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Now that I've had time to think about this, I've concluded that I'm madly in love with the idea.  Here is why.

• Everyone from Schilling on down seems to have concluded that he's simply not able to start right away.  Either the long layoff, or the surgery or even the original injury means he is limited in the number of innings he is able to throw; he is, according to recaps I've seen of Tito's EEI statement, unable to replicate his delivery over a longer period.  So the Sox are faced wit a simple question:  should they rehab him until he is ready, or should they find a way for him to contribute to the big club despite that?  The answer is pretty obvious.
• Our closer situation, our bullpen situation, is obviously a mess.  With Foulke first struggling and then sidelined, clearly something major needed to happen.  The question of 'who goes to the pen when Schilling gets back' has been asked all season, and now there's an answer: Schilling.
• He'd make a damned fine closer. When it gets down to it, you want three things from a closer; exquisite control, the ability to strike people out, and the ability to handle pressure.  Schilling is an embodiment of the first two things, and we've all seen he can handle the third quite well.
• He's a better option than everyone else.  Timlin has closing experience, but in every number except his ERA he has been shaky this year.  Furthermore, simply shuffling deck chairs won't cut it; the pen needs new bodies.  Combining those two things, there were three options.  The first, borrowing from the high minors, has a fatal flaw:  there's no one in our system right now that could close, or at least none that jump out as both having the ability and having the development.  The second, a trade, is problematic; the market for bullpen arms s maybe as competitive tis year as it has ever been, and the available bullpen aces are highest on that list.  Guys like Wagner, Guardado, even Jose Mesa and Danys Baez will come with very high price tags that Theo has been balking at.  The third, talked about a great deal recently, has been to move a starter into the pen.  Arroyo's name was tossed around, but Bronson doesn't scream successful closer at me.  Wells volunteered, but he screams it even less.  Plus, both of those two have been reasonably successful starters this year, and it would be silly to move either of them into a lower-impact position.  Schilling, as someone who might not be able to handle starting, a who hasn't contributed this year, is an ideal choice.

So, this has been set up as a short term solution. But here's the thing; I'm not convinced Schilling will ever regain full starting strength.  In fact, I'll go so far as to predict that no more than a week after the AS break, he will be cemented as this team's closer, and he will not leave that position for the rest of the year.  And the more I think about it, the more okay with it I become.

Update: As a side note, Manny Delcarmen was promoted to Pawtucket today, which puts an interesting spin on Gammons recent comments (ESPNews) that the Sox might beconsidering bringing up Papelbon as a setup man if he has a few successful AAA outings.  They may be thinking aong the same lines with Delcarmen.  Again, I can't disagree with any of these ideas.  We finally have the chips to invnt our own bullpen help, and it looks like we might very well be using them.