Manager Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein admit they rushed the talented young right-hander to the majors last season . . . with mostly disastrous results.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 23, 2006

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Cla Meredith's head was spinning around so fast last season that it looked as if he were auditioning for a lead role in an Exorcist sequel.

One minute, Meredith was a promising side-armer for one game at Class A Wilmington. The next minute, he was untouchable in 12 games in Double A Portland. Then, after a week in Triple A Pawtucket, the 21-year-old right-hander, only a little over a year removed from Virginia Commonwealth University, was making his major league debut in front of 34,671 screaming Boston Red Sox fans on May 8 at Fenway Park.

Heady stuff.

Alas, that's as far as the fairy tale went.

Meredith spent all of 11 days in the big leagues, appeared in three games and was torched for seven runs in a total of 2 2/3 innings. He walked four, including the first two batters he faced, and surrendered a three-run homer to Seattle's Richie Sexson, the third batter he faced. He gave up at least two runs in each outing.

By the time he was demoted back to Pawtucket on May 18, toting his 27.00 earned-run average with him, Meredith's confidence had taken a beating and the Red Sox, notably manager Terry Francona, were kicking themselves for rushing the kid to Boston.

Francona had been impressed when Meredith dazzled for the Sox in one of their final exhibition tune-ups, in Arizona, but his early minor-league success didn't translate as quickly to big-league success.

And things didn't get any better for Meredith once he landed in Pawtucket. Bothered late in the season by a neck injury that later was diagnosed as a herniated disk, Meredith wound up going 2-5 with a 5.59 E.R.A. for the PawSox.

These days Meredith, who rehabbed his neck over the winter, is firing sidearm bullets in his bullpen sessions, having digested his whirlwind, emotionally draining 2005 season.

"It was a roller coaster type of season," said Meredith the other day in Sox' camp. "It was a blur how those (big-league) games went. It was a learning process, a guinea-pig year for me. I didn't get the chance to figure myself out as a pitcher and then boom, boom, boom, all of that happened.

"I have no regrets. I look at it as all gravy. I got to the big leagues. The next time I go up, I want to stay. It was a great opportunity and I didn't make the most of it. In Arizona, I made the most of the opportunity. Looking back, I would have liked to have done better. It was like I was up there and I was thinking, 'This is too good to be true.' I wasn't being myself."

Then, when he got back to Pawtucket, Meredith wasn't automatic as a closer as he had been for Portland, where he had pitched 15 innings over 12 games, allowing only 5 hits and 3 walks. He also fanned 12 and racked up 9 saves, utilizing his hard sinker.

As Meredith's E.R.A. began to climb, so did his anxiety, the result of pain and numbness in his left shoulder.

"My left arm was limp as a noodle," said Meredith, 6-foot and 180 pounds. "I was scared."

He kept pitching, appearing in 40 games, earning 10 saves in his 48 1/3 innings of work for the PawSox. But his fear grew as he heard a few different diagnoses, from a pinched nerve to just a 'crick' in his neck. Finally, after he had been home for a while, a doctor diagnosed it as a herniated disk and, rather than undergo surgery, Meredith adopted regiment of exercises to relieve the problem. He says he no longer is bothered by the injury.

In retrospect, the Sox regret moving Meredith up the ladder.

"That was my fault," said Francona yesterday. "I needed a guy for the sixth inning. So over the objections of a lot of people, I brought him here. The game went too fast for Cla. It set him back."

"You always try to balance the needs of the big-league club and player development," added general manager Theo Epstein. "That's one (decision) we would like back. We thought he could handle it."

Still, the Sox insist Meredith hasn't gotten lost in the plans for future bullpen help, even though Craig Hanson is the projected phenom closer, drafted in the first round last year after a stellar career at St. John's. The Sox also have Manny Delcarmen for bullpen duty, and, depending on Keith Foulke's health, Jonathan Papelbon could be taken from a possible starting spot and returned to the relief corps, adding yet another young bullpen arm.

"Look, we have a lot of quality arms in the farm system, so they know there is competition," said Epstein. "No one's favored coming in. He threw the ball better in the first half than he did in the second half. To show he belongs in the mix he has to get back to throwing the way he did in the first half."

Meredith knows that. He also knows that if he gets another chance to pitch in the big leagues, his attitude, not to mention an ability to make better, quicker adjustments on the mound, will be different.

"I've got to prove something," said Meredith, who has only 82 professional games under his belt after being drafted in the sixth round in 2004.

"All of those people (fans) don't know what I'm capable of," he added. "I like to put on a show. I lost that edge when I went up. I lost that killer instinct when I got to the higher level. I was too timid to show that side of me. But this year I'm going to be myself"

skrasner@projo.com / (401) 277-7340