Tazawa, Uehara, and Breslow

[BigPapi]

Tazawa and breslow have been awesome this year, while koji has just been out of his mind good with his crazy good splitter as he has the lowest era in the american league among qualified relievers. All of them are in the top 16 among reliever era in the al and are the heart and soul of the sox pen. With matt thornton, andrew bailey, and andrew miller all out with injuries(matt not out for the rest of the season like the other two), who would you like to see develope into another great reliever option for the sox and who would you like them to aquire to help lighten the load for breslow and taz as the season progresses?

[Palodios]

Morales was activated tonight. Thornton will be back in a week. Alex Wilson is on the way

 

Britton and Workman have looked like they have the potential to be very effective. If they need another guy, I bet they will be looking at guys like Beato, Mortensen, RDLR, Wright, Webster and Aceves. Not great options, but better than giving up tons of talent for a fat, over the hill and overpaid reliever.

[Lord Snow]

Tazawa and breslow have been awesome this year, while koji has just been out of his mind good with his crazy good splitter as he has the lowest era in the american league among qualified relievers. All of them are in the top 16 among reliever era in the al and are the heart and soul of the sox pen. With matt thornton, andrew bailey, and andrew miller all out with injuries(matt not out for the rest of the season like the other two), who would you like to see develope into another great reliever option for the sox and who would you like them to aquire to help lighten the load for breslow and taz as the season progresses?

 

They really don't need to pick anyone up. Just pray for no more injuries.

 

Tazawa, Uehara, and Breslow should pitch 7th, 8th, and 9th innings in save situations, exclusively.

[Station 13]

Taz and Uehara are just masterful at efficiency. I wonder what are their pitches per out are. It has to be leading the league.

[BigPapi]

Its just unfortunate with all these injuries cause the sox could have had a koji, miller, tazawa, bailey, breslow, and even hanrahan bull pen ( idk if we would have pursued matt thornton if we didnt have the injuries). That would certainly be a very playoff worthy bull pen.

[sk7326]

Bullpen will always be a rotating audition - which is the way it should be. Breslow obviously is the lowest probability to repeat his performance (this is where the strikeout numbers are useful) - although by definition all relievers are high risk for repeating performance.

 

Uehara is the safest bet, although he has been a bit less homer prone than his career numbers indicate - his location is extraordinary and he gets a lot of swing and miss.

 

Miller will help them when he returns. Bailey (who was inconsistent anyway) and Hanrahan (who looked like he couldn't really be a great reliever anyway) I am less certain about. Britton has the potential for a larger role - as does De La Rosa (if he can't start), Del Torre whomever. Just keep running live arms through and see what clicks.

[Dojji]

Not sure why you think Breslow is a bad bet to repeat his numbers. Look at his career. He's got a 2.90 ERA in 8 seasons of major league relief. The outlier is this year's K rate, not his ERA or ability to perform in high leverage innings. He's usually up in the 8k/9 range. If anything, the fact that he can get outs Mike Timlin* style even when he's not fooling hitters as much as he usually does is outright impressive.

 

*Plenty of evidence all by himself that no, you don't need a high K rate to be an effective late inning guy.

[sk7326]

Not sure why you think Breslow is a bad bet to repeat his numbers. Look at his career. He's got a 2.90 ERA in 8 seasons of major league relief. The outlier is this year's K rate, not his ERA or ability to perform in high leverage innings. He's usually up in the 8k/9 range. If anything, the fact that he can get outs Mike Timlin* style even when he's not fooling hitters as much as he usually does is outright impressive.

 

*Plenty of evidence all by himself that no, you don't need a high K rate to be an effective late inning guy.

 

The point on the K-rate outlier is fair. That said, 33 years old, so there is a level of burden of proof that it's not a dip in stuff. Timlin is an interesting comparison, though Timlin's control was better. Breslow this year has had some extraordinary HR numbers for a guy who is not really an extreme GB pitcher. Certainly the ERA/xFIP gap he has is a dubious indicator. I don't mind bringing him back - but I tend to not want to give more than 1-2 year guarantees to ANY reliever not named Rivera, Kimbrel or Chapman.

[Dojji]

That's a reasonable position to take. Just pointing out that Breslow is by no means a flash in the pan.

 

(Heh. Flash in the pan. Who would have thought a term referring to matchlock muskets would still be so popular 400 years after everyone but a few central Asian tribes stopped bothering with them)

[Behindenemylines]

Tazawa and Uehara will both pass their season high IP. The hope is both will hold up and be as effective. The Sox have more days off then TB and Balt in September and that will allow for more potential rest in the closing month of the season. The older Uehara will need it coming down the home stretch.

[Thunder]

This bullpen has been phenomenal, but there is now an influx of relievers. It will be interesting to see what happens. There are September 1 call ups, then free agency. Sox could also trade one of the young bullpen studs for a team need in the offseason.

[Palodios]

Uehara's option has been vested, so he'll be back in 2014.

 

In other news, NESN posted a crazy stat about Tazawa. In 6 games versus Toronto he has a 9.00 ERA. In 47 games against everyone else, he is closer to 1.68.

[Station 13]

Uehara's option has been vested, so he'll be back in 2014.

 

In other news, NESN posted a crazy stat about Tazawa. In 6 games versus Toronto he has a 9.00 ERA. In 47 games against everyone else, he is closer to 1.68.

 

That's crazy. The Jays are dead red hitting team. Just mix it up next time.

[sk7326]

8 HRs allowed in 55 IP ... has been Tazawa's soft spot all season, and Arrencibia is more than capable of closing his eyes and hitting it far.

[RedSoxNC84]

This bullpen has been phenomenal, but there is now an influx of relievers. It will be interesting to see what happens. There are September 1 call ups, then free agency. Sox could also trade one of the young bullpen studs for a team need in the offseason.

 

Considering the team needs are 1B and SP seemingly, I'm not really sure what kind of pieces they could get for a reliever.

[Behindenemylines]

Uehara's option has been vested, so he'll be back in 2014.

 

In other news, NESN posted a crazy stat about Tazawa. In 6 games versus Toronto he has a 9.00 ERA. In 47 games against everyone else, he is closer to 1.68.

 

Crazy stat! Tazawa still has been good most of the season. Sometimes it happens because these teams face each other so much.

[lospunchados]

I think its great that all three of these guys are signed for next year that Tazawa still has two more arbitration eligible years after that.