jung

So I missed what OB and Remy were just saying. Were they saying the Cora is now committed to saves only for Kimbrel and 4 out saves at a max? Is that what I just heard?

I think the Sox are going to have to continue to call on Kimbrel for the 8th in some cases almost regardless of the result. No matter what the stats say, we don't have anything like a settled pen at the moment. I would give the 8th to Kelly in most cases. Probably flip flop barnes and Hembree for the 7th unless Valasquez is ready to go. I have little faith in Smith at this point though he could move into later innings quickly if he succeeds in stints in the 6th and 7th. No clue what to do with Johnson at this point.

IMO the reason Kimbrel needs clean innings is because if he does not immediately get strike calls with that FB or even swing and miss with it to his satisfaction, he is going to keep throwing it regardless of the value of mixing pitches. He is going to keep throwing it until he is satisfied that he has it where he wants it to be. If he has runners on that by itself can be a problem because he might walk somebody or at least the more memorable instances, give up a home run. So he is fine coming into innings with runners on if that FB is terrific right out of the box or I should say to his satisfaction right out of the box. If not, he needs a few pitches and maybe even a batter or two to get in what he considers "his" groove. If he comes in with runners on, that is an issue. IMO, either he cures himself of that or you have to bring him into clean innings and give him room to work it out.

As I see it, the issue with our pen is that as we get closer to Kimbrel time, we are short of options. We seem to have a logjam of guys you would hand the ball in the 5th or 6th inning fairly confident. But 7th and 8th, not so much. I do not blame tonight's Yankee game on Kimbrel. I have never liked bringing him into games with runners on though he did pretty well with it last year. I still think the dif between Kimbrel coming into a clean inning and Kimbrel coming into an inning with runners on would suggest you want to have him close wherever possible. I like Hembree though he has lots of detractors. Seems to me that you just need to be careful how much Hembree is used. Keep him fresh and he is pretty good I think. Smith seems up and down. I like Kelly. He at least seems confident. Don't know how you can pitch in the 8th inning if you are not confident. Barnes to me is a surprise package. Not really sure what you are going to get. Wish we were not having so many issues with starters as Valazquez would be fine. But somebody is always skipping a start and Valasquez gets used there. Johnson has turned into a surprise package as well. Innings are the killer for the contemporary pen. Starters generally leave too many innings out there to cover and the better teams can cover them. This is likely a good enough pen for the regular season in what is a weak league this year. Post season could be another story unless Thornburg definitely comes back and comes back making contributions. I would be looking for an arm if I were Dealin Dave unless I were certain that Thornburg was going to come back and contribute. Maybe somebody who could spot start and work out of the pen....like Valasquez. Can use another Valasquez I think. Johnson could have been that. But I am less confident about Johnson at this point.

The pen was a known issue before the season started and I don't see anything that suggests it is not an issue today. That would have been enough of a pen the way they played baseball about 10 years ago. But it will likely get them through the regular season because the league is terrible this year. Past that, dealin' dave better be lookin'

I think Gardner was very confident he was going to get another FB at that point. He hit that thing really pure. But I am not really disappointed in Kimbrel. He is what he is. He had a good year coming into games earlier than the 9th last year and so far not so much this year. The real problem is that Cora has no real options. Pen arms are not often the most reliable guys on your team. But these guys are setting new marks for Halloween performances, one night OK, the next time out ghoulish! Again the league is so weak that the Sox can likely get away with that during the regular season. But this pen is not going to fly IMO when they have to come up big and I see little shot of actually competing with the MF Yanks for the division like this. Fortunately we don't have to win the division to get to the post season. Dealin' Dave needs to be working on this pen though IMO. Cora has no idea what he has night to night and I really can't put that on him.

I will absolutely agree that with this pen, any guy that is performing at all needs to stay in as they are just too inconsistent night to night. If a guy is going good, try to get what you can out of him because the next guy you bring in is likely to be a train wreck and that includes Kimbrel unless you give him a clean inning.

And on another night Johnson totally implodes and on another night Smith totally implodes. They go from getting it done one night to failing for two. That is not a pen. It just isn't, not in an age where starters go 6 innings and call it a "quality start".

Isn't this two 8th inning fails for Kimbrel so far even in this young season? Anyway Dealin' Dave has got to do something unless maybe Thornberg is right around the corner. Even with that, we have no pen at all. One arm is not going to get it done. This team will win many games though. MLB is a train wreck this year and believe it or not, we are one of the better teams. But this team is not convincing me it will go far after Sept. No pen is no pen.

Thank you Sox. You are right. We keep trying to tell ourselves its not true. But it is true.

I am thinking we are going to have a hard time competing with this MF Yankee team. We have no pen.

We have one guy in our pen...ONE...1.....uno.....How many ways are there to key one?

How bout' that bullpen dealin' dave?

Beni has just got to do more with good pitches to hit. Hitting a mistake pitch hard is getting to be a rare feat from him.

Hanley was bound to catch one of these thank God! Pitchers have made some pretty bad pitches tonight and a few hitters have tagged them.

Hate to say it but right now JBJ is so screwed up that he does not even know where the pitched baseball is. A foul ball is a victory for him right now.

A red sox HR to the Yankee porch. Isn't that just too bad.

I am officially done with this donkey. We just saw Pom offer up what I have to call the most courageous pitching performance of the season so far into Video Game David. Go take a long walk off a short peer David.

When a pitcher can only show his Four seam FB because it has been so degraded, it is magic to get by against this sort of lineup in this sort of baseball park. Just an unbelievable effort on his part. The problem is that his FB is worse now than it was a couple weeks ago, not better. So there is still some issue with him that appears to be going the wrong way at the moment.

I really don't know what the plan is for Pom. He is still clearly not right. He is just gutting it out and I mean really gutting it out. But his FB is actually worse now than it was a couple weeks ago.

You guys are seriously not giving Pom enough credit here. What he did tonight requires a a top hat a wand and a curtain to put over the box. Another words, that was a veritable Houdini act. Nobody but nobody should be able to go out there knowing that his FB is so useless that he can only show it and get away with it for that long against a good lineup. A knuckleball pitcher should be the only guy that can get away with that.

Here it is. We had our passed ball. Had our bloop. Had a hit. Time for a BB and a dinger from JD

Geez beni fouls off too many of those

Well maybe Beni does something. Right now he is not much of a 2 hole hitter. Come on Beni. I got the reverse jinx on

Any pitch that gets deep in the zone is lost to JBJ. He can't even see it at this point.