Boston's Foulke feels strong, ready to reclaim role as closer

[mtbykr]

I still don't know why everyone think Foulke's health is essential to a good season, because it isn't, but I admit it would be nice to have him healthy and get to keep Hansen in AAA for a year. Thats a luxury. I don't see why he can't bounce back. I wouldn't count him out at all, he is at least a gamer, and on guts alone will at least be half of what he was in 04.

 

Well I disagree here. I will break it down as simple as I can:

 

-We had a great Foulke in 04 and we closed out games with wins--and we won the WS

-We didn't have Foulke or a closer in 05 and we lost games at the end and were ousted in the first round of the playoffs.

 

 

 

I know everyone here is going to try and throw all these variables in the mix about how our pen is different than last year, ect..... However a good closer brings so much more to the whole staff when they don't have to worry about the end of the game--and then the manager overextends some people over the season! The end result is losses at the end of the game and a tired team at the end of the season!

 

I believe that a big reason for our struggles last year was the fact that we didn't have a great closer. There were games that we should have won that we didn't and we had to fight to the end. There were also players that said that they felt like they couldn't take a day off (of part of a game off) becuase they were worried about scoring enough runs to last to the end of the game. All of this wore on the whole team both physically and mentally. Not having an effective Foulke was felt throughout the entire team last year.

 

I also realize that Hansen could be our future at closer, but he is an unproven commodity and needs time in AAA. (this kid just got out of college). We can't depend of him for this year, so I believe our best option is to have a healthy and productive Foulke!

[seabeachfred]

K, if Foulke comes back strong our team has a lot better chance of getting to the postseason and beyond. To me that is a no-brainer.

[BoSox21]

consistency at the closer position is essential to our chances this year. whether that's necessarily Keith Foulke or not, doesn't matter. Craig Hansen could get 45 saves this year with a 2.15 ERA and Foulke could have an ERA of 5.00 and it makes no difference to me

[ksushi]

I really don't want to read your entire post, but I just want to throw out there that we also did not have Schilling, or Embree, or Pedro and we didn't have a .300 20 90 Kevin Millar either. Nor did we have anything special at SS. Granted Keith Foulke was a key piece, so were those guys I mentioned. Foulkes health is a luxury, we have bullets in the chamber, saving them for 07 is something we would like to do, but not necessarily something we need to do. Comparing 04 to 05 with the hopes of pin-pointing one reason inparticular for the drop off between the two seasons is like comparing John Goodman to Tyra banks and citing only one reason why one is more attractive than the other.

[MC Hammer]

I really don't want to read your entire post, but I just want to throw out there that we also did not have Schilling, or Embree, or Pedro and we didn't have a .300 20 90 Kevin Millar either. Nor did we have anything special at SS. Granted Keith Foulke was a key piece, so were those guys I mentioned. Foulkes health is a luxury, we have bullets in the chamber, saving them for 07 is something we would like to do, but not necessarily something we need to do. Comparing 04 to 05 with the hopes of pin-pointing one reason inparticular for the drop off between the two seasons is like comparing John Goodman to Tyra banks and citing only one reason why one is more attractive than the other.

We *think* we have bullets in the chamber ... they could be duds.

[mtbykr]

I really don't want to read your entire post, but I just want to throw out there that we also did not have Schilling, or Embree, or Pedro and we didn't have a .300 20 90 Kevin Millar either. Nor did we have anything special at SS. Granted Keith Foulke was a key piece, so were those guys I mentioned. Foulkes health is a luxury, we have bullets in the chamber, saving them for 07 is something we would like to do, but not necessarily something we need to do. Comparing 04 to 05 with the hopes of pin-pointing one reason inparticular for the drop off between the two seasons is like comparing John Goodman to Tyra banks and citing only one reason why one is more attractive than the other.

 

 

Well then, read my post and get back to me. To not read it and then try to debunk it isn't to smart! If you did you would see why Foulke not being there and effective had a negative effect on the whole team. (and the players even said so after the season). And as i said before, yes any great closer will do, however Foulke is who we have (everyone else is unproven) so him returning to form is key!