As Buster Olney outlines in his blog today, Milwaukee fireballer Ben Sheets is not drawing nearly as much attention in the Hot Stove League as free-agent CC Sabathia or potential trade bait Jake Peavy. Given Sheets history of breaking down, teams are understandably gun-shy about investing big dollars in the righty ace. Nevertheless, when Sheets is healthy, the man is nails, as Olney points out.

At midseason, he seemed poised for a big-money free-agent score, as the NL starter in the All-Star Game. Then Sheets broke down late in the season, again, reinforcing a perception that he is a serious injury risk. But Casey Close, an agent with a reputation among general managers as a straight shooter, is letting everybody know that Sheets’ injury was merely a muscle tear, and not a structural problem in his elbow, and he’s got MRIs to prove it. And undoubtedly, Close is reminding teams of what Sheets does when he pitches: Over the past five seasons, his ERA has been 2.70, 3.33, 3.82, 3.82 and 3.09. Over the past five seasons, he has issued just 152 walks in 839 1/3 innings with 785 strikeouts, numbers that are remarkable.

Sheets is not going to get Sabathia dollars, but as other top pitchers come off the board, at some point, some team is probably going to make a move on the 30-year-old right-hander, and for big dollars.

God willing, that team is the Red Sox. Let the Yankees overpay for Sabathia and his hulking torso. I think Boston should roll the dice on Sheets. A rotation of Dice-K, Beckett, Lester, Sheets, Wakefield/Bowden/Buchholz, etc. would be damn formidable. Besides, as Olney points out in this same blog piece, the Sox did something similar with J.D. Drew two winters ago, when many teams steered clear of Drew, who had a history of injuries and (supposedly) uninspired play.