The Red Sox have lost Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner from the bullpen they took into the American League Division Series and haven't added any name bigger than Boof Bonser, a former starter with a live arm who seemed to wash out with the Minnesota Twins.
Pitching coach John Farrell, though, has one more move in mind.
"One of the biggest acquisitions we could make is getting Manny Delcarmen back to the form he was for the two and a half years prior to the second half of the '09 season," Farrell said on Thursday night before the Boston baseball writers' dinner. "He was one of the top four or five middle relievers in all of baseball. He's a key part of our bullpen, and getting him back to the form he pitched with for that two-and-a-half-year stretch will go a long way toward putting him in that same type of category of performer that he was."
The disastrous way Delcarmen finished last season does obscure the way Delcarmen had pitched for the Red Sox the two years previous. Only six middle relievers had a lower opponents' OPS than Delcarmen in 2007 and 2008 combined:
(min. 80 IP, max. 20 saves)
1. Carlos Marmol, .508 OPS
2. Russ Springer, .550
3. Heath Bell, .567
4. Joba Chamberlain, .585
5. Hideki Okajima, .586
6. Rafael Soriano, .586
7. Manny Delcarmen, .590
Only four relief pitchers -- Marmol, Soriano, Springer and Pat Neshek -- limited opponents to a lower batting average (.197) in that two-year span.
Delcarmen didn't start the 2009 season off too badly, either -- as evidenced by the 0.00 ERA he took into early May. He didn't allow his first earned run of the season until his 12th appearance, and he didn't allow his third earned run of the season until his 20th. His ERA still was 1.07 on June 9 and as low as 1.93 on July 8.
That's when it all started going downhill. Delcarmen allowed two runs and took the loss against Oakland on July 28 and allowed two more runs in the ridiculous 18-10 game at Baltimore four days later. The low point of his season came in September when he allowed four earned runs in two-thirds of an inning -- and that came on the heels of an appearance in which he allowed two earned runs without recording an out.
The Red Sox had virtually no choice but to leave him off the ALDS roster in favor of Paul Byrd.
That doesn't mean, though, they've given up on him.
"A lot of times, the most recent outings are the most fresh in guys' minds and how they draw confidence," Farrell said. "It'll be important for us to get him into a confident state as we get into spring training and continue to build on that."
Delcarmen and his agent disclosed in December that he'd been pitching through fatigue in his shoulder in the second half, something he hadn't told the team during the season. It couldn't have been a stunning disclosure after he'd made 73 appearances the previous season -- but if he'd told the team ahead of time, they might have made the decision to shut him down sooner.
Either way, with a winter's worth of rest behind him, the righty will have a chance to assert himself once again as the team's best weapon against mix-and-match lineups: In his career, righthanded hitters actually have a higher OPS against him (.719) than lefties (.664).
"There was some fatigue that set on him with his shoulder toward the end of the season, and that's what kept him off the postseason roster," Farrell said. "It wasn't to the extent of a major injury, but it was enough to affect the results in certain outings. At that point, it became a little bit of a confidence issue. He didn't have the need for any repair or anything like that.
"He's still Manny Delcarmen, the guy that was very effective for us, and we anticipate and expect him to get back to that level."
Showing posts with label delcarmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delcarmen. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Monday, November 30, 2009
A handful of options for the Red Sox bullpen
As much as we're all focused on who will play left field and shortstop and third base next season, it's important to remember the part of the roster with which Theo Epstein had the most success last season -- and thus the part of the roster he'll undoubtedly try to tweak once again this winter: The bullpen.
Jonathan Papelbon almost certainly will be back. Hideki Okajima has been as consistent as it gets over the last few years. Daniel Bard is an up-and-coming flamethrower -- though no one in this particular neighborhood is completely convinced he's not going to be a starting pitcher at some point. Manny Delcarmen endured his rockiest season. Ramon Ramirez was untouchable in April and May but very touchable in August and September. Takashi Saito has been outrighted off the 40-man roster and likely won't be back. A endless cast of characters rotated through the final spot in the bullpen once Justin Masterson was traded to Cleveland.
(Postscript: And now Billy Wagner is gone, on his way to Atlanta to become the Braves' new closer.)
All of that means Epstein has to be surveying the free-agent market -- between phone calls to Jason Bay's agent, of course -- to see who might be an upgrade on what he has:
Kiko Calero: Even including a miserable season in 2007, the 34-year-old righty has a career 3.24 ERA in 312 appearances out of the bullpen. A year ago, he had a 1.95 ERA and struck out better than a batter an inning and allowed just one home run in 60 innings pitched. His career walk rate is a tick above the major-league average, but so too is his strikeout rate.
Even better: He won't cost a draft pick.
Octavio Dotel: The 36-year-old righty isn't a closer anymore, but he had a 3.55 ERA in 129 1/3 innings spanning two seasons with the White Sox, striking out more than a hitter an inning in both of his years in Chicago. The injury issues that plagued him in Oakland, New York, Kansas City and Atlanta seem to be behind him, and he's evolving as a pitcher: He added a cutter to his repertoire last season.
The downside to Dotel is that he's a Type A free agent who would require the forfeiture of a first-round pick -- though if the Red Sox signed both Dotel and Marco Scutaro, one of the two would mean forfeiting only a second-round pick. Heck, if the Red Sox sign Matt Holliday, they'd only lose a third-round pick for either Dotel or Scutaro.
Mike Gonzalez: Like Wagner, this lefty almost certainly will be looking for job where he can close. (The Pirates, the team with whom he had an All-Star caliber year in 2006, reportedly are interested.) If he doesn't find that, though, he could be a perfect replacement for Wagner in front of Papelbon in the Red Sox bullpen. Gonzalez had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.85 in his last two seasons in Atlanta, and both righties and lefties have OPS'ed less than .650 against him in his career. Like Dotel, he's a Type A free agent.
Kevin Gregg: Another Type A free agent, the former Cubs and Marlins closer endured a rocky season (4.72 ERA) en route to losing his job at the back end of the bullpen. He has, however, allowed just 14 percent of inherited runners to score in the last two seasons -- even if his walk rate has been above the major-league average in each of the last three seasons.
Brandon Lyon: The righty once traded for Curt Schilling had a 2.86 ERA in setup duty with Detroit this season thanks in large part to a ground ball-to-fly ball ratio well above the major-league average. He allowed inherited runners to score at a less-than-impressive 36 percent clip last season, but his strikeout rate has increased in each of the last two seasons.
Justin Miller: The former disappointment with Toronto has a 3.65 ERA and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.15 over his past three seasons in Florida and San Francisco. His 3.18 ERA last season might be something of a mirage, though, given his K/BB ratio of 1.33, his BABIP of .248 and his inherited runners strand rate of 30 percent.
Chan Ho Park: At one time a devastating free-agent signing in Texas -- the Rangers gave him a $65 million contract after the 2001 season -- Park reinvented himself as a relief pitcher with the Dodgers and Phillies. His strikeout rate is right around the major-league average (7.9 per nine innings last season) but his walk rate is impressive (3.6) and has dropped significantly since his lousy years as a starter. One possible snag: Park told The Korea Times earlier this month that he wants to be a starting pitcher again.
B.J. Ryan: The closer cast off by the Blue Jays last season saw his strikeout rate plummet and his walk rate skyrocket during his years in Toronto, a warning sign for any team interested in him. During his heyday, however, he had a strikeout-to-walk rate around 4.0 and had a sub-3.00 ERA as recently as two seasons ago. The Blue Jays still owe him $10 million next season, so he might come cheap as a flier if he's interested in a chance to redeem himself as a setup man.
Rafael Soriano: There are reports that the Red Sox have requested medical records on the Braves' hard-throwing closer, a 30-year-old with a career 2.92 ERA and strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.51. A year ago, he struck out 12.1 batters per nine innings, and he's flirted with 10.0 and 11.0 several other times during his career. He endured a heavy workload (75 2/3 innings in 77 appearances) a year ago and found himself hit hard by lefties (.746 OPS, though a .330 BABIP didn't help). Still, though, there's a chance he could do what the Red Sox have waited three years for Delcarmen to do -- be the team's primary shut-down reliever against righties.
Claudio Vargas: Another former starter who resurrected his career as a reliever, Vargas had a 1.78 ERA in 30 1/3 innings after being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers a year ago. He's not a pitcher who will miss bats much, though, and he's more of a fly-ball pitcher than a ground-ball pitcher. It would be easy to attribute his success, in fact, to a spectacularly low .202 BABIP a year ago -- a mark he's not likely to replicate.
Jonathan Papelbon almost certainly will be back. Hideki Okajima has been as consistent as it gets over the last few years. Daniel Bard is an up-and-coming flamethrower -- though no one in this particular neighborhood is completely convinced he's not going to be a starting pitcher at some point. Manny Delcarmen endured his rockiest season. Ramon Ramirez was untouchable in April and May but very touchable in August and September. Takashi Saito has been outrighted off the 40-man roster and likely won't be back. A endless cast of characters rotated through the final spot in the bullpen once Justin Masterson was traded to Cleveland.
(Postscript: And now Billy Wagner is gone, on his way to Atlanta to become the Braves' new closer.)
All of that means Epstein has to be surveying the free-agent market -- between phone calls to Jason Bay's agent, of course -- to see who might be an upgrade on what he has:
Kiko Calero: Even including a miserable season in 2007, the 34-year-old righty has a career 3.24 ERA in 312 appearances out of the bullpen. A year ago, he had a 1.95 ERA and struck out better than a batter an inning and allowed just one home run in 60 innings pitched. His career walk rate is a tick above the major-league average, but so too is his strikeout rate.
Even better: He won't cost a draft pick.
Octavio Dotel: The 36-year-old righty isn't a closer anymore, but he had a 3.55 ERA in 129 1/3 innings spanning two seasons with the White Sox, striking out more than a hitter an inning in both of his years in Chicago. The injury issues that plagued him in Oakland, New York, Kansas City and Atlanta seem to be behind him, and he's evolving as a pitcher: He added a cutter to his repertoire last season.
The downside to Dotel is that he's a Type A free agent who would require the forfeiture of a first-round pick -- though if the Red Sox signed both Dotel and Marco Scutaro, one of the two would mean forfeiting only a second-round pick. Heck, if the Red Sox sign Matt Holliday, they'd only lose a third-round pick for either Dotel or Scutaro.
Mike Gonzalez: Like Wagner, this lefty almost certainly will be looking for job where he can close. (The Pirates, the team with whom he had an All-Star caliber year in 2006, reportedly are interested.) If he doesn't find that, though, he could be a perfect replacement for Wagner in front of Papelbon in the Red Sox bullpen. Gonzalez had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.85 in his last two seasons in Atlanta, and both righties and lefties have OPS'ed less than .650 against him in his career. Like Dotel, he's a Type A free agent.
Kevin Gregg: Another Type A free agent, the former Cubs and Marlins closer endured a rocky season (4.72 ERA) en route to losing his job at the back end of the bullpen. He has, however, allowed just 14 percent of inherited runners to score in the last two seasons -- even if his walk rate has been above the major-league average in each of the last three seasons.
Brandon Lyon: The righty once traded for Curt Schilling had a 2.86 ERA in setup duty with Detroit this season thanks in large part to a ground ball-to-fly ball ratio well above the major-league average. He allowed inherited runners to score at a less-than-impressive 36 percent clip last season, but his strikeout rate has increased in each of the last two seasons.
Justin Miller: The former disappointment with Toronto has a 3.65 ERA and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.15 over his past three seasons in Florida and San Francisco. His 3.18 ERA last season might be something of a mirage, though, given his K/BB ratio of 1.33, his BABIP of .248 and his inherited runners strand rate of 30 percent.
Chan Ho Park: At one time a devastating free-agent signing in Texas -- the Rangers gave him a $65 million contract after the 2001 season -- Park reinvented himself as a relief pitcher with the Dodgers and Phillies. His strikeout rate is right around the major-league average (7.9 per nine innings last season) but his walk rate is impressive (3.6) and has dropped significantly since his lousy years as a starter. One possible snag: Park told The Korea Times earlier this month that he wants to be a starting pitcher again.
B.J. Ryan: The closer cast off by the Blue Jays last season saw his strikeout rate plummet and his walk rate skyrocket during his years in Toronto, a warning sign for any team interested in him. During his heyday, however, he had a strikeout-to-walk rate around 4.0 and had a sub-3.00 ERA as recently as two seasons ago. The Blue Jays still owe him $10 million next season, so he might come cheap as a flier if he's interested in a chance to redeem himself as a setup man.
Rafael Soriano: There are reports that the Red Sox have requested medical records on the Braves' hard-throwing closer, a 30-year-old with a career 2.92 ERA and strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.51. A year ago, he struck out 12.1 batters per nine innings, and he's flirted with 10.0 and 11.0 several other times during his career. He endured a heavy workload (75 2/3 innings in 77 appearances) a year ago and found himself hit hard by lefties (.746 OPS, though a .330 BABIP didn't help). Still, though, there's a chance he could do what the Red Sox have waited three years for Delcarmen to do -- be the team's primary shut-down reliever against righties.
Claudio Vargas: Another former starter who resurrected his career as a reliever, Vargas had a 1.78 ERA in 30 1/3 innings after being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers a year ago. He's not a pitcher who will miss bats much, though, and he's more of a fly-ball pitcher than a ground-ball pitcher. It would be easy to attribute his success, in fact, to a spectacularly low .202 BABIP a year ago -- a mark he's not likely to replicate.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Projecting the ALDS roster
Theo Epstein and Terry Francona this week both deflected opportunities to make any type of announcement about the 25-man roster the Red Sox will take with them into the postseason. Those decisions, both said, will be made Monday or Tuesday, after the season, at a meeting likely to take place after the Red Sox arrive in Los Angeles in advance of Game 1.
There's no reason, though, why we can't go ahead and speculate.
Here, then, is a preliminary look at how the roster might shape up -- and this is independent of which schedule the Yankees choose to play:
Pitchers (10): Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz and Daisuke Matsuzaka; Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner.
The Red Sox, either way, are going to want four starting pitchers on their postseason roster. If they play the shorter of the two ALDS schedules, they'll need to start Matsuzaka. If they play the longer of the two ALDS schedules, they'll need a starting pitcher in reserve just in case: Imagine the nightmare scenario in which Jon Lester takes another line drive off the knee in Game 1, not only torching the bullpen but sidelining him for Game 4.
(The Red Sox could remove him from the roster and replace him, but he'd then be ineligible for the ALCS. If the injury was severe enough to cost him a start but not enough to cost him three starts, they wouldn't want to do that.)
The question, then, becomes how many relief pitchers the Red Sox will need. A year ago, they chose to go with 10 pitchers, total, with Paul Byrd as the long reliever and emergency starter. (He did not appear in a game.) There's no reason they'd change that number this year.
Both David Aardsma and Mike Timlin were left off the roster for the ALDS a year ago, but Timlin was added for the ALCS. It appears that the roller-coaster ride that is Manny Delcarmen will fill the same role: He'll keep throwing and be ready in case someone blows out an elbow during the ALDS, but he likely won't be on the roster until the ALCS.
Catchers (3): George Kottaras, Victor Martinez, Jason Varitek.
It might be tempting to go with just two catchers thanks to Martinez's flexibility, but it's far too risky: If Martinez were to sprain an ankle, the Red Sox would have just one true catcher on the roster. Kottaras might not play, but he's necessary insurance.
Infielders (6): Alex Gonzalez, Casey Kotchman, Mike Lowell, Jed Lowrie, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis.
Lowrie earns the nod over Nick Green as a backup middle infielder both because he's healthier and because he's the better player. Green deserves all the praise that has come his way this season for helping the Red Sox tread water at shortstop, but if Lowrie is healthy enough, he should be the guy.
(Note: Gonzalez was hit by a pitch on Saturday night and removed from the game. If it's anything serious and Green still can't go, you might see Chris Woodward fill that spot.)
Outfielders (5): Rocco Baldelli, Jason Bay, J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Joey Gathright.
Leaving an extra pitcher off the roster means the Red Sox have the luxury of adding Gathright for late-inning substitutions -- he can fill the Dave Roberts pinch-running role, but he also could replace Bay in the outfield late in a close game.
Designated hitter (1): David Ortiz.
The guy has something of a postseason history, it seems.
There's no reason, though, why we can't go ahead and speculate.
Here, then, is a preliminary look at how the roster might shape up -- and this is independent of which schedule the Yankees choose to play:
Pitchers (10): Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz and Daisuke Matsuzaka; Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner.
The Red Sox, either way, are going to want four starting pitchers on their postseason roster. If they play the shorter of the two ALDS schedules, they'll need to start Matsuzaka. If they play the longer of the two ALDS schedules, they'll need a starting pitcher in reserve just in case: Imagine the nightmare scenario in which Jon Lester takes another line drive off the knee in Game 1, not only torching the bullpen but sidelining him for Game 4.
(The Red Sox could remove him from the roster and replace him, but he'd then be ineligible for the ALCS. If the injury was severe enough to cost him a start but not enough to cost him three starts, they wouldn't want to do that.)
The question, then, becomes how many relief pitchers the Red Sox will need. A year ago, they chose to go with 10 pitchers, total, with Paul Byrd as the long reliever and emergency starter. (He did not appear in a game.) There's no reason they'd change that number this year.
Both David Aardsma and Mike Timlin were left off the roster for the ALDS a year ago, but Timlin was added for the ALCS. It appears that the roller-coaster ride that is Manny Delcarmen will fill the same role: He'll keep throwing and be ready in case someone blows out an elbow during the ALDS, but he likely won't be on the roster until the ALCS.
Catchers (3): George Kottaras, Victor Martinez, Jason Varitek.
It might be tempting to go with just two catchers thanks to Martinez's flexibility, but it's far too risky: If Martinez were to sprain an ankle, the Red Sox would have just one true catcher on the roster. Kottaras might not play, but he's necessary insurance.
Infielders (6): Alex Gonzalez, Casey Kotchman, Mike Lowell, Jed Lowrie, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis.
Lowrie earns the nod over Nick Green as a backup middle infielder both because he's healthier and because he's the better player. Green deserves all the praise that has come his way this season for helping the Red Sox tread water at shortstop, but if Lowrie is healthy enough, he should be the guy.
(Note: Gonzalez was hit by a pitch on Saturday night and removed from the game. If it's anything serious and Green still can't go, you might see Chris Woodward fill that spot.)
Outfielders (5): Rocco Baldelli, Jason Bay, J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Joey Gathright.
Leaving an extra pitcher off the roster means the Red Sox have the luxury of adding Gathright for late-inning substitutions -- he can fill the Dave Roberts pinch-running role, but he also could replace Bay in the outfield late in a close game.
Designated hitter (1): David Ortiz.
The guy has something of a postseason history, it seems.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Delcarmen still stranding runners, at least
Earned run average isn't the only way to judge relief pitchers. Takashi Saito, for example, turned a one-run lead on Sunday into a one-run deficit -- and his ERA for the season actually dropped from 2.36 to 2.35.
With that in mind, here's a look at the month-by month ERA for the Red Sox bullpen so far this season:
April: 2.88
May: 3.04
June: 3.82
July: 2.99
August: 4.69
September: 5.09
But, again, ERA isn't the only way to judge relief pitchers.
Even as the Red Sox bullpen ERA has skyrocketed, its rate of stranding inherited runners actually has plummeted. To wit:
Before Aug. 1: 35 for 115 (30.4 percent)
Since Aug. 1: 16 for 71 (22.5 percent)
One reliever is almost individually responsible for that drop, too -- and it's not who you'd think. Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez actually have seen their inherited-runners-scored numbers increase since Aug 1.
Not so for Manny Delcarmen.
While some relievers tend to thrive most in bases-empty situations, the much-maligned Delcarmen have thrived in the most pressure-filled situations. Check out these splits:
Bases empty: .857 OPS
Runners on base: .703 OPS
Bases loaded: .404 OPS
And even as his ERA in September has climbed all the way to 16.20 entering play Monday, he's stranding inherited runners at an incredible rate. He allowed seven of his first 18 runners to score (38.9 percent), but since Aug. 1, he's allowed just one of 15 inherited runners to score (6.7 percent).
Five times in that span, he's come into a game with either two runners on or the bases loaded -- and he's wiggled out without surrendering a run.
Most Red Sox fans start to pull their hair out when Terry Francona calls upon Delcarmen in high-pressure situations with runners on base. Francona, though, might know just what he's doing.
With that in mind, here's a look at the month-by month ERA for the Red Sox bullpen so far this season:
April: 2.88
May: 3.04
June: 3.82
July: 2.99
August: 4.69
September: 5.09
But, again, ERA isn't the only way to judge relief pitchers.
Even as the Red Sox bullpen ERA has skyrocketed, its rate of stranding inherited runners actually has plummeted. To wit:
Before Aug. 1: 35 for 115 (30.4 percent)
Since Aug. 1: 16 for 71 (22.5 percent)
One reliever is almost individually responsible for that drop, too -- and it's not who you'd think. Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez actually have seen their inherited-runners-scored numbers increase since Aug 1.
Not so for Manny Delcarmen.
While some relievers tend to thrive most in bases-empty situations, the much-maligned Delcarmen have thrived in the most pressure-filled situations. Check out these splits:
Bases empty: .857 OPS
Runners on base: .703 OPS
Bases loaded: .404 OPS
And even as his ERA in September has climbed all the way to 16.20 entering play Monday, he's stranding inherited runners at an incredible rate. He allowed seven of his first 18 runners to score (38.9 percent), but since Aug. 1, he's allowed just one of 15 inherited runners to score (6.7 percent).
Five times in that span, he's come into a game with either two runners on or the bases loaded -- and he's wiggled out without surrendering a run.
Most Red Sox fans start to pull their hair out when Terry Francona calls upon Delcarmen in high-pressure situations with runners on base. Francona, though, might know just what he's doing.
Monday, September 21, 2009
The disintegration of Manny Delcarmen
It was rumored back in May that the Washington Nationals had offered first baseman Nick Johnson to the Red Sox for reliever Manny Delcarmen, a deal the Red Sox declined. Delcarmen was a potential closer for another team, too valuable a chip to waste on an oft-injured first baseman so early in the season.
Teams throughout the winter discussed Delcarmen with the Red Sox, according to reports, but Theo Epstein never bit on any trade. He was simply too valuable of a late-inning reliever for the Red Sox to give away without getting real value back.
All of a sudden, though, he might be on the cusp of being marginalized within his own bullpen. His ERA has climbed to a season-high 4.34 after his second meltdown in three days, this time an outing in which he surrendered three doubles and a walk and couldn't find a way to get the third out of the inning.
Month by month, here's Delcarmen's ERA:
April: 0.00
May: 3.00
June: 4.00
July: 4.66
August: 5.25
September: 21.60
What's wrong with Delcarmen?
Everything.
Let's start with his velocity.
The righty was hitting 94 miles an hour regularly and touching 96 in key spots back in mid-April. He's now hitting 92 miles an hour regularly and touching 96.
(Both of the above examples are games against Baltimore at Fenway Park. In case you think the radar gun was juiced in April and isn't juiced now, well, Ramon Ramirez was recorded as throwing harder 10 days ago then he was back in April.)
Whether it's injury or fatigue -- Delcarmen threw more than 70 innings in back-to-back seasons in 2007 and 2008 when you count his stint in Triple-A -- Delcarmen isn't throwing the same fastball he was throwing earlier in the year.
Something's also wrong with his command. Check out these charts -- the first from that same mid-April outing...
Teams throughout the winter discussed Delcarmen with the Red Sox, according to reports, but Theo Epstein never bit on any trade. He was simply too valuable of a late-inning reliever for the Red Sox to give away without getting real value back.
All of a sudden, though, he might be on the cusp of being marginalized within his own bullpen. His ERA has climbed to a season-high 4.34 after his second meltdown in three days, this time an outing in which he surrendered three doubles and a walk and couldn't find a way to get the third out of the inning.
Month by month, here's Delcarmen's ERA:
April: 0.00
May: 3.00
June: 4.00
July: 4.66
August: 5.25
September: 21.60
What's wrong with Delcarmen?
Everything.
Let's start with his velocity.
The righty was hitting 94 miles an hour regularly and touching 96 in key spots back in mid-April. He's now hitting 92 miles an hour regularly and touching 96.
(Both of the above examples are games against Baltimore at Fenway Park. In case you think the radar gun was juiced in April and isn't juiced now, well, Ramon Ramirez was recorded as throwing harder 10 days ago then he was back in April.)
Whether it's injury or fatigue -- Delcarmen threw more than 70 innings in back-to-back seasons in 2007 and 2008 when you count his stint in Triple-A -- Delcarmen isn't throwing the same fastball he was throwing earlier in the year.
Something's also wrong with his command. Check out these charts -- the first from that same mid-April outing...
... the second from his rocky one-third of an inning against the Orioles almost two weeks ago...
... and the third from Monday night's disaster:
(Note: The "approach plot" normalizes the chart so there's no difference between righties and lefties. Everything on the left half is inside, and everything on the right half is outside. All of the pitching charts come from brooksbaseball.net.)
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's happening there. Everything in April either was down in the zone or up and uncomfortably in. Nothing, with the exception of what seems to be a change-of-pace curveball, was up and over the plate.
Now, though, everything is up in the zone and over the plate.
When hitters are putting the ball in play, it's not on the inside edge or outside edge of the strike zone. It's right over the middle, right where they get get the barrel of the bat on it and hit it hard somewhere.
The command and velocity could be related: If Delcarmen is pitching through fatigue and reaching back to summon every last little bit of velocity, his command naturally is going so suffer -- and he's naturally going to leave the ball up in the strike zone.
Delcarmen isn't just unlucky. Something is wrong. ESPN's Amy Nelson reported on Saturday that the righty has been flying open with his delivery, not getting his hips aligned the right way, a possible indication that he's trying to do too much with a diminished fastball.
If it doesn't get fixed, the Red Sox might have no choice but to leave him off their postseason roster. With the pride of West Roxbury, all of a sudden, no lead is safe.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Bullpen well-rested -- but not too well-rested
Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez, Billy Wagner, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon all haven't pitched since Wednesday. They're all well-rested for the doubleheader today.
But Hideki Okajima hasn't pitched since Monday. Takashi Saito hasn't pitched since last Friday. Both could use the rest, but both still wouldn't mind staying a little bit sharp.
With an off-day, a rainout and a rain-shortened complete game all in a row, the Red Sox bullpen has found itself increasingly underworked in the last few days.
That, though, is not a bad thing.
With Clay Buchholz (3.03 ERA at Fenway Park this season) and Jon Lester (3.44 ERA in any park this season) on the mound, it might have taken some effort to shoehorn his relief pitchers into games.
"We're at the point in the year where we don't need to do that," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "They've got a lot of innings under their belt. We don't need to do that."
Okajima, even with his lengthy layoff, has appeared in more games (62) than anyone on the Red Sox staff. Only 11 pitchers in the American League have appeared in more. Ramirez has appeared in 60 games, tied for 16th in the American League, and closer Jonathan Papelbon has appeared in 59 games.
As a team, the Red Sox have the best bullpen ERA (3.66) in the American League -- and they've actually managed to stay well behind the pack in terms of innings pitched. Here's how it breaks down to this point in the season:
1. Baltimore, 478 2/3 IP
2. Oakland, 475 1/3
3. Cleveland, 478 2/3
4. New York, 451
5. Minnesota, 445 1/3
6. Seattle, 440 1/3
7. Toronto, 428 1/3
8. Los Angeles, 422 2/3
9. Texas, 418 2/3
t-10. Chicago, 416
t-10. Detroit, 416
12. Boston, 410 1/3
13. Kansas City, 408
14. Tampa Bay, 404
Francona has a well-rested bullpen, and he intends to keep it that way. He's not going to force-feed his relief pitchers into the game, and he's not going to pitch any of his relievers twice in the same day if he can help it.
"I wouldn't say that we'd rule it out," he said, "but I don't think that's in anybody's best interest. To sit for three days and then pitch twice in one day -- I know it appears that the guys are rested, but I don't know if pitching them like that makes sense. We try not to do that.
"Saying that, it'll probably happen. But we'll try to stay away from it."
But Hideki Okajima hasn't pitched since Monday. Takashi Saito hasn't pitched since last Friday. Both could use the rest, but both still wouldn't mind staying a little bit sharp.
With an off-day, a rainout and a rain-shortened complete game all in a row, the Red Sox bullpen has found itself increasingly underworked in the last few days.
That, though, is not a bad thing.
With Clay Buchholz (3.03 ERA at Fenway Park this season) and Jon Lester (3.44 ERA in any park this season) on the mound, it might have taken some effort to shoehorn his relief pitchers into games.
"We're at the point in the year where we don't need to do that," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "They've got a lot of innings under their belt. We don't need to do that."
Okajima, even with his lengthy layoff, has appeared in more games (62) than anyone on the Red Sox staff. Only 11 pitchers in the American League have appeared in more. Ramirez has appeared in 60 games, tied for 16th in the American League, and closer Jonathan Papelbon has appeared in 59 games.
As a team, the Red Sox have the best bullpen ERA (3.66) in the American League -- and they've actually managed to stay well behind the pack in terms of innings pitched. Here's how it breaks down to this point in the season:
1. Baltimore, 478 2/3 IP
2. Oakland, 475 1/3
3. Cleveland, 478 2/3
4. New York, 451
5. Minnesota, 445 1/3
6. Seattle, 440 1/3
7. Toronto, 428 1/3
8. Los Angeles, 422 2/3
9. Texas, 418 2/3
t-10. Chicago, 416
t-10. Detroit, 416
12. Boston, 410 1/3
13. Kansas City, 408
14. Tampa Bay, 404
Francona has a well-rested bullpen, and he intends to keep it that way. He's not going to force-feed his relief pitchers into the game, and he's not going to pitch any of his relievers twice in the same day if he can help it.
"I wouldn't say that we'd rule it out," he said, "but I don't think that's in anybody's best interest. To sit for three days and then pitch twice in one day -- I know it appears that the guys are rested, but I don't know if pitching them like that makes sense. We try not to do that.
"Saying that, it'll probably happen. But we'll try to stay away from it."
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Lester's luck turns as Red Sox rally
Jon Lester now has nine no-decisions this season -- including five in his last six starts. He won't remember many of them much more fondly this season than he will the no-decision he recorded in perhaps the most entertaining Red Sox game of the season.
A short summary: Lester lost his win when a nasty curveball took a bad hop in the dirt. Hideki Okajima tried to basket-catch a pop-up and dropped it -- and he then missed a return throw from the catcher to allow the runner to move to second base. Victor Martinez drove in Nick Green in the seventh and eighth innings, a result even more unexpected given that both players spent the first six innings on the bench. Okajima pitched himself into a jam, and Manny Delcarmen pitched himself out of one.
Jason Bay, who had struck out looking twice already on offspeed pitches, hit a home run on an 0-2 offspeed pitch. Jonathan Papelbon met with the media about Billy Wagner in the afternoon and absolutely blew away the White Sox in the evening. Oh, and Jacoby Ellsbury broke the franchise record for stolen bases on the first pitch to Dustin Pedroia in the bottom of the third.
That's the short summary. Here's the long summary.
1. Ellsbury. The 25-year-old speed demon had gone four games without a left before stealing his team-record-tying 54th stolen base of the season on Friday against the Yankees. Tommy Harper was in the house on Sunday, presumably in hopes Ellsbury would break the record that night. It didn't happen.
"Maybe he was hoping I'd break it -- or not break it," Ellsbury said with a smirk. "He was here and he wished me good luck, so I appreciated that."
But Ellsbury didn't steal a record that night -- he went 0-for-5, in fact, and never even got to first base. He then doubled and tripled on Monday but went without a stolen base.
He didn't wait long on Tuesday, though. He jolted a ground-rule double into the Red Sox bullpen and took off on the first pitch Freddy Garcia threw to second baseman Dustin Pedroia. But it didn't stop there. When Pedroia went out to get a slider away and rolled it to first base, Ellsbury cruised home with the game's first run.
"When I go, there's usually a purpose behind it," he said. "I'm not just out there to steal bases. If I was out therej ust to steal bases, I know I could steal quite a few more. But I want to steal at a high success rate to help the team win. That's the most important thing."
2. Lester. The snakebit lefty now has a 2.97 ERA in his last six starts -- and one measly decision to show for it. He fought through fluky adversity in April but has seen his bad luck return in August -- twice has he struck out double-digit batters in six innings, allowing three or fewer runs in the process, and still not earn himself a win.
"It's kind of getting old sometimes," he said. "But you've got to keep plugging away and keep working. The main thing is that we won the ballgame. That's why I'll go home and sleep good tonight."
He didn't look like he was going to sleep good when he left the field in the seventh inning.
He'd gone the whole game without his best stuff, fighting at times to find pitches that would work for him. He'd hit 96 miles an hour in the eighth inning in Toronto last week but saw his velocity track downward as his pitch count climbed from 50 to 75 to 100.
"There are innings when you go out there and you feel really good," he said, "and other innings where you're just battling to find a rhythm. That's what's tough about starting pitching. Sometimes, form inning to inning, you don't know what you have, and sometimes, from game to game, you don't know what you have. You just have to make adjustments from pitch to pitch. At times I did that, and at times I didn't. ... The nice thing is that the times I didn't feel too good about my mechanics or location or what we were trying to do, I was able to minimize the damage and keep the team in the ballgame."
He got himself into a little bit of a jam in the seventh when he allowed a first-pitch single to Paul Konerko and folloewd with a four-pitch walk to Jermaine Dye. A.J. Pierzynski then bunted the runners to second and third. When Alex Rios hit a line drive to J.D. Drew in right field that failed to score Konerko, it looked as though he was about to escape unscathed -- and with the lead.
He threw three straight curveballs to Alexei Ramirez: A called strike at the knees, a nasty swinging strike at the knees and a nastier swinging strike in the dirt. But the third pitch somehow ricocheted off the left edge of the plate and over the right shoulder of catcher Jason Varitek and rolled all the way to the backstop, allowing Ramirez to reach first and Konerko to score from third.
"It hit the right part of the plate with the wrong spin and got over his head," Lester said. "Nine times out of 10, that ball stays in front of the plate and we get out of the inning."
He then caught a little too much of the plate with a sharp cut fastball -- but appeared to catch a break when Nix hit the ball straight at Mike Lowell at third base. The ball hit Lowell square in the glove -- and it bounced away for a run-scoring infield single.
"You couldn't hit 100 fungoes to Mike Lowell and have that exact same result where you hit a ball out of his gloves," Bay said.
An inning-ending strikeout had given way to a two-run rally and a 3-2 White Sox lead and had knocked Lester from the game. The lefty stalked into the dugout and down the stairs and into the clubhouse, a pat on the back from John Farrell his only solace as he stormed away from what looked to be another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
3. Okajima. On a day the Red Sox acquired a flame-throwing lefty in Billy Wagner, the incumbent finesse lefty demonstrated once again why he's been one of the best middle relievers in baseball over the last three seasons. He inherited Lester's jam and promptly saw the White Sox load the bases when Scott Podsednik rolled a ground ball into no-man's land between first base and the pitcher's mound.
But the 33-year-old from Japan came back with his best Wagner impression, throwing three splitfingered fastballs to Gordon Beckham before blowing an 88-mile-an-hour fastball at the eyes -- OK, easing an 88-mile-an-hour fastball at the eyes -- past him to end the inning.
4. Martinez. You'd have to guess that Terry Francona doesn't often exchange late-night text messages with his catcher. Last night, though, Francona got a message from Martinez around 1:15 a.m. that said, "Let me play."
"I finally wrote back," Francona said after the game, "and I said, 'Leave me alone. You'll come in and pinch-hit and get the game-winning hit.' He said, 'OK. Good night.'"
It didn't quite go that way. But it still was a big spot when Francona pinch-hit Martinez for Alex Gonzalez with one out in the seventh inning and the Red Sox still trailing by a 3-2 score. He sent shortstop Nick Green to run for Jason Varitek at the same time, effectively a double-switch with his shortstop and his catcher.
Martinez didn't wait long, jumping on a Matt Thornton fastball in the middle of the plate and ripping it into left field to score Green from second with the tying run. Martinez knew what to expect from Thornton, having faced him 19 times in his days with the Cleveland Indians, and he didn't expect the 6-foot-6 lefty to mess around at all.
"I just went up there and looked for his strength," Martinez said. "It's no secret. Everybody knows he's got a great fastball. I went up there to go get one and put a good swing on the ball."
Tie game.
5. Delcarmen. Carlos Quentin popped the second pitch he saw in the eighth inning over the pitcher's mound, a pop-up just high enough to make Okajima hesitate rather than calling for it himself. The result was a botched basket catch on the back of the mound to allow the runner to reach. (The play first was ruled an error but later changed to a hit.)
"It's got to be Oki's ball because of the height," Francona said. "It was like somebody punched me in the stomach -- and before I could look even look up, I felt like I got hit with the other hand."
The other hand? That came when a return throw from Martinez to Okajima missed the pitcher's outstretched glove and rolled all the way into center field, allowing Quentin to scramble to second base and threatening to turn a tie game back into a White Sox win.
Francona stuck with Okajima long enough to let him induce a pop fly to Dye and strike out Pierzynski, the last lefty in the White Sox lineup for a little while. But he then went to Delcarmen with two outs and runners on first and third and Rios striding to the plate.
Delcarmen found himself on the periphery of controversy this week after the report that both he and Jonathan Papelbon weren't overly enthusiastic about the then-rumored move for Wagner. He also hasn't exactly been the most lights-out pitcher in the Red Sox bullpen and has seen himself passed by both Daniel Bard and Ramon Ramirez in terms of the faith Francona has in him in big spots. Part of the reason is the fact that he's averaging almost a walk every other inning he pitches. When he comes into a game with runners on base, he often puts more runners on base.
True to form, he missed with back-to-back fastballs to Rios.
(Ozzie Guillen made an interesting call, by the way, in not pinch-hitting Jim Thome for Rios. Rios has hit lefties and righties equally in his career, but Thome has crushed righties to the tune of a 1.045 OPS in his career. It seemed logical that once Francona called for Delcarmen, Guillen would send up Thome. But Delcarmen has a goofy reverse split: He's a righthanded pitcher, but righties have hit .260 off him in his career while lefties have hit just .216.)
The third pitch Delcarmen threw was a 92-mile-an-hour fastball at the letters, and Rios popped it into shallow center field. Pedroia caught it for the third out.
6. Bay. Not much has been consistent about Bay's season. He began the season on a tear that turned "Sign Bay!" into a "Don't Treat On Me"-esque New England anthem, but his OPS numbers dwindled from there -- from 1.123 in April to .978 to .701 to .689 in a miserable July in which he hit just one home run.
But things have taken a turn for the better in August. He went into Tuesday's game with seven home runs for the month, and that meant he was feeling a little better in the eighth inning even though he'd already taken two called third strikes against Garcia in the early going.
"It was a constant battle," he said. "You go up there looking for a pitch you can drive, and I had some early on that I didn't swing at. It's kind of nice to do it when it matters."
It mattered in the bottom of the eighth with the game still tied at 3. David Ortiz had turned on a Thornton curveball and put a nice stroke on the ball and hit a line drive almost to the warning track in right field before Dye hauled it in. Bay then came up and took a called strike on a curveball and fouled off a slider to put himself right into the hole he didn't want to be in.
"The problem is, when I look breaking ball, half the time, that's when I swing at it when it bounces because you're looking for it and you get it," he said. "At that point, he had thrown me two (breaking balls), but it's still in the back of your mind that he throws 96 miles an hour. You're just basically looking for a strike."
Thornton hung a splitter, a terrible two-strike pitch right of the middle of the plate, and Bay crushed it into the Green Monster seats.
"It's easier said than done, just to react, but that's basically what it was," he said.
Green, Martinez and Ellsbury followed with hits to score two more runs and push the score to 6-3, a more than manageable margin for a dominant-looking Papelbon in the ninth.
Postscript: Bay's night ended with, of all things, a drug test. He took longer than usual to emerge into the locker room because, he said, "I couldn't go." Two Red Sox players were tested -- Bay and, of course, Ellsbury.
Did they find anything on the record-breaking base-stealer?
"I'll let you know," he said with a grin.
A short summary: Lester lost his win when a nasty curveball took a bad hop in the dirt. Hideki Okajima tried to basket-catch a pop-up and dropped it -- and he then missed a return throw from the catcher to allow the runner to move to second base. Victor Martinez drove in Nick Green in the seventh and eighth innings, a result even more unexpected given that both players spent the first six innings on the bench. Okajima pitched himself into a jam, and Manny Delcarmen pitched himself out of one.
Jason Bay, who had struck out looking twice already on offspeed pitches, hit a home run on an 0-2 offspeed pitch. Jonathan Papelbon met with the media about Billy Wagner in the afternoon and absolutely blew away the White Sox in the evening. Oh, and Jacoby Ellsbury broke the franchise record for stolen bases on the first pitch to Dustin Pedroia in the bottom of the third.
That's the short summary. Here's the long summary.
1. Ellsbury. The 25-year-old speed demon had gone four games without a left before stealing his team-record-tying 54th stolen base of the season on Friday against the Yankees. Tommy Harper was in the house on Sunday, presumably in hopes Ellsbury would break the record that night. It didn't happen.
"Maybe he was hoping I'd break it -- or not break it," Ellsbury said with a smirk. "He was here and he wished me good luck, so I appreciated that."
But Ellsbury didn't steal a record that night -- he went 0-for-5, in fact, and never even got to first base. He then doubled and tripled on Monday but went without a stolen base.
He didn't wait long on Tuesday, though. He jolted a ground-rule double into the Red Sox bullpen and took off on the first pitch Freddy Garcia threw to second baseman Dustin Pedroia. But it didn't stop there. When Pedroia went out to get a slider away and rolled it to first base, Ellsbury cruised home with the game's first run.
"When I go, there's usually a purpose behind it," he said. "I'm not just out there to steal bases. If I was out therej ust to steal bases, I know I could steal quite a few more. But I want to steal at a high success rate to help the team win. That's the most important thing."
2. Lester. The snakebit lefty now has a 2.97 ERA in his last six starts -- and one measly decision to show for it. He fought through fluky adversity in April but has seen his bad luck return in August -- twice has he struck out double-digit batters in six innings, allowing three or fewer runs in the process, and still not earn himself a win.
"It's kind of getting old sometimes," he said. "But you've got to keep plugging away and keep working. The main thing is that we won the ballgame. That's why I'll go home and sleep good tonight."
He didn't look like he was going to sleep good when he left the field in the seventh inning.
He'd gone the whole game without his best stuff, fighting at times to find pitches that would work for him. He'd hit 96 miles an hour in the eighth inning in Toronto last week but saw his velocity track downward as his pitch count climbed from 50 to 75 to 100.
"There are innings when you go out there and you feel really good," he said, "and other innings where you're just battling to find a rhythm. That's what's tough about starting pitching. Sometimes, form inning to inning, you don't know what you have, and sometimes, from game to game, you don't know what you have. You just have to make adjustments from pitch to pitch. At times I did that, and at times I didn't. ... The nice thing is that the times I didn't feel too good about my mechanics or location or what we were trying to do, I was able to minimize the damage and keep the team in the ballgame."
He got himself into a little bit of a jam in the seventh when he allowed a first-pitch single to Paul Konerko and folloewd with a four-pitch walk to Jermaine Dye. A.J. Pierzynski then bunted the runners to second and third. When Alex Rios hit a line drive to J.D. Drew in right field that failed to score Konerko, it looked as though he was about to escape unscathed -- and with the lead.
He threw three straight curveballs to Alexei Ramirez: A called strike at the knees, a nasty swinging strike at the knees and a nastier swinging strike in the dirt. But the third pitch somehow ricocheted off the left edge of the plate and over the right shoulder of catcher Jason Varitek and rolled all the way to the backstop, allowing Ramirez to reach first and Konerko to score from third.
"It hit the right part of the plate with the wrong spin and got over his head," Lester said. "Nine times out of 10, that ball stays in front of the plate and we get out of the inning."
He then caught a little too much of the plate with a sharp cut fastball -- but appeared to catch a break when Nix hit the ball straight at Mike Lowell at third base. The ball hit Lowell square in the glove -- and it bounced away for a run-scoring infield single.
"You couldn't hit 100 fungoes to Mike Lowell and have that exact same result where you hit a ball out of his gloves," Bay said.
An inning-ending strikeout had given way to a two-run rally and a 3-2 White Sox lead and had knocked Lester from the game. The lefty stalked into the dugout and down the stairs and into the clubhouse, a pat on the back from John Farrell his only solace as he stormed away from what looked to be another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
3. Okajima. On a day the Red Sox acquired a flame-throwing lefty in Billy Wagner, the incumbent finesse lefty demonstrated once again why he's been one of the best middle relievers in baseball over the last three seasons. He inherited Lester's jam and promptly saw the White Sox load the bases when Scott Podsednik rolled a ground ball into no-man's land between first base and the pitcher's mound.
But the 33-year-old from Japan came back with his best Wagner impression, throwing three splitfingered fastballs to Gordon Beckham before blowing an 88-mile-an-hour fastball at the eyes -- OK, easing an 88-mile-an-hour fastball at the eyes -- past him to end the inning.
4. Martinez. You'd have to guess that Terry Francona doesn't often exchange late-night text messages with his catcher. Last night, though, Francona got a message from Martinez around 1:15 a.m. that said, "Let me play."
"I finally wrote back," Francona said after the game, "and I said, 'Leave me alone. You'll come in and pinch-hit and get the game-winning hit.' He said, 'OK. Good night.'"
It didn't quite go that way. But it still was a big spot when Francona pinch-hit Martinez for Alex Gonzalez with one out in the seventh inning and the Red Sox still trailing by a 3-2 score. He sent shortstop Nick Green to run for Jason Varitek at the same time, effectively a double-switch with his shortstop and his catcher.
Martinez didn't wait long, jumping on a Matt Thornton fastball in the middle of the plate and ripping it into left field to score Green from second with the tying run. Martinez knew what to expect from Thornton, having faced him 19 times in his days with the Cleveland Indians, and he didn't expect the 6-foot-6 lefty to mess around at all.
"I just went up there and looked for his strength," Martinez said. "It's no secret. Everybody knows he's got a great fastball. I went up there to go get one and put a good swing on the ball."
Tie game.
5. Delcarmen. Carlos Quentin popped the second pitch he saw in the eighth inning over the pitcher's mound, a pop-up just high enough to make Okajima hesitate rather than calling for it himself. The result was a botched basket catch on the back of the mound to allow the runner to reach. (The play first was ruled an error but later changed to a hit.)
"It's got to be Oki's ball because of the height," Francona said. "It was like somebody punched me in the stomach -- and before I could look even look up, I felt like I got hit with the other hand."
The other hand? That came when a return throw from Martinez to Okajima missed the pitcher's outstretched glove and rolled all the way into center field, allowing Quentin to scramble to second base and threatening to turn a tie game back into a White Sox win.
Francona stuck with Okajima long enough to let him induce a pop fly to Dye and strike out Pierzynski, the last lefty in the White Sox lineup for a little while. But he then went to Delcarmen with two outs and runners on first and third and Rios striding to the plate.
Delcarmen found himself on the periphery of controversy this week after the report that both he and Jonathan Papelbon weren't overly enthusiastic about the then-rumored move for Wagner. He also hasn't exactly been the most lights-out pitcher in the Red Sox bullpen and has seen himself passed by both Daniel Bard and Ramon Ramirez in terms of the faith Francona has in him in big spots. Part of the reason is the fact that he's averaging almost a walk every other inning he pitches. When he comes into a game with runners on base, he often puts more runners on base.
True to form, he missed with back-to-back fastballs to Rios.
(Ozzie Guillen made an interesting call, by the way, in not pinch-hitting Jim Thome for Rios. Rios has hit lefties and righties equally in his career, but Thome has crushed righties to the tune of a 1.045 OPS in his career. It seemed logical that once Francona called for Delcarmen, Guillen would send up Thome. But Delcarmen has a goofy reverse split: He's a righthanded pitcher, but righties have hit .260 off him in his career while lefties have hit just .216.)
The third pitch Delcarmen threw was a 92-mile-an-hour fastball at the letters, and Rios popped it into shallow center field. Pedroia caught it for the third out.
6. Bay. Not much has been consistent about Bay's season. He began the season on a tear that turned "Sign Bay!" into a "Don't Treat On Me"-esque New England anthem, but his OPS numbers dwindled from there -- from 1.123 in April to .978 to .701 to .689 in a miserable July in which he hit just one home run.
But things have taken a turn for the better in August. He went into Tuesday's game with seven home runs for the month, and that meant he was feeling a little better in the eighth inning even though he'd already taken two called third strikes against Garcia in the early going.
"It was a constant battle," he said. "You go up there looking for a pitch you can drive, and I had some early on that I didn't swing at. It's kind of nice to do it when it matters."
It mattered in the bottom of the eighth with the game still tied at 3. David Ortiz had turned on a Thornton curveball and put a nice stroke on the ball and hit a line drive almost to the warning track in right field before Dye hauled it in. Bay then came up and took a called strike on a curveball and fouled off a slider to put himself right into the hole he didn't want to be in.
"The problem is, when I look breaking ball, half the time, that's when I swing at it when it bounces because you're looking for it and you get it," he said. "At that point, he had thrown me two (breaking balls), but it's still in the back of your mind that he throws 96 miles an hour. You're just basically looking for a strike."
Thornton hung a splitter, a terrible two-strike pitch right of the middle of the plate, and Bay crushed it into the Green Monster seats.
"It's easier said than done, just to react, but that's basically what it was," he said.
Green, Martinez and Ellsbury followed with hits to score two more runs and push the score to 6-3, a more than manageable margin for a dominant-looking Papelbon in the ninth.
Postscript: Bay's night ended with, of all things, a drug test. He took longer than usual to emerge into the locker room because, he said, "I couldn't go." Two Red Sox players were tested -- Bay and, of course, Ellsbury.
Did they find anything on the record-breaking base-stealer?
"I'll let you know," he said with a grin.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Red Sox relievers and Yankee switch-hitters
When the Red Sox and the Yankees met the first time, we broke down in this space how Terry Francona might deploy his bullpen against the numerous switch-hitters in the lineup. Two months later, some things have changed -- and some things have stayed exactly the same.
Righty Manny Delcarmen, lefty Hideki Okajima and righty Ramon Ramirez remain Francona’s top setup options. Even better, all three have proven they can pitch against lefties and righties with impressive effectiveness. To wit:
Against lefties
Okajima (45 PA): .119/.178/.262
Ramirez (50 PA): .119/.245/.214
Delcarmen (59 PA): .200/.293/.260
Against righties
Ramirez (53 PA): .180/.226/.220
Okajima (55 PA): .239/.333/.391
Delcarmen (44 PA): .256/.341/.333
That effectiveness means that Francona doesn’t have to worry so much about traditional head-to-head matchups. Just look at the numbers: Okajima has pitched more against righties than against lefties, and Delcarmen has pitched more against lefties than against righties.
"We want to be consistent in what we do -- and maybe it doesn't look like it, but I don't think our pitchers think there's some craziness or it's chaotic," Francona said. "They've got a pretty good idea of who they're going to face, and they understand that in certain situations of the game, if the game is in the balance, we want to go to them. ...
"I know Oki gets lefties out than he gets righties, but he gets them both out. Manny Delcarmen has gotten lefthanders out. ... (Justin Masterson) is certainly a matchup guy, but other than that, we just try to get them to face the guys we think (they should face), when the timing is right, and then go to the next guy."
Here's how this all pertains to the Yankees: The ability of Okajima to pitch to righties and Ramirez to pitch to lefties means switch-hitters aren’t at as much of an advantage as they’d normally be. In fact, they might even be at a disadvantage.
"Inveterate Yankee fan" Bruce wrote to ask how Francona had gone about matching up his relievers with the switch-hitters in Joe Girardi’s lineup in the first five games between the two teams. Here’s how it broke down:
Melky Cabrera
* Ramirez: 0-for-2
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1
* Okajima: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Jonathan Papelbon: 1-for-1
* Takashi Saito: 1-for-1
Jorge Posada
* Ramirez: 0-for-0 with two walks
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Okajima: 1-for-1 with a single
* Saito: 0-for-1
Nick Swisher
* Delcarmen: 1-for-2 with a double
* Okajima: 0-for-2 with a strikeout
* Papelbon: 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout
* Ramirez: 0-for-1
Mark Teixeira
* Okajima: 1-for-2 with a walk
* Papelbon: 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Ramirez: 1-for-1 with a solo home run
As a group, the Yankees' switch-hitters are hitting .286 with five walks and seven strikeouts in 26 plate appearances against the Red Sox bullpen so far this season. Against Delcarmen, Okajima and Ramirez, they're hitting .266 with three walks and five strikeouts in 18 plate appearances.
What does that tell you?
Very little -- except this: There's no formula to predict how Francona will deploy his weapons. The Red Sox manager is so confident in his middle relievers right now that he'll call on any of them in pretty much any situation and against pretty much any hitter.
Righty Manny Delcarmen, lefty Hideki Okajima and righty Ramon Ramirez remain Francona’s top setup options. Even better, all three have proven they can pitch against lefties and righties with impressive effectiveness. To wit:
Against lefties
Okajima (45 PA): .119/.178/.262
Ramirez (50 PA): .119/.245/.214
Delcarmen (59 PA): .200/.293/.260
Against righties
Ramirez (53 PA): .180/.226/.220
Okajima (55 PA): .239/.333/.391
Delcarmen (44 PA): .256/.341/.333
That effectiveness means that Francona doesn’t have to worry so much about traditional head-to-head matchups. Just look at the numbers: Okajima has pitched more against righties than against lefties, and Delcarmen has pitched more against lefties than against righties.
"We want to be consistent in what we do -- and maybe it doesn't look like it, but I don't think our pitchers think there's some craziness or it's chaotic," Francona said. "They've got a pretty good idea of who they're going to face, and they understand that in certain situations of the game, if the game is in the balance, we want to go to them. ...
"I know Oki gets lefties out than he gets righties, but he gets them both out. Manny Delcarmen has gotten lefthanders out. ... (Justin Masterson) is certainly a matchup guy, but other than that, we just try to get them to face the guys we think (they should face), when the timing is right, and then go to the next guy."
Here's how this all pertains to the Yankees: The ability of Okajima to pitch to righties and Ramirez to pitch to lefties means switch-hitters aren’t at as much of an advantage as they’d normally be. In fact, they might even be at a disadvantage.
"Inveterate Yankee fan" Bruce wrote to ask how Francona had gone about matching up his relievers with the switch-hitters in Joe Girardi’s lineup in the first five games between the two teams. Here’s how it broke down:
Melky Cabrera
* Ramirez: 0-for-2
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1
* Okajima: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Jonathan Papelbon: 1-for-1
* Takashi Saito: 1-for-1
Jorge Posada
* Ramirez: 0-for-0 with two walks
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Okajima: 1-for-1 with a single
* Saito: 0-for-1
Nick Swisher
* Delcarmen: 1-for-2 with a double
* Okajima: 0-for-2 with a strikeout
* Papelbon: 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout
* Ramirez: 0-for-1
Mark Teixeira
* Okajima: 1-for-2 with a walk
* Papelbon: 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts
* Delcarmen: 0-for-1 with a strikeout
* Ramirez: 1-for-1 with a solo home run
As a group, the Yankees' switch-hitters are hitting .286 with five walks and seven strikeouts in 26 plate appearances against the Red Sox bullpen so far this season. Against Delcarmen, Okajima and Ramirez, they're hitting .266 with three walks and five strikeouts in 18 plate appearances.
What does that tell you?
Very little -- except this: There's no formula to predict how Francona will deploy his weapons. The Red Sox manager is so confident in his middle relievers right now that he'll call on any of them in pretty much any situation and against pretty much any hitter.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Delcarmen, relievers the heroes
Manny Delcarmen was icing his arm in the training room when Jason Bay hit his two-out, two-run home run off Mariano Rivera to tie Friday's Red Sox-Yankees game at 4.
"We were talking about Mariano and what he's done -- and then Jason Bay comes up and hits a home run," he said.
He wasn't about to miss any more theatrics, though, so he made sure he was in the dugout for the extra innings -- a choice that paid off when Kevin Youkilis hit a Damaso Marte fastball somewhere in the direction of the Charles River.
"I was right there at home plate, so that was pretty cool," he said.
Hideki Okajima -- the reliever who Terry Francona said was going to be "an important pitcher in this series" -- allowed a double and three singles, handing the ball over to Delcarmen with the bases loaded and nobody out.
Delcarmen got Nick Swisher to hit a fly ball to shallow left field on the second pitch he threw. Robinson Cano then turned inside-out on a fastball to hit a sinking line drive to left -- and Jason Bay made a diving catch. (Johnny Damon scored from third after the catch, but no one in a red uniform was complaining.) Delcarmen then got Melky Cabrera to bounce to second to end the inning.
Not bad for coming in with the bases loaded and no one out.
"I got a pop-up, and Jason Bay picked me up on a little flare to left," Delcarmen said. "Just giving up one run with the bases loaded and no outs, that's always great. It kept the game intact, and we came back. ...
"It's a tough situation, but it's one of those times for us to come in and show we can handle it. I've done it a couple of times in these couple of years, and I'm just glad Tito gives me the ball in those situations and it turned out for the best."
Delcarmen, though, wasn't the only reliever to wiggle out of trouble.
Javy Lopez had to get out of a jam of his own creation; he hit Mark Teixeira in the ankle and walked Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher to load the bases with -- you guessed it -- no one out.
But the fastball he threw to Robinson Cano was one of the biggest pitches of the game. Cano hit a ground ball right at Dustin Pedroia, playing in on the grass, and Pedroia started a 4-2-3 double play. Lopez then threw back-to-back changeups to Melky Cabrera and got a popup to end the inning.
"It just shows we can handle the pressure of coming into those situations, especially in a tie ballgame or up by one or down by one," he said. "With this bullpen, we have so much depth that we've got to pick each other up to have success. We've been doing that all year."
And no one's even mentioned Takashi Saito, Jonathan Papelbon and Ramon Ramirez; all three pitched scoreless innings in the 11-inning victory.
"It's something our team has expected them to do," starting pitcher Jon Lester said. "We've got a great bullpen, and as long as we keep them fresh as best we can as starters, it's going to pay off throughout the year to have them behind us."
Lester, for his part, was back in the clubhouse for all of it, but that doesn't mean he missed out on the celebration.
"We ran down the stairs like little kids and stood at the door and slapped hands with everybody that came in," he said.
"We were talking about Mariano and what he's done -- and then Jason Bay comes up and hits a home run," he said.
He wasn't about to miss any more theatrics, though, so he made sure he was in the dugout for the extra innings -- a choice that paid off when Kevin Youkilis hit a Damaso Marte fastball somewhere in the direction of the Charles River.
"I was right there at home plate, so that was pretty cool," he said.
Hideki Okajima -- the reliever who Terry Francona said was going to be "an important pitcher in this series" -- allowed a double and three singles, handing the ball over to Delcarmen with the bases loaded and nobody out.
Delcarmen got Nick Swisher to hit a fly ball to shallow left field on the second pitch he threw. Robinson Cano then turned inside-out on a fastball to hit a sinking line drive to left -- and Jason Bay made a diving catch. (Johnny Damon scored from third after the catch, but no one in a red uniform was complaining.) Delcarmen then got Melky Cabrera to bounce to second to end the inning.
Not bad for coming in with the bases loaded and no one out.
"I got a pop-up, and Jason Bay picked me up on a little flare to left," Delcarmen said. "Just giving up one run with the bases loaded and no outs, that's always great. It kept the game intact, and we came back. ...
"It's a tough situation, but it's one of those times for us to come in and show we can handle it. I've done it a couple of times in these couple of years, and I'm just glad Tito gives me the ball in those situations and it turned out for the best."
Delcarmen, though, wasn't the only reliever to wiggle out of trouble.
Javy Lopez had to get out of a jam of his own creation; he hit Mark Teixeira in the ankle and walked Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher to load the bases with -- you guessed it -- no one out.
But the fastball he threw to Robinson Cano was one of the biggest pitches of the game. Cano hit a ground ball right at Dustin Pedroia, playing in on the grass, and Pedroia started a 4-2-3 double play. Lopez then threw back-to-back changeups to Melky Cabrera and got a popup to end the inning.
"It just shows we can handle the pressure of coming into those situations, especially in a tie ballgame or up by one or down by one," he said. "With this bullpen, we have so much depth that we've got to pick each other up to have success. We've been doing that all year."
And no one's even mentioned Takashi Saito, Jonathan Papelbon and Ramon Ramirez; all three pitched scoreless innings in the 11-inning victory.
"It's something our team has expected them to do," starting pitcher Jon Lester said. "We've got a great bullpen, and as long as we keep them fresh as best we can as starters, it's going to pay off throughout the year to have them behind us."
Lester, for his part, was back in the clubhouse for all of it, but that doesn't mean he missed out on the celebration.
"We ran down the stairs like little kids and stood at the door and slapped hands with everybody that came in," he said.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Countdown to spring training: Relief pitching
Next on the agenda: The bullpen.
Nowhere was the bullpen more of a weapon last season than the American League East, where four teams ranked among the top 11 in the major leagues in earned-run average by its relief pitchers: Toronto (first, 2.94), Tampa Bay (fifth, 3.55), New York (3.79) and Boston (4.00).
Neither the Rays nor the Yankees have done much overhauling. The Yankees could add top prospect Andrew Brackman to the mix this season, and the Rays brought lefty specialist Brian Shouse on board, but neither will open the season with a bullpen looking much different than it did at the end of last season. The Blue Jays have taken some severe hits to their starting rotation but return B.J. Ryan and all of his sidekicks.
The Red Sox, for their part, have added under-the-radar flamethrower Ramon Ramirez and reclamation project Takashi Saito as well as spring training invitee Wes Littleton. At the same time, they've jettisoned David Aardsma (5.55 ERA last season) and Mike Timlin (5.66 ERA). And with so much uncertainty swirling around the starting rotation, that bullpen will need to pitch the way it pitched last season -- or, maybe, even better.
Locks
Jonathan Papelbon (just turned 28 years old)
2008: 2.34 ERA, 77 K, 8 BB
2007: 1.85 ERA, 84 K, 15 BB
2006: 0.92 ERA, 75 K, 13 BB
Gone are those ridiculous days when Papelbon could pitch 38 innings over the span of two and a half months and allow just a single earned run. Five times last season, in fact, Papelbon allowed two or more earned runs in one of his appearances. But he remains one of the dominant closers in baseball -- he didn't allow an earned run from the All-Star Break until Sept. 8, a span of 20 1/3 innings in 18 appearances. The Red Sox know what they'll get from Papelbon, and they're willing to pay him $6.25 million -- an 800 percent bump on his salary from last season -- for it.
Manny Delcarmen (will turn 27 in February)
2008: 3.27 ERA, 72 K, 28 BB
2007: 2.05 ERA, 41 K, 17 BB
2006: 5.06 ERA, 45 K, 17 BB
No one on the Red Sox staff made more appearances than Delcarmen made last season (73). He was murder against right-handed hitters (.218 batting average), and he was even better against lefties (.190). The only slight red flag on his numbers was the fact that his ERA went up more than a full run (2.77 to 3.82) when he was pitching on the road as opposed to at Fenway Park. But that doesn't matter much. After a rough first full season two years ago, he's found a niche as one of Terry Francona's go-to arms in the late innings.
Hideki Okajima (just turned 33)
2008: 2.61 ERA, 60 K, 23 BB
2007: 2.22 ERA, 63 K, 17 BB
Okajima had a problem with inherited runners early last season -- even while he was putting together a 0.72 ERA through May, he was allowing inherited runners to score at an alarming rate. Eleven of the first 14 runners he inherited out of the bullpen, in fact, came around to score. In one disastrous example, he entered the game with the bases loaded on April 24 against the Angels and allowed all three of those runners to score in a game the Red Sox eventually lost.
By the end of May, the Red Sox stopped giving him the ball in situations in which he inherited runners. He entered the game with the bases empty in 15 straight appearances starting May 20, and he came on with a runner in scoring position just four times the rest of the season. His numbers improved -- just two of his final 11 inherited runners scored, and he even wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam against Cleveland in late September, inducing a pop fly from Victor Martinez with two outs to end the threat.
For the season, opponents hit .174 off Okajima when the bases were empty and .269 when there were men on base -- a number that jumped to .300 when there were runners in scoring position.
With the numbers he's put up, Okajima really ought to be one of Terry Francona's go-to guys when a starting pitcher (or a fellow reliever) runs into trouble. But the way Francona used him last season shows he's not necessarily that guy.
Ramon Ramirez (will turn 28 in August)
2008 (with Kansas City): 2.64 ERA, 61 K, 27 BB
2007 (with Colorado): 8.31 ERA, 15 K, 6 BB (in 22 appearances)
2006 (with Colorado): 3.46 ERA, 70 K, 31 BB
Red Sox fans don't know much at all about Ramirez, acquired from the Royals this winter for outfielder Coco Crisp. But here's one stat that'll make fans happy: Ramirez held opposing hitters to a .220 batting average with runners on base last season and a .192 batting average with runners in scoring position -- including .143 with two outs and runners in scoring position.
He pitched mostly in the eighth inning for the Royals, and while Delcarmen appears to have first crack at that role for the Red Sox, the audition of Ramirez this spring is going to be interesting to watch.
In the mix
Wes Littleton (will turn 27 in September)
2008: 6.00 ERA, 14 K, 8 BB
2007: 4.31 ERA, 24 K, 16 BB
2006: 1.73 ERA, 17 K, 13 BB
Littleton, should he make the Red Sox roster as the team's 12th pitcher, is likely to be the guy who sees the garbage-time innings. Good thing. Littleton is an expert on garbage-time innings. It was Littleton, after all, who pitched the final three innings in the Rangers' 30-3 win over the Orioles two years ago -- an outing for which he earned the cheapest save in the history of the game.
Littleton had a great 2006 season (his ERA was 1.23 in 30 minor league appearances) before taking a step back in 2007. He had a 4.01 ERA with six saves in 44 appearances for Triple-A Oklahoma City a year ago, and he was traded to the Red Sox mostly because he's out of options. He's expected to head north with the Red Sox barring a disastrous spring training -- if he doesn't show his new team anything, though, he'll be back on the waiver wire.
Javier Lopez (will turn 32 in July)
2008: 2.43 ERA, 38 K, 27 BB
2007: 3.10 ERA, 26 K, 18 BB
2006: 2.70 ERA, 11 K, 10 BB (in 27 big-league appearances)
Red Sox fans love to hate Lopez -- every fan base needs a bullpen target for its wrath, and Lopez appears to be that target. But the fact remains that if your worst relief pitcher is a lefty specialist who saw lefties hit .182 against him last season, you're in pretty good shape. Sure, right-handed hitters hit .311 (33 hits in 106 at-bats) against Lopez last season -- but that's not his job. It would be nice if his home-road splits weren't so dramatic -- 1.23 ERA at Fenway Park versus 4.37 ERA elsewhere -- but he'll certainly pitch useful innings as the fifth or sixth arm in the bullpen.
Justin Masterson (will turn 24 in March)
2008 (as a starter): 4-3, 3.67 ERA, 39 K, 28 BB (.206 batting average against)
2008 (as a reliever): 2-2, 2.36 ERA, 29 K, 12 BB (.231 batting average against)
The acquisitions of Brad Penny and John Smoltz appear to have shelved the Masterson-as-starter experiment. Masterson's performance in last year's postseason -- he had a 1.86 ERA in 9 2/3 innings, including a win in the dramatic Game 5 -- makes that look like a good decision. Masterson held right-handed hitters to a .196 average last season (though lefties didn't fare much better at .238). He looks like he has a chance to develop into a seventh-inning weapon, particularly against righty-heavy lineups.
Takashi Saito (will turn 39 in February)
2008: 2.49 ERA, 60 K, 16 BB
2007: 1.40 ERA, 78 K, 13 BB
2006: 2.07 ERA, 107 K, 23 BB
Those numbers look great, don't they? They'd look even better, of course, if Saito wasn't coming off an elbow sprain that cost him most of last season. And after he returned in mid-September, he allowed an earned run in three of his six appearances, compiling a 4.76 ERA in the process. In his one appearance in the National League Division Series against the Cubs, he allowed a double, a single and a double before Joe Torre had to yank him.
That certainly doesn't look good. But be careful putting too much stock in any three-week stretch. For one thing, Saito now has had an entire winter to rehabilitate his elbow and get back into the rhythm of pitching. (He said he was pitching at his old velocity in September but that his control still was shaky.) For another thing, check out his top comparables on baseball-reference.com: Jonathan Papelbon, Joakim Soria, Joba Chamberlain and Huston Street.
Nowhere was the bullpen more of a weapon last season than the American League East, where four teams ranked among the top 11 in the major leagues in earned-run average by its relief pitchers: Toronto (first, 2.94), Tampa Bay (fifth, 3.55), New York (3.79) and Boston (4.00).
Neither the Rays nor the Yankees have done much overhauling. The Yankees could add top prospect Andrew Brackman to the mix this season, and the Rays brought lefty specialist Brian Shouse on board, but neither will open the season with a bullpen looking much different than it did at the end of last season. The Blue Jays have taken some severe hits to their starting rotation but return B.J. Ryan and all of his sidekicks.
The Red Sox, for their part, have added under-the-radar flamethrower Ramon Ramirez and reclamation project Takashi Saito as well as spring training invitee Wes Littleton. At the same time, they've jettisoned David Aardsma (5.55 ERA last season) and Mike Timlin (5.66 ERA). And with so much uncertainty swirling around the starting rotation, that bullpen will need to pitch the way it pitched last season -- or, maybe, even better.
Locks
Jonathan Papelbon (just turned 28 years old)
2008: 2.34 ERA, 77 K, 8 BB
2007: 1.85 ERA, 84 K, 15 BB
2006: 0.92 ERA, 75 K, 13 BB
Gone are those ridiculous days when Papelbon could pitch 38 innings over the span of two and a half months and allow just a single earned run. Five times last season, in fact, Papelbon allowed two or more earned runs in one of his appearances. But he remains one of the dominant closers in baseball -- he didn't allow an earned run from the All-Star Break until Sept. 8, a span of 20 1/3 innings in 18 appearances. The Red Sox know what they'll get from Papelbon, and they're willing to pay him $6.25 million -- an 800 percent bump on his salary from last season -- for it.
Manny Delcarmen (will turn 27 in February)
2008: 3.27 ERA, 72 K, 28 BB
2007: 2.05 ERA, 41 K, 17 BB
2006: 5.06 ERA, 45 K, 17 BB
No one on the Red Sox staff made more appearances than Delcarmen made last season (73). He was murder against right-handed hitters (.218 batting average), and he was even better against lefties (.190). The only slight red flag on his numbers was the fact that his ERA went up more than a full run (2.77 to 3.82) when he was pitching on the road as opposed to at Fenway Park. But that doesn't matter much. After a rough first full season two years ago, he's found a niche as one of Terry Francona's go-to arms in the late innings.
Hideki Okajima (just turned 33)
2008: 2.61 ERA, 60 K, 23 BB
2007: 2.22 ERA, 63 K, 17 BB
Okajima had a problem with inherited runners early last season -- even while he was putting together a 0.72 ERA through May, he was allowing inherited runners to score at an alarming rate. Eleven of the first 14 runners he inherited out of the bullpen, in fact, came around to score. In one disastrous example, he entered the game with the bases loaded on April 24 against the Angels and allowed all three of those runners to score in a game the Red Sox eventually lost.
By the end of May, the Red Sox stopped giving him the ball in situations in which he inherited runners. He entered the game with the bases empty in 15 straight appearances starting May 20, and he came on with a runner in scoring position just four times the rest of the season. His numbers improved -- just two of his final 11 inherited runners scored, and he even wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam against Cleveland in late September, inducing a pop fly from Victor Martinez with two outs to end the threat.
For the season, opponents hit .174 off Okajima when the bases were empty and .269 when there were men on base -- a number that jumped to .300 when there were runners in scoring position.
With the numbers he's put up, Okajima really ought to be one of Terry Francona's go-to guys when a starting pitcher (or a fellow reliever) runs into trouble. But the way Francona used him last season shows he's not necessarily that guy.
Ramon Ramirez (will turn 28 in August)
2008 (with Kansas City): 2.64 ERA, 61 K, 27 BB
2007 (with Colorado): 8.31 ERA, 15 K, 6 BB (in 22 appearances)
2006 (with Colorado): 3.46 ERA, 70 K, 31 BB
Red Sox fans don't know much at all about Ramirez, acquired from the Royals this winter for outfielder Coco Crisp. But here's one stat that'll make fans happy: Ramirez held opposing hitters to a .220 batting average with runners on base last season and a .192 batting average with runners in scoring position -- including .143 with two outs and runners in scoring position.
He pitched mostly in the eighth inning for the Royals, and while Delcarmen appears to have first crack at that role for the Red Sox, the audition of Ramirez this spring is going to be interesting to watch.
In the mix
Wes Littleton (will turn 27 in September)
2008: 6.00 ERA, 14 K, 8 BB
2007: 4.31 ERA, 24 K, 16 BB
2006: 1.73 ERA, 17 K, 13 BB
Littleton, should he make the Red Sox roster as the team's 12th pitcher, is likely to be the guy who sees the garbage-time innings. Good thing. Littleton is an expert on garbage-time innings. It was Littleton, after all, who pitched the final three innings in the Rangers' 30-3 win over the Orioles two years ago -- an outing for which he earned the cheapest save in the history of the game.
Littleton had a great 2006 season (his ERA was 1.23 in 30 minor league appearances) before taking a step back in 2007. He had a 4.01 ERA with six saves in 44 appearances for Triple-A Oklahoma City a year ago, and he was traded to the Red Sox mostly because he's out of options. He's expected to head north with the Red Sox barring a disastrous spring training -- if he doesn't show his new team anything, though, he'll be back on the waiver wire.
Javier Lopez (will turn 32 in July)
2008: 2.43 ERA, 38 K, 27 BB
2007: 3.10 ERA, 26 K, 18 BB
2006: 2.70 ERA, 11 K, 10 BB (in 27 big-league appearances)
Red Sox fans love to hate Lopez -- every fan base needs a bullpen target for its wrath, and Lopez appears to be that target. But the fact remains that if your worst relief pitcher is a lefty specialist who saw lefties hit .182 against him last season, you're in pretty good shape. Sure, right-handed hitters hit .311 (33 hits in 106 at-bats) against Lopez last season -- but that's not his job. It would be nice if his home-road splits weren't so dramatic -- 1.23 ERA at Fenway Park versus 4.37 ERA elsewhere -- but he'll certainly pitch useful innings as the fifth or sixth arm in the bullpen.
Justin Masterson (will turn 24 in March)
2008 (as a starter): 4-3, 3.67 ERA, 39 K, 28 BB (.206 batting average against)
2008 (as a reliever): 2-2, 2.36 ERA, 29 K, 12 BB (.231 batting average against)
The acquisitions of Brad Penny and John Smoltz appear to have shelved the Masterson-as-starter experiment. Masterson's performance in last year's postseason -- he had a 1.86 ERA in 9 2/3 innings, including a win in the dramatic Game 5 -- makes that look like a good decision. Masterson held right-handed hitters to a .196 average last season (though lefties didn't fare much better at .238). He looks like he has a chance to develop into a seventh-inning weapon, particularly against righty-heavy lineups.
Takashi Saito (will turn 39 in February)
2008: 2.49 ERA, 60 K, 16 BB
2007: 1.40 ERA, 78 K, 13 BB
2006: 2.07 ERA, 107 K, 23 BB
Those numbers look great, don't they? They'd look even better, of course, if Saito wasn't coming off an elbow sprain that cost him most of last season. And after he returned in mid-September, he allowed an earned run in three of his six appearances, compiling a 4.76 ERA in the process. In his one appearance in the National League Division Series against the Cubs, he allowed a double, a single and a double before Joe Torre had to yank him.
That certainly doesn't look good. But be careful putting too much stock in any three-week stretch. For one thing, Saito now has had an entire winter to rehabilitate his elbow and get back into the rhythm of pitching. (He said he was pitching at his old velocity in September but that his control still was shaky.) For another thing, check out his top comparables on baseball-reference.com: Jonathan Papelbon, Joakim Soria, Joba Chamberlain and Huston Street.
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