Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling has announced that he now wants to play not just this year but also in 2008 as well. I say that if Schilling is coming back for 2008 then he'll be back for 2009 too. Follow my reasoning.

Schilling has 207 career wins. He would have to get up over 245 to finish in the top 50 all-time and help cement his case for the Hall of Fame. It would be very hard for him to get to 245 wins in just 2007 and 2008 - so that means that if he's serious about making the Hall of Fame that he comes back for 2009.

Schilling will probably also need three full seasons to finish in the top 10 all-time in strikeouts as well. He's currently 14th on the all-time list with 3,015 but ahead of him in 12th place is Greg Maddux (3,169) and right behind him is Pedro Martinez (2,998). Schilling would probably have to pass Walter Johnson's 3,509 to insure he is in the top 10 by the time it comes to vote on his HoF candidacy.

Schilling has never won a Cy Young Award (finishing 2nd three times) and his real claim to fame has been his stellar post-season performance - going 7-2 with a 2.06 ERA including winning the 1993 NLCS MVP and sharing the 2001 World Series MVP with Randy Johnson.

I think only two things could keep Curt Schilling coming back for 2009. The first would be if the Red Sox won the World Series in 2008 and Schilling payed a significant role. In this case - Schilling would probably want to go out on top and leave a final positive mental image of him as a champion. The second thing that could keep him from coming back for 2009 would be a nagging injury. Pain could take the fun out of baseball in a hurry and it also can effect performance. I think if Schilling thought he wasn't capable of playing at a high level in 2009 because of injury that he'd call it quits.

I'm just disappointed that he won't be running against John Kerry in 2008. I guess we'll have to find someone else for John Kerry to lose to.