By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

Some things I think I think:
The Boston media (mostly the insane sports talk shows) picked up on Clay Buchholz’s comments made to NECN over the weekend.
Here’s what Clay told NECN’S Mike Giardi:
"Everybody knows that this game doesn’t last forever, for a pitcher especially. It can be any one pitch that you throw. You can blow out and your career can be over or you could have a year-and-a-half setback. It’s really hard to come back from something like that. I feel like I don’t want to waste bullets here whenever I do feel ready to actually be there, help the team win and get to the postseason, win another World Series.
"I’m physically healthy to be up there and be able to help that team," Buchholz continued. "If not (the Red Sox), then I want be in the big leagues and I do want to be go where I’ll be able to play and go and pitch every fifth day."
***
Of course, the talk show idiots went wild over these remarks, twisting them to the point where they decided Clay is “frustrated” here in Pawtucket as he waits for an opening in Boston’s pitching rotation. “Frustrated” would seem a little harsh. Somebody stuck a microphone in Clay’s face and he gave an honest answer. Perhaps he sounded a little impatient, or maybe he gave an indication that he has thought about his future with the Red Sox. What Triple-A player with good numbers doesn’t do that?
I’ve been on record as saying Boston general manager Theo Epstein prefers the insurance of veteran major league pitchers over his young prospects. Last year, he brought in Bartolo Colon, with mixed results. This year, he has struck gold with Brad Penny. John Smoltz is due to get his shot with Boston in the next 10 days, or perhaps as soon as this weekend.
It’s a little hypocritical for Epstein to talk about establishing a strong farm system filled with prospects and then go out and hire veteran pitchers in the offseason. But that’s me who is using those words. For a young pitcher with promise like Clay Buchholz, it’s probably just a little confusing.
***
One would not be out of line to suggest that Boston Red Sox assistant general manager Ben Cherington stopped by to cheer Buchholz up on Monday night prior to his scheduled start against Charlotte. The trickiest part of this business at the Triple-A level is keeping the young talent working hard when their path to the big leagues is blocked. Cherington probably also advised Buchholz to be less open with the media.
Young athletes sometimes don’t appreciate how fast their words can head from the minor leagues to the national stage in a matter of minutes. A perfect example occurred last Saturday afternoon when rehabbing Yankees reliever Brian Bruney finished a one-inning stint for New York’s Eastern League team in Trenton, N.J. A couple of writers came around and chatted with Bruney, then asked him what he thought about the Yankees’ miraculous victory over the New York Mets the night before.
“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Bruney told the writers, talking about Mets closer Frankie Rodriguez, who lost a save when Luis Castillo dropped a two-out pop fly in the bottom of the ninth. “His tired act is getting old.”
Bruney probably thought his words might travel no farther north than Newark. Instead, one of the writers emailed Bruney’s remarks to a sports writer sitting in the press box at Yankee Stadium. Peter Abraham took those quotes and placed them on his popular Internet blog (LoHudYankees.com) and within minutes they had been picked up by the wire services and ESPN.com.
Scenarios like this will just further distance the players from the media as the Internet, bloggers and Tweet-Tweet types feed the instantaneous media whatever morsels they can dig out of locker rooms around the country ... major and minor leagues, doesn’t really matter.
And young men like Clay Buchholz will begin to appreciate that some thoughts are best left to themselves. Or at least among friends and teammates. Otherwise, the WEEI-diots are going to spend an hour of their show telling listeners how “frustrated” you are down in Pawtucket.
How a fellow like Glen Ordway can make that kind of mental leap after reading a few quotes is pretty insane, not to mention irresponsible. But this is how the modern-day media has evolved. Talk radio is a monster that has to be fed constantly throughout the day so that listeners keep tuning in and advertisers keep buying time on the shows.
If a player or two gets trashed in the interest of retaining listeners, what’s the big deal? The conversation will just move on to another sport, another subject, and when Clay Buchholz finally does make it to the big leagues, they’ll want to become chums with the guy, just like they did two Septembers ago when he no-hit Baltimore in his second big league start.
It’s a helluva lesson for any young person to learn, either in sports or in real life. You just have to figure out who your friends are, and how to deal with a media that is growing larger and more voracious with each passing day.