Red Sox injury updates

[Palodios]

For all your warning signs, there were good signs too. Manny Delcarmen looked crummy in the preseason, but had incredible results in April/May before getting injured. The 7th spot mess worked out. Ramon Ramirez had a rough April, but the rest of his season has been fine-- especially his time with SF. Papelbon was solid at the beginning of the year. Okajima is the only pitcher who has been a complete black mark.

[a700hitter]

For all your warning signs' date=' there were good signs too. Manny Delcarmen looked crummy in the preseason, but had incredible results in April/May before getting injured. The 7th spot mess worked out. Ramon Ramirez had a rough April, but the rest of his season has been fine-- especially his time with SF. Papelbon was solid at the beginning of the year. Okajima is the only pitcher who has been a complete black mark.[/quote']With only one black mark, I would have thought they'd have been better. How can the complete stench be explained? I guess it's a big mystery. I'm glad that no one is responsible. Yanks and Rays were just lucky I guess.

[a700hitter]

My point is that bullpens need to be evaluated on a year to year basis, and the GM should neither get undue credit when he gets lucky with a great one, nor undue blame when things fall apart far worse than could have been reasonably predicted, which is what happened here.

 

Blame or credit only goes to the GM when a consistent pattern emerges. Years of solid success or consistent failure with the bullpen is to a GM's credit. Theo is neither a great nor a terrible GM as far as the bullpen goes. He's about average, he had a great pen ain 2009 and a terrible one this year and had a lot of people in common between the two. It happens. Of course, the fans tend to overreact when you hit either extreme, lauding the GM when it's great and saying he sucks when things largely beyond his control conspire to knock down his house of cards. I don't think anyone could have predicted that all of MDC, Oki and Paps would have terrible years for them and there's only so much you can do on a year-by-year basis. It's far more important to have a consistent plan and stick with it/

Building a reliable bullpen has always been Theo's weakest point. As you say, he has been average in this aspect throughout his tenure. The Sox had bottom 3 bullpens in 2003 and 2005 also.

[Yaz Sideburn]

Let's compare the ERA of the bullpen arms from last year to this year, and by career numbers

 

R. Ramirez___2.84/4.46/3.31

Okajima_____3.39/4.74/3.09

Papelbon____1.85/4.02/2.23

MDC________4.53/5.19/3.99

 

hell, I'll throw in these guys too.

 

Beckett 3.87/5.77/3.95

Lackey 3.83/4.51/3.90

Wakefield 4.58/5.17/4.37

 

It is not opinion that this team's pitching staff has had a bad year, it is an explicitly clear fact. There is no way the FO could have foreseen this happening considering what these guys did last year. They spent half the season assuming that it was just a bad start and atleast one or two of them would revert to career numbers, but unfortunately it did not happen.

 

I still am under the belief that there is something seriously wrong with the Red Sox training staff/program. I know everyone likes to ignore this as a crackpot theory, but every single pitcher over the age of 26 seriously underperformed this year. Whatever it is, the older guys can't handle it.

 

that's the point i was trying to make as well. sometimes stuff happens that can't be predicted by statistical trends or scouting. baseball's a funny sport and bullpens are the most volatile part of any team

[Palodios]

If you compare this year's bullpen to last year's bullpen, the only difference is they replace Saito with Bard, and Masterson with Atchison. And yet, the bullpen went from being #2 in the AL to #12 out of 14.

[a700hitter]

In 8 years as GM, Theo has had bottom 3 bullpens three times nad top three bullpens twice. His track record is pretty average.

[Palodios]

Its interesting to consider-- this organization's greatest strength lately has been their gift to draft good players and build through the farm system. They've been fairly weak when it comes to free agency. So, relief pitchers-- guys who generally get short term deals and live in free agency-- has been where this organization has had quite a few failures. Although this year has been bad luck, its still intriguing.

[a700hitter]

Its interesting to consider-- this organization's greatest strength lately has been their gift to draft good players and build through the farm system. They've been fairly weak when it comes to free agency. So' date=' relief pitchers-- guys who generally get short term deals and live in free agency-- has been where this organization has had quite a few failures. Although this year has been bad luck, its still intriguing.[/quote']Good point. I didn't think of that aspect.

[hasser45]

“If you disagree with me, you’re probably a racist homophobe.” Greg Gutfeld

 

lol