By Andrew Lipsett
Last night’s epic collapse by Julian Tavarez has simply highlighted a growing concern among most Sox fans regarding the state of the Sox bullpen. Though the pen as a whole actually has reasonably good numbers, much of that can be attributed to the rather extraordinary performance of Jonathan Papelbon and the reliable arm of Mike Timlin; beyond those two, the major contributors to the Sox pen have been, in a word, awful.
Rudy Seanez, Julian Tavarez, Keith Foulke, and David Riske have, to this point, combined to allow 56 earned runs (just 55 more than Papelbon) in a total of 96 2/3 innings (a tidy 5.21 ERA). Now, ERA generally isn’t the best qualifier of performance for a reliever… but then, it usually errs on the side of quality, meaning an ERA for an RP usually reflects a better performance than the one that’s actually been put up. If we look at the peripherals, we see that those 4 pitchers have struck out 78 (7.26 per 9 innings), walked 33 (3.07 per 9, and 2.36 K/BB), and allowed 104 hits, giving them a WHIP of 1.42. Just so we know where we stand with that, here’s a list of Sox starters (min. 5 starts) who have allowed a WHIP higher than 1.42:
Matt Clement (1.71)
Lenny DiNardo (2.05)
Cool.
Somehow, these guys still have some apologists (though it may at this point be limited to just Evan and Terry Francona), despite it being painfully clear that they are not doing what good relievers do: recording outs without allowing too large a number of people on base.
What’s the solution? It’s unclear if there is one, but the time for waiting to see if they’ll get it together is over. We tried that last year with a few guys; anyone remember how it worked out? So here’s my solution:
Swap some roles. Give Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen a chance to set up Papelbon. Let Jermaine Van Buren take over long relief. Release Tavarez, relegate Riske and Seanez to mop-up middle relief. When Foulke comes off the DL, release Seanez. If minor-league relievers like Craig Breslow, Edgar Martinez, or Kyle Jackson continue to dominate in the IL or EL, call them up and release whoever’s left. The bottom line is that whoever we throw out there won’t be worse than these guys; we may as well see if they’re better. Not only that, but they’re the new guard and the future of this pen; this would be a move for now as well as a move for later.
Would we have won that game if Manny Delcarmen had been on the mound? I have no idea. But wouldn’t you like to have found out?
