Webster/Workman

And a few years from now

Lester, Doubront, Webster, Workman, De La Rosa (assuming clay remains injured) (and having Henry Owens and a few others moving up the ranks)

Anywho.. lets not get ahead of ourselves. I am nervous about tonight, but that’ll be over in about 5 hours one way or another.

Interesting to see what will unfold with the bottom of our lineup.

Will Steven Drew break out of his epic slump? Will we replace him with Xander at short and see the return of Middlebrooks to 3rd in game 4? Will Nave be effective given the little amount of playing time he’s received? Will Dustin’s thumb hold up? Can Ellsbury steal a base? Can Ortiz handle first base?

A good question I heard of when listening to firebrandal.com podcast

Which right handed batter will be used off the bench? Napoli or Gomes

Their answer was Gomes, because Napoli will likely be used a defensive replacement for Ortiz at 1st. And he’s a prone to strike outs.

If I were manager: Tonights lineup would look like this:

Ellsbury, Nava, Ortiz, Pedroia, Xander, Salty, Drew, Peavy and Victorino.

I like peavy batting 8th, because even with the possibility of a quick inning.. I like having Victorino and Ellsbury connected, and pinch hitting for the #8 hitter would not interrupt our speed on the base path.

All of this is outside of my control. Just gonna keep my finger’s crossed.

Go Sox!