Spoke with a few people close to Manny Delcarmen over the last couple of days for a story appearing in Today's Metro http://boston.metro.us/metro/sports/article/Delcarmen_delivering/8707.html and had a longer extended version of the story that I've posted below…for completely self-serving purposes of course. I'm going to also try to transcribe the interviews with Manny's dad, Cookie Delcarmen, a very amiable baseball guy that I chatted with on a high school baseball field Monday afternoon and Jim Masteralexis, a locally based agent who represents many of the best and the brightest baseball talents in the local area.
Here's the story on Delcarmen:
Aside from the rigors of undergoing Tommy John surgery and the grueling rehabilitation that follows, this spring was the low point in Manny Delcarmen’s baseball career.
Despite an ERA of 6.23 and a nagging thumb injury that affected the command of his curveball over the second half of last season, the former West Roxbury High School star had to have considered himself a near-lock for a
Red Sox roster spot this season.
Then Delcarmen got hit hard over seven appearances in spring training, and a series of arms imported over the winter jumped ahead of him on Boston’s depth chart.
Delcarmen and 23-year-old Craig Hansen were out, and 35-year-old Brendan Donnelly, 31-year-old Hideki Okajima and 30-year-old J.C. Romero were in the Sox fold at season’s beginning.
“He’s hungry to be there,” said Manuel “Cookie” Delcarmen, father to Manny and a veteran of six years in the Philadelphia Phillies system. “I think he’s been ready since last year, but teams like the Red Sox and Yankees have to be 100 percent sure you’re not going to fail.
“[Terry] Francona likes the veterans and that’s his way...if it works for him then that’s fine,” added Delcarmen’s dad, a high school baseball at Cathedral High School as well as in the legendary Boston Park League. “But sometimes managers forget what it was like to be young, and that somebody needs to give you a chance in order for your career to take off. Some players take of when they’re 21 years-old or 23 years-old, and other guys don’t take off until they’re 26 or 28.
Delcarmen, rather than taking off, struggled out of the gate in Pawtucket with a pair of disastrous early season outings, but had righted the ship just prior to his Monday call-up to Boston. The righty had racked up 11 strikeouts in his last eight innings with the PawSox, and finally looked ready to help in Boston prior to his call-up.
“I talked with Manny [Monday] on his way into Yankee Stadium, and I think it’s a different type of happiness or emotion for Manny than it was when he first made it to the big leagues,” said Delcarmen’s Amherst-based agent Jim Masteralexis. “He had some adversity [this season] and he really had to battle in the minor leagues to put himself in this position. I give him a lot of credit.
‘I also give the Red Sox a lot of credit for getting different pitchers like Okajima, Donnelly, Pineiro, J.C. Romero…they’re going to win a World Championship this year and they weren’t going to let the bullpen be an issue,” added Masteralexis. “I can tell you this season that 20 of the 30 teams were looking for bullpen help, and Manny would have already been in the big leagues with them. I think it has less to do with Manny’s ability or performance and more to do with the Red Sox building a powerhouse team.”
Delcarmen pitched a scoreless inning Monday night for the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium in his 2007 Major League debut, and those close to him feel this is an opportunity that the young right-hander needs to grasp.
"Manny is going to help this team this year," said Masteralexis. "He was very clear with me in conversations that he wanted to come back up and help the Boston Red Sox. He has no desire to go anywhere else and instead wants to stay with this club. That shows me the kind of mettle that this kid has."
One more quick thing: Curt Schilling may have said that he was "craptastic" last night against the Yankees, but the truth is that he's been very hittable over his last 4 or 5 starts. The Big Schill has surrendered 45 hits over the last 31 innings pitched.
Through his career he's kept hitting to a .243 average and (though we all acknowledge that he's not the Schilling of old) hitters are whacking him to the tune of a .287 batting average thus far this season in 10 starts. This would be the second-highest total in his long career, behind only the .314 batting average he allowed during a very aberrational 2005 season when he was recovering from his off-season ankle surgery.
More to post later and it's nice to finally have things up and running here at the site.
