John Smoltz: When's he coming back? What will his role be?

[padrino990_200]

returns looking like mid june. i say hes the 5th starter. there have been rumors of teams interested in penny and the sox might give him away to free up a spot. unless there are injuries. especially with the way bucholz, masterson and bowden are pitching i can see them getting rid of penny.

and for the guy who said wakefield might go to the pen, not gonna happen. the guy eats innings and hes on a roll right now. he'll have his 30 decisions again this year and will be in the rotation all year barring an injury.

[Justblaze]

I think Smoltz will be in the starting lineup. He throw three innings in the minors in his rehab start. I hope they are not stretching his arm out for nothing.

[NWSoxaholic]

then whos gonna lose their job? Penny?
Why did they bother signing him then.
I dont see penny as a rp.

Penny has been pitching pretty poorly. Smoltz will get a spot in the rotation if he's healthy enough. IMO, it's Penny who would be out of the rotation with Wakefield serving as the number 5. However, Wakefield has been walking too many guys this year and may end up the odd man out.

Actually- Penny has only had 2 bad starts and otherwise has pitched about as well as you can expect for a 5th starter they took a flyer on. As for Wake he's walked batters his whole career- that's the nature of the knuckleball. He's been the best pitcher in their rotation so far this year, too. He'll stay, Penny will get traded and Smoltz will be in the rotation. Barring an injury to someone in the pen, they are stacked there and I really think they don't want to bring Bucholz or Bowden up unless they really need to. Overall- it's a nice problem for the Sox to have.

[Chicago RedSox]

Awesome quote from Smoltz today. He's going to tear it up when he come back:

"This, amongst anything else that I've ever done in my career, is going to take a lot of mental toughness to be patient. I want to come out and set the world on fire, but it's going to be patience that's going to allow me to get to that point."

The yahoo sports note also said he's on schedule for a June 16 return against FLA, the Sox play Atlanta 5 days after that.