Sports Redux: Curt Scoops the Sox

The buzz began during today's Red Sox-Philadelphia spring training game: expect an announcement about a closer after the game.

OR...just head on over to Curt Schillings' blog. As the Sox continued to battle the Phillies, Schill had already begun to spread the word through his latest post, "Paps to the Pen."

"This wasn’t done because we have ‘too much starting pitching’, or because anyone was panicked about who would do what in the pen," Curt writes, "it was done because John has worked his ass off to be where he needs to be, to close in the big leagues again."

First and foremost: hurrah, we say, to the news of a closer. It's about time. While the news seems to have been precisely what many Sox fans were expecting, it's good to know for sure.

But then there's the interesting part of this news report. The Red Sox brass got scooped by one of the organization's own. Oh snap!

We've been following Curt's blogging since the site launched, curious about how the venture would pan out. Curt has written that he's happy to eliminate the middleman, if you will, when it comes to providing information and insight about how he's feeling during the season.

How does Theo and the rest of the gang feel about that spilling over into the rest of the clubhouse?

UPDATE: RedSox.com reports that the team officially announced that Papelbon will return to closer, while Julian Tavarez is slated to take Papelbon's starting slot.

Photo of Schill by Flickr user redperm