"Yeah, but" didn't apply

I railed against the proposed Lester-Santana trade during the off-season. I believed the Red Sox would be giving up too much to get the vaunted (former) Twin ace.

I preached patience with Lester's early struggles. According to medical personnel, it can take up to two years to get back to full strength after cancer treatments...if at all. We're still less than two years removed from even the diagnosis and Lester absolutely dominated the Kansas City Royals in his start, throwing a no-hitter (with a little bit of help from Jacoby Ellsbury - one of the other key components in the trade package with the Twins).

Some people will look at the fact that it was against the Royals and say "yeah, but...," but that would be wrong. Sure, one to nine, they're not a dominant hitting team, but one to seven they have only one player hitting below .260, Jose Guillen (.241 after Lester's start), and he's currently seventh in the American League in RBI production. Lester also had to pitch to the leader in batting average (.331), Mark Grudzielanek three times on his way to the offensive shut-down. The Royals currently have the fifth best batting average in the American League - better than presumed offensive powerhouses like the Yankees and Tigers.

There is no "yeah, but..." here. Just a dominating performance against a decent offensive team.

I'm still not saying that Lester is necessarily going to become Johann Santana, but I still don't think Santana was worth trading Lester.

A few quick notes about the start - Lester is just one of three pitchers to win the deciding game of the World Series and the following year throw a no-no. It's him, Sandy Koufax and then back in 1915 Rube Foster did it for the Red Sox. That's not just good company - that's rare company.

Think about that for a second - Lester, Koufax, and Foster. Not Tom Glavine, not Pedro Martinez, not Roger Clemens, not Bob Gibson, Bob Lemon, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Don Larsen, Cy Young, nor Steve Carlton. A who's who of Hall-of-Famers didn't do what Lester did - and Lester has done it with the extra degree of difficulty of doing it while recovering from cancer.

Jason Varitek has now been behind the plate for four no-hitters, and it could have been six had Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling not shaken the Sox catcher off in the ninth inning of games in which they came close. I bring this up because Varitek is nearing the end of his career - he might have four seasons left after this as catchers at his age can deteriorate quickly.

His offensive numbers are solid, but not Hall worthy. But has any catcher been better at calling a game? Has any other catcher been behind the plate for four no hitters? Maybe, but I haven't found him.