Damn, check out that Ace

Coming into the 2013 season if you asked anyone in Red Sox nation who the ace of the club was the almost unanimous answer would have been Jon Lester. Now, the unanimous answer has to be Clay Buchholz. More than just being the Red Sox ace so far this season, Buchholz has been one of the league's best pitchers and looking to become the first 7 game winner tonight against the Minnesota Twins. If you were to ask anyone in Toronto about Clay they'd simply tell you he's the best because he's throwing spitballs and cheating on the mound, but that's just a team who got dominated trying to justify their horrid season. Clay has come into his own and in turn is owning every batter and team he has faced thus far.

Lets get into some of Clay's phenomenal stats this season courtesy of BaseballReference.com ; We know he's 6-0 on the young season and also has an MLB leading 1.01 ERA. An ERA that low will most likely rise over the course of the season which is to be expected, but with an offense like the Sox have and the lowest ERA in the league will only lead to more victories. It's easy to see the low ERA and be impressed, but what's more impressive is the fact that in his 6 starts this season he has only given up 5 earned runs. Just 5, there are so many pitchers who have given up more than 5 runs in an inning this season let alone in 6 starts. These next few stats are his average of the category per 9 innings pitched, H/5.4, BB/3.2, SO/9.5 which would be a career high for him if continued throughout the season. Clay's strikeout/walk raio right now is 2.94, almost a full strikeout higher than any other season's average for him. Personally there's no debate who their Ace is right now, the stats speak for themselves and so doesn't his dominate mound presence each game.

Stats are stats, so lets get to the facts. Fact, Clay Buccholz is the most dominate pitcher on the Red Sox and quite possibly in the bigs. Fact, the return of John Farrell and addition of Juan Nieves has given Buccholz, and the rest of the staff, their confidence and swagger back. I can't remember the last time I've seen Buccholz look as dominate and calm than he has this year. Fact/Fiction, if Clay is throwing spitballs I hope he continues to do so because his pitches are nasty this year and if a little loogie is the cause spit away my man. I, like the rest of you, am looking forward to the Twins asking the umpires tonight to check out Buccholz shirt and sleeves before he takes the mound tonight. When they disperse and nothing is found it'll confirm two things to us; 1) Toronto is a bunch of whiny poor sports and 2) Buccholz is dominating on pure skill and swagger. Enjoy watching Clay get his league best 7th win of the season tonight and contend for the Cy Young the rest of the year.