Citing Howard Ulman of The Associated Press, Boston.com is reporting that Bartolo Colon reached 94 MPH on several occasions today.  Colon, who once was to able to throw 100 MPH, looked better than he has for a long time... if you remember, he was absolutely terrible during winter ball.  Peter Gammons checks in via his blog and says Colon was consistently around 92 MPH with his fastball.  In just days, Colon has gone from being nothing more than an occasional spot starter to possibly the favorite to open the season as the fifth starter (especially with Beckett likely to miss a bit of time because of his back injury).  All I know is that if Colon can consistently reach 90-94 MPH with his fastball and command all of his pitches, the Sox could do a lot worse as far as fifth starters go.

Manny Ortez is a co-creator and senior writer for Boston Sports Buzz.