The Red Sox finished last season with a bullpen ERA of 3.80, second-best in the American League behind the Oakland Athletics' 3.54 and well below the American League average of 4.17. The same group returns intact this season and will be expected to put up similar numbers.
It's fair to wonder, though, if it will.
The Red Sox bullpen looked like one of the best in baseball last season mostly because its pitchers stranded 71 percent of inherited runners last season, second-best in the American League. Only the Yankees (73 percent) were better. The American League average was 66 percent.
That number might not be sustainable. While the American League average has held steady around 66 percent over the last few seasons, the Red Sox strand percentage has bounced around quite a bit:
2009: 71 percent
2008: 68 percent
2007: 77 percent
2006: 62 percent
2005: 61 percent
2004: 66 percent
The smart money has the Red Sox bullpen's strand rate regressing to the mean this season.
"When we had guys on base and guys in scoring position, we actually pitched really well last year," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein told WEEI this morning. "That’s the type of thing that you can’t really count on year after year."
This is where Epstein's idea of "clutch pitching" comes into play. Stranding inherited runners often can be a byproduct of luck -- or, as Epstein made clear earlier this offseason, lousy defense. One reason Epstein made it a point to upgrade his defense was the fact that he couldn't realistically expect his relivers to pitch as "clutch" as they had last season.
ERA can be a bad way to evaluate relief pitchers because so many outside factors contribute. If a reliever enters a game with a runner on second and promptly gives up an RBI single, that run isn't charged to his record. If a reliever leaves a game with the bases loaded but the next pitcher strikes out the side, no runs are charged to his record.
As elite as the Red Sox bullpen seemed to be last season, its individual pitchers didn't exactly stand out in the statistical categories that have nothing to do with inherited runners:
Strikeout-to-walk ratio (min. 45 IP)
16. Jonathan Papelbon, 3.17
20. Daniel Bard, 2.86
23. Hideki Okajima, 2.52
48. Ramon Ramirez, 1.63
65. Manny Delcarmen, 1.29
(In case you're wondering, there were 67 relievers who qualified.)
Walks and hits per inning pitched
19. Jonathan Papelbon, 1.147
27. Hideki Okajima, 1.262
30. Daniel Bard, 1.277
36. Ramon Ramirez, 1.335
60. Manny Delcarmen, 1.642
Opponents' on-base plus slugging (OPS)
11. Jonathan Papelbon, .600
29. Daniel Bard, .690
34. Hideki Okajima, .704
36. Ramon Ramirez, .711
56. Manny Delcarmen, .796
Other than Papelbon -- and this is the same Papelbon, don't forget, who allowed more baserunners than usual -- the Red Sox bullpen was a middle-of-the-pack team in all three of the above categories. Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez both finished the season in the bottom half of the American League in WHIP and opponents' OPS, and not one Red Sox reliever finished in the top 10 in any of the above categories.
The revamped Red Sox defense, it seems, wasn't just about the starting pitchers. The revamped Red Sox defense might be a big help to the bullpen, too.
Showing posts with label ramirez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramirez. Show all posts
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wins and losses and relief pitchers
We've made quite a bit of progress lately toward discounting the value of the "win" as a measuring stick for starting pitchers. Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young Award in the National League last season with just 15 wins, the lowest win total ever by a Cy Young winner in a non-strike season.
Some still make the argument that the job of a starting pitcher is to win games. A pitcher is told to take the ball and bring home a 'W,' and if he hasn't done so, he hasn't done his job. If he loses a 2-1 game, after all, the opposing pitcher did his job better than he did, sort of, except if the two runs he allowed came on errors or on inherited runs scored after he'd left the game.
(No one ever points out that the job of a catcher or a first baseman is to go out and win games, too. No one ever points out that Joe Mauer had a worse win-loss record -- 74-64 -- than Jason Varitek -- 62-47 -- or uses that information to draw any conclusions. That would be absurd, right? But that's another argument for another day.)
Relief pitchers, though, present an entirely separate problem. Relievers earn wins if their team happens to take the lead for good while they're pitching. If they give up the lead in the top half of the inning before their team takes it back in the bottom half? That's ineffective pitching, but that's also deserving of a credited "win."
Maybe this just is a pet peeve. Maybe, though, it's time to stop referencing win-loss records for relievers in the context of anything except meaningless trivia.
You see it everywhere. Here, in a story about Ramon Ramirez filing for arbitration. Here, in a story about Hideki Okajima agreeing to a one-year contract. Here, in a story about Jonathan Papelbon -- a closer, for goodness sake. The first statistic mentioned about each of the above pitchers in each of the above stories is his win-loss record -- something that's about as relevant in evaluating his performance as the name of his fourth-grade teacher.
The winningest Red Sox reliever last season was Ramirez, who finished with the exact same number of wins (seven) as Clay Buchholz and Brad Penny. Okajima wasn't far behind (six), and neither was Manny Delcarmen (five).
What does that tell you? Let's look at a handful of the wins earned by Ramirez last season:
1. On April 17 against Baltimore, Ramirez got Javier Lopez out of a jam in the sixth inning and set down the side in the seventh before running into trouble with a 10-8 lead in the top of the eighth. Cesar Izturis lined to left, but Brian Roberts and Adam Jones followed with back-to-back singles -- putting the tying run on base. Hideki Okajima then relieved Ramirez and retired Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff to prevent the tying run from scoring.
2. On April 24 against New York, Ramirez pitched a scoreless inning -- just like Delcarmen, Lopez, Papelbon and Takashi Saito had before him. Ramirez even allowed two runners to reach before getting Melky Cabrera to ground into a double play. The difference? His happened to be the scoreless inning before Kevin Youkilis hit a walk-off home run.
3. On May 10 against Tampa Bay, Ramirez threw all of seven pitches, relieving Okajima in the eighth inning with the score tied and the bases empty and getting Ben Zobrist to ground to first. The Red Sox scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth, and Papelbon finished it out.
And so on.
Let's look at the leaderboard for wins among relievers in the American League last season:
1. Alfredo Aceves, 10 wins (3.54 ERA)
2. Craig Breslow, 8 wins (3.36 ERA)
3. Miguel Batista, 7 wins (4.04 ERA)
4. J.P. Howell, 7 wins (2.83 ERA)
5. Jason Frasor, 7 wins (2.50 ERA)
6. Jesse Crain, 7 wins (4.70 ERA)
7. Zach Miner, 7 wins (4.29 ERA)
8. Ramirez, 7 wins (2.84 ERA)
New York's Jonathan Albaladejo had five wins and a 5.24 ERA. Minnesota's Jon Rauch had five wins and a 1.72 ERA. There's even less correlation between wins and effective performance for relievers than for starters.
(ERA doesn't even tell the story as accurately as WHIP or opponents' OPS given how much inherited runners can skew the numbers. Again, though, that's an argument for another day.)
Maybe this is too harsh. Maybe it doesn't hurt anything to point out that a relief pitcher went 7-4 as long as his 2.84 ERA and 1.335 WHIP are included in the conversation.
On the other hand, saying, "He went 7-4 and had a 2.84 ERA" is just as relevant as saying, "He likes pepperoni pizza and had a 2.84 ERA." Actually, it's even less relevant: Whereas his 7-4 record has little to do with anything but outside factors, his affection for pepperoni pizza might actually affect his future performance.
(This writer, a fan of pepperoni pizza who currently is procrastinating on a trip to the gym, would know all about that.)
Though some are kicking and screaming along the way, many baseball fans and baseball writers now understand the way statistics like ERA and WHIP represent a far better measure of reliever performance than wins. The next step? Eliminating mention of reliever wins entirely.
Some still make the argument that the job of a starting pitcher is to win games. A pitcher is told to take the ball and bring home a 'W,' and if he hasn't done so, he hasn't done his job. If he loses a 2-1 game, after all, the opposing pitcher did his job better than he did, sort of, except if the two runs he allowed came on errors or on inherited runs scored after he'd left the game.
(No one ever points out that the job of a catcher or a first baseman is to go out and win games, too. No one ever points out that Joe Mauer had a worse win-loss record -- 74-64 -- than Jason Varitek -- 62-47 -- or uses that information to draw any conclusions. That would be absurd, right? But that's another argument for another day.)
Relief pitchers, though, present an entirely separate problem. Relievers earn wins if their team happens to take the lead for good while they're pitching. If they give up the lead in the top half of the inning before their team takes it back in the bottom half? That's ineffective pitching, but that's also deserving of a credited "win."
Maybe this just is a pet peeve. Maybe, though, it's time to stop referencing win-loss records for relievers in the context of anything except meaningless trivia.
You see it everywhere. Here, in a story about Ramon Ramirez filing for arbitration. Here, in a story about Hideki Okajima agreeing to a one-year contract. Here, in a story about Jonathan Papelbon -- a closer, for goodness sake. The first statistic mentioned about each of the above pitchers in each of the above stories is his win-loss record -- something that's about as relevant in evaluating his performance as the name of his fourth-grade teacher.
The winningest Red Sox reliever last season was Ramirez, who finished with the exact same number of wins (seven) as Clay Buchholz and Brad Penny. Okajima wasn't far behind (six), and neither was Manny Delcarmen (five).
What does that tell you? Let's look at a handful of the wins earned by Ramirez last season:
1. On April 17 against Baltimore, Ramirez got Javier Lopez out of a jam in the sixth inning and set down the side in the seventh before running into trouble with a 10-8 lead in the top of the eighth. Cesar Izturis lined to left, but Brian Roberts and Adam Jones followed with back-to-back singles -- putting the tying run on base. Hideki Okajima then relieved Ramirez and retired Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff to prevent the tying run from scoring.
2. On April 24 against New York, Ramirez pitched a scoreless inning -- just like Delcarmen, Lopez, Papelbon and Takashi Saito had before him. Ramirez even allowed two runners to reach before getting Melky Cabrera to ground into a double play. The difference? His happened to be the scoreless inning before Kevin Youkilis hit a walk-off home run.
3. On May 10 against Tampa Bay, Ramirez threw all of seven pitches, relieving Okajima in the eighth inning with the score tied and the bases empty and getting Ben Zobrist to ground to first. The Red Sox scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth, and Papelbon finished it out.
And so on.
Let's look at the leaderboard for wins among relievers in the American League last season:
1. Alfredo Aceves, 10 wins (3.54 ERA)
2. Craig Breslow, 8 wins (3.36 ERA)
3. Miguel Batista, 7 wins (4.04 ERA)
4. J.P. Howell, 7 wins (2.83 ERA)
5. Jason Frasor, 7 wins (2.50 ERA)
6. Jesse Crain, 7 wins (4.70 ERA)
7. Zach Miner, 7 wins (4.29 ERA)
8. Ramirez, 7 wins (2.84 ERA)
New York's Jonathan Albaladejo had five wins and a 5.24 ERA. Minnesota's Jon Rauch had five wins and a 1.72 ERA. There's even less correlation between wins and effective performance for relievers than for starters.
(ERA doesn't even tell the story as accurately as WHIP or opponents' OPS given how much inherited runners can skew the numbers. Again, though, that's an argument for another day.)
Maybe this is too harsh. Maybe it doesn't hurt anything to point out that a relief pitcher went 7-4 as long as his 2.84 ERA and 1.335 WHIP are included in the conversation.
On the other hand, saying, "He went 7-4 and had a 2.84 ERA" is just as relevant as saying, "He likes pepperoni pizza and had a 2.84 ERA." Actually, it's even less relevant: Whereas his 7-4 record has little to do with anything but outside factors, his affection for pepperoni pizza might actually affect his future performance.
(This writer, a fan of pepperoni pizza who currently is procrastinating on a trip to the gym, would know all about that.)
Though some are kicking and screaming along the way, many baseball fans and baseball writers now understand the way statistics like ERA and WHIP represent a far better measure of reliever performance than wins. The next step? Eliminating mention of reliever wins entirely.
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.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Picking your spots with the Red Sox bullpen
Theo Epstein constructed perhaps his most impressive bullpen this winter and this summer, acquiring Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner and promoting Daniel Bard from Triple-A to supplement a group that already had experienced quite a bit of success. Among American League teams, only the Oakland Athletics had a better bullpen ERA during the regular season than the Red Sox.
The postseason, though, is where it counts -- and for all of the group's individual ups and downs, the postseason is where the group's reputation will be made.
But it's not just about talent and execution. It's about Terry Francona and the way he employs his bullpen. Certain relievers thrive in certain situations, and for the Red Sox to get past the Angels (and beyond), he'll need to pick and choose his spots for each of his guys. Here's a primer on how Francona might go about doing that:
Daniel Bard
The rookie went the entire month of July (and beyond) without surrendering an earned run, ripping off a string of 14 innings with an ERA of 0.00. He endured some ups and downs in August and September -- he allowed at least one earned run in six of his 10 appearances in August, for example -- but remains an electric arm with the ability to strike out just about anyone.
Use him: In Games 3 and 4 at Fenway Park. Opponents hit just .207 off the rookie in home games this season, and his 30-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio is astounding. His ERA this season was 1.46 at home and 5.84 on the road.
Don't use him: Against lefties who can go deep. Lefties slugged .488 against him this season and hit four of the home runs he gave up: Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira (twice) hit home runs off him from the left side, but Evan Longoria is the only hitter to have gone deep against him from the right side.
Paul Byrd
The veteran righty came out of retirement this summer to contribute a handful of starts down the stretch, and he'll fill the same role in the playoffs this year that he did last year: Long man out of the bullpen. Byrd made one appearance a year ago, relieving Jon Lester in a Game 3 against Tampa Bay that got out of hand quickly. He gave up an eighth-inning home run in that game to -- you guessed it! -- Rocco Baldelli.
Use him: When a game already has been decided in the early innings. Byrd probably wouldn't even be on the roster if not for the diminishing effectiveness of Manny Delcarmen down the stretch, and his primary use now will be to save the rotation in case of a disastrous start by one of the other starters -- or to make an emergency start if someone gets hurt.
Don't use him: Against lefties, if at all possible. Lefties hit .405 off Byrd in his seven starts -- including seven doubles and three home runs.
Hideki Okajima
The lefty endured one of his most bumpy seasons -- but if you believe in trends, that could be a good omen: He had a lousy ERA in April, June and September but a great ERA in May, July and August. Maybe he's due for another run of being unhittable.
Use him: Against the toughest lefties. Billy Wagner had a slightly lower batting-average-against with lefties (.125 to Okajima's .167), but Okajima had a much better strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.71 to Wagner's 2.67).
Don't use him: When he's inheriting runners. Opponents hit .305 and OBP'ed .380 against Okajima this season with runners on base this season, but they hit just .199 and OBP'ed .259 against him with the bases empty.
Jonathan Papelbon
The closer has seen opponents hit just .189 and slug an amazing .264 against him in the second half, the result of a change in his set position that made him more comfortable even if it increased the wear and tear on his shoulder a little bit. He's well aware he's thrown 25 straight scoreless innings in the playoffs, a run of success he intends to maintain.
Use him: In the game's biggest spots. Opponents hit .128 against Papelbon this season in 86 at-bats with runners in scoring position -- and with the bases loaded, opponents were 1 for 15 this season with 10 strikeouts.
Don't use him: On three days' rest, the only time his control really starts to evaporate. His strikeout-to-walk ratio dipped from 16-to-1 on two days' rest to 13-to-9 on three days' rest, and opponents slugged .409 against him in that situation as well. That makes for a tricky situation in Game 1 -- he'll be on three days' rest after having pitched on Sunday -- but he should be all set to go on a more normal schedule during the rest of the postseason.
Ramon Ramirez
"RamRam" scuffled in the second half but not to the extent of some of his counterparts: His first-half ERA was 2.33, but his second-half ERA still was just 3.48. He throws like a power pitcher but doesn't miss bats like a power pitcher: His strikeout rate is just 6.7 per nine innings, lowest among the relievers left in the bullpen.
Use him: In Games 1, 2 and 5. No Red Sox pitcher has had as much success away from Fenway Park this season as Ramirez: Opponents are hitting .182 off him and slugging .295 off him when the Red Sox are on the road. At home, though, Ramirez has seen opponents hit .285 and slug .477 off him.
Don't use him: Against lefties who can go deep. Lefties slugged .452 against him this season but hit six home runs and eight doubles. When he got hit by lefties, he usually got hit hard.
Takashi Saito
The former Dodgers closer often was used as one of the last relievers out of the bullpen and seemed to benefit from it: His ERA was an impressive 2.43 despite relatively unimpressive peripherals -- including a WHIP of 1.35 and 25 walks issued in 55 2/3 innings.
The Red Sox call him "Sammy," but no one knows why.
Use him: Againstlefties and against switch-hitters with better numbers from the right side. Saito has a pretty severe reverse split -- lefties hit just .195 and slugged just .257 off him -- and that makes him a good weapon against switch-hitters who would prefer to hit righthanded. (This is not the case, however, for the Angels' Kendry Morales or Chone Figgins, both of whom hit better than .300 against righthanded pitchers this season.)
Don't use him: Against righties in a high-leverage situation. Righthanded hitters hit .304 and slugged .500 against Saito this season, including four home runs. No Red Sox reliever allowed more home runs to righthanded hitters.
Billy Wagner
The veteran lefty has terrible career numbers in the playoffs: In his years with the Astros and Mets combined, he has a 9.58 career ERA. It's hard to know what to make of that, though: You can't predict this season's results based on what he did in 1997, can you?
Use him: When you have some righties sandwiched in with a run of lefties. Wagner pitched effectively against lefties, of course, but he actually had just as much success against righties in his short run in Boston -- a .200 batting average against and a 3.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In his career, Wagner actually has held righties to a lower batting average (.186) than lefties (.200).
Don't use him: When a walk would be disastrous. Wagner has fought control issues off and on since his arrival, and no reliever on the postseason roster has a higher walk rate than Wagner's 4.6 per nine innings. Then again, the times when a walk would be disastrous are the times a strikeout would be great, and Wagner is averaging 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings since the Red Sox acquired him.
The postseason, though, is where it counts -- and for all of the group's individual ups and downs, the postseason is where the group's reputation will be made.
But it's not just about talent and execution. It's about Terry Francona and the way he employs his bullpen. Certain relievers thrive in certain situations, and for the Red Sox to get past the Angels (and beyond), he'll need to pick and choose his spots for each of his guys. Here's a primer on how Francona might go about doing that:
Daniel Bard
The rookie went the entire month of July (and beyond) without surrendering an earned run, ripping off a string of 14 innings with an ERA of 0.00. He endured some ups and downs in August and September -- he allowed at least one earned run in six of his 10 appearances in August, for example -- but remains an electric arm with the ability to strike out just about anyone.
Use him: In Games 3 and 4 at Fenway Park. Opponents hit just .207 off the rookie in home games this season, and his 30-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio is astounding. His ERA this season was 1.46 at home and 5.84 on the road.
Don't use him: Against lefties who can go deep. Lefties slugged .488 against him this season and hit four of the home runs he gave up: Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira (twice) hit home runs off him from the left side, but Evan Longoria is the only hitter to have gone deep against him from the right side.
Paul Byrd
The veteran righty came out of retirement this summer to contribute a handful of starts down the stretch, and he'll fill the same role in the playoffs this year that he did last year: Long man out of the bullpen. Byrd made one appearance a year ago, relieving Jon Lester in a Game 3 against Tampa Bay that got out of hand quickly. He gave up an eighth-inning home run in that game to -- you guessed it! -- Rocco Baldelli.
Use him: When a game already has been decided in the early innings. Byrd probably wouldn't even be on the roster if not for the diminishing effectiveness of Manny Delcarmen down the stretch, and his primary use now will be to save the rotation in case of a disastrous start by one of the other starters -- or to make an emergency start if someone gets hurt.
Don't use him: Against lefties, if at all possible. Lefties hit .405 off Byrd in his seven starts -- including seven doubles and three home runs.
Hideki Okajima
The lefty endured one of his most bumpy seasons -- but if you believe in trends, that could be a good omen: He had a lousy ERA in April, June and September but a great ERA in May, July and August. Maybe he's due for another run of being unhittable.
Use him: Against the toughest lefties. Billy Wagner had a slightly lower batting-average-against with lefties (.125 to Okajima's .167), but Okajima had a much better strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.71 to Wagner's 2.67).
Don't use him: When he's inheriting runners. Opponents hit .305 and OBP'ed .380 against Okajima this season with runners on base this season, but they hit just .199 and OBP'ed .259 against him with the bases empty.
Jonathan Papelbon
The closer has seen opponents hit just .189 and slug an amazing .264 against him in the second half, the result of a change in his set position that made him more comfortable even if it increased the wear and tear on his shoulder a little bit. He's well aware he's thrown 25 straight scoreless innings in the playoffs, a run of success he intends to maintain.
Use him: In the game's biggest spots. Opponents hit .128 against Papelbon this season in 86 at-bats with runners in scoring position -- and with the bases loaded, opponents were 1 for 15 this season with 10 strikeouts.
Don't use him: On three days' rest, the only time his control really starts to evaporate. His strikeout-to-walk ratio dipped from 16-to-1 on two days' rest to 13-to-9 on three days' rest, and opponents slugged .409 against him in that situation as well. That makes for a tricky situation in Game 1 -- he'll be on three days' rest after having pitched on Sunday -- but he should be all set to go on a more normal schedule during the rest of the postseason.
Ramon Ramirez
"RamRam" scuffled in the second half but not to the extent of some of his counterparts: His first-half ERA was 2.33, but his second-half ERA still was just 3.48. He throws like a power pitcher but doesn't miss bats like a power pitcher: His strikeout rate is just 6.7 per nine innings, lowest among the relievers left in the bullpen.
Use him: In Games 1, 2 and 5. No Red Sox pitcher has had as much success away from Fenway Park this season as Ramirez: Opponents are hitting .182 off him and slugging .295 off him when the Red Sox are on the road. At home, though, Ramirez has seen opponents hit .285 and slug .477 off him.
Don't use him: Against lefties who can go deep. Lefties slugged .452 against him this season but hit six home runs and eight doubles. When he got hit by lefties, he usually got hit hard.
Takashi Saito
The former Dodgers closer often was used as one of the last relievers out of the bullpen and seemed to benefit from it: His ERA was an impressive 2.43 despite relatively unimpressive peripherals -- including a WHIP of 1.35 and 25 walks issued in 55 2/3 innings.
The Red Sox call him "Sammy," but no one knows why.
Use him: Againstlefties and against switch-hitters with better numbers from the right side. Saito has a pretty severe reverse split -- lefties hit just .195 and slugged just .257 off him -- and that makes him a good weapon against switch-hitters who would prefer to hit righthanded. (This is not the case, however, for the Angels' Kendry Morales or Chone Figgins, both of whom hit better than .300 against righthanded pitchers this season.)
Don't use him: Against righties in a high-leverage situation. Righthanded hitters hit .304 and slugged .500 against Saito this season, including four home runs. No Red Sox reliever allowed more home runs to righthanded hitters.
Billy Wagner
The veteran lefty has terrible career numbers in the playoffs: In his years with the Astros and Mets combined, he has a 9.58 career ERA. It's hard to know what to make of that, though: You can't predict this season's results based on what he did in 1997, can you?
Use him: When you have some righties sandwiched in with a run of lefties. Wagner pitched effectively against lefties, of course, but he actually had just as much success against righties in his short run in Boston -- a .200 batting average against and a 3.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In his career, Wagner actually has held righties to a lower batting average (.186) than lefties (.200).
Don't use him: When a walk would be disastrous. Wagner has fought control issues off and on since his arrival, and no reliever on the postseason roster has a higher walk rate than Wagner's 4.6 per nine innings. Then again, the times when a walk would be disastrous are the times a strikeout would be great, and Wagner is averaging 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings since the Red Sox acquired him.
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.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Meeting Rivera was a thrill for Ramirez
Ramon Ramirez first met Mariano Rivera as a 22-year-old relief pitcher at the Yankees' spring-training complex in 2004. Ramirez had grown up as an outfielder in the Dominican Republic but turned himself into a pitcher to propel his career forward, watching some of the greats of the game in an effort to learn the basics of pitching.
One of those greats was Pedro Martinez, like Ramirez a native of the Dominican Republic.
Another was Mariano Rivera.
"Sometimes, in my mind, I wanted to be like this guy because he's unbelievable," Ramirez said. "I want to live my life like that. ... I want to work and be a professional and be a player like that."
A year after the Yankees signed Ramirez away from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan, they added him to their 40-man roster and invited him to their major-league spring training camp. He'd accumulated a 5.21 ERA in 14 Single-A starts the previous year but had fanned almost a hitter an inning in his first season in the minor leagues.
Upon his arrival in Tampa, Fla., he found himself sharing a clubhouse with one of his heroes, the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball.
Ramirez didn't approach Rivera, of course. As much as he might have wanted to pick his brain for pointers about pitching, about playing professional baseball about life, he didn't dare. Rivera was a legend already -- he'd won four World Series rings and accumulated almost 250 career saves.
Ramirez was a nobody. He was in awe being in the presence of Rivera, let alone trying to talk to him.
Rivera, though, broke the ice -- just the way he does often with some of the younger pitchers in the organization.
"I was one of the best players in the world -- that's how I feel when he talked to me," Ramirez said. "I don't know about anybody (else), but I feel like that with him. When he talked to me, it was like, 'I saw Mariano Rivera. He's one of the best closers in the world. Maybe he doesn't want to talk to any players.' But it's so different. He talked with me. He talked with the young guys -- not just with me, but with everybody."
The two didn't spent all that much time talking, but Ramirez made sure to pay attention to just about everything he did on and off the field.
"For me, what entered my mind was, 'I want to learn something about this guy because he's a professional outside the game and inside the game,'" Ramirez said. "I don't know how he seems at home, but in the game, he's one of the best to me. He's one of the best closers and one of the best pitchers and one of the best professionals. ...
"When I see this guy, I'm like, '(Shoot), I need to learn how I can be a professional, how I can be a professional in my life. This guy, he works so hard at pitching. He's got everything: He's a family guy, and he works hard. He's got big respect from people. This is the big point, about life in the big picture."
They even talked a little pitching.
"He told me, he told a lot of guys: 'The pitcher has to have control. Make a strike. Make the first pitch a strike. Make the first out of the game. This is what you have to do to be a pitcher,'" Ramirez said.
More importantly, they talked about life.
"Sometimes you can see some players thinking, like, 'I'm the best baseball player,'" Ramirez said. "But he'd say, 'Everything will pass one day. You need to do the best you can in your life.'"
One of those greats was Pedro Martinez, like Ramirez a native of the Dominican Republic.
Another was Mariano Rivera.
"Sometimes, in my mind, I wanted to be like this guy because he's unbelievable," Ramirez said. "I want to live my life like that. ... I want to work and be a professional and be a player like that."
A year after the Yankees signed Ramirez away from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan, they added him to their 40-man roster and invited him to their major-league spring training camp. He'd accumulated a 5.21 ERA in 14 Single-A starts the previous year but had fanned almost a hitter an inning in his first season in the minor leagues.
Upon his arrival in Tampa, Fla., he found himself sharing a clubhouse with one of his heroes, the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball.
Ramirez didn't approach Rivera, of course. As much as he might have wanted to pick his brain for pointers about pitching, about playing professional baseball about life, he didn't dare. Rivera was a legend already -- he'd won four World Series rings and accumulated almost 250 career saves.
Ramirez was a nobody. He was in awe being in the presence of Rivera, let alone trying to talk to him.
Rivera, though, broke the ice -- just the way he does often with some of the younger pitchers in the organization.
"I was one of the best players in the world -- that's how I feel when he talked to me," Ramirez said. "I don't know about anybody (else), but I feel like that with him. When he talked to me, it was like, 'I saw Mariano Rivera. He's one of the best closers in the world. Maybe he doesn't want to talk to any players.' But it's so different. He talked with me. He talked with the young guys -- not just with me, but with everybody."
The two didn't spent all that much time talking, but Ramirez made sure to pay attention to just about everything he did on and off the field.
"For me, what entered my mind was, 'I want to learn something about this guy because he's a professional outside the game and inside the game,'" Ramirez said. "I don't know how he seems at home, but in the game, he's one of the best to me. He's one of the best closers and one of the best pitchers and one of the best professionals. ...
"When I see this guy, I'm like, '(Shoot), I need to learn how I can be a professional, how I can be a professional in my life. This guy, he works so hard at pitching. He's got everything: He's a family guy, and he works hard. He's got big respect from people. This is the big point, about life in the big picture."
They even talked a little pitching.
"He told me, he told a lot of guys: 'The pitcher has to have control. Make a strike. Make the first pitch a strike. Make the first out of the game. This is what you have to do to be a pitcher,'" Ramirez said.
More importantly, they talked about life.
"Sometimes you can see some players thinking, like, 'I'm the best baseball player,'" Ramirez said. "But he'd say, 'Everything will pass one day. You need to do the best you can in your life.'"
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."
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Ramirez upset after going a week without pitching
(This story will appear in Monday's Union Leader.)
Red Sox reliever Ramon Ramirez had a lengthy meeting with pitching coach John Farrell before yesterday’s game to discuss the righty’s dissatisfaction with his role in the bullpen.
“He was asking me how I’m feeling,” Ramirez said. “I said I feel good. I’m just not pitching for a long time. I can’t say I feel good if I’m not pitching. I want to pitch. I know it’s a very good bullpen, you know? But I’m waiting for the manager to let me pitch.”
Ramirez did get into yesterday’s game and got the final two outs of the ninth inning, both line drives to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. At the time of the meeting with Farrell, he’d made six appearances in the month of July, second-fewest in the Red Sox bullpen. He’d gone a full week between appearances before getting into Saturday night’s win in the ninth inning.
“He wants to pitch more,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “I love the fact that he wants to pitch more.”
Takashi Saito, who threw two effective innings yesterday, went into the series finale with the Orioles with just four appearances under his belt in July. Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon, on the other hand, each had appeared in eight games in the month of July. Delcarmen made four appearances during the five games in which Ramirez did not pitch.
After yesterday’s appearance, Ramirez has a 2.18 ERA in 41 1/3 innings this season, the second-lowest among Red Sox relievers. But after looking almost untouchable in April and May, Ramirez scuffled in mid-June and again in early July; he allowed three runs in his final three appearances before the All-Star break. He then bounced back with a scoreless inning at Toronto on July 18 before his five-game hiatus.
“I’ll keep waiting,” said Ramirez, a native of the Dominican Republic who speaks English with a thick accent. “I can’t control the manager. I can’t control when I’m pitching. But I’m waiting. Sometimes I feel not so happy. I can’t say I’m happy if I’m not.”
Red Sox reliever Ramon Ramirez had a lengthy meeting with pitching coach John Farrell before yesterday’s game to discuss the righty’s dissatisfaction with his role in the bullpen.
“He was asking me how I’m feeling,” Ramirez said. “I said I feel good. I’m just not pitching for a long time. I can’t say I feel good if I’m not pitching. I want to pitch. I know it’s a very good bullpen, you know? But I’m waiting for the manager to let me pitch.”
Ramirez did get into yesterday’s game and got the final two outs of the ninth inning, both line drives to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. At the time of the meeting with Farrell, he’d made six appearances in the month of July, second-fewest in the Red Sox bullpen. He’d gone a full week between appearances before getting into Saturday night’s win in the ninth inning.
“He wants to pitch more,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “I love the fact that he wants to pitch more.”
Takashi Saito, who threw two effective innings yesterday, went into the series finale with the Orioles with just four appearances under his belt in July. Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon, on the other hand, each had appeared in eight games in the month of July. Delcarmen made four appearances during the five games in which Ramirez did not pitch.
After yesterday’s appearance, Ramirez has a 2.18 ERA in 41 1/3 innings this season, the second-lowest among Red Sox relievers. But after looking almost untouchable in April and May, Ramirez scuffled in mid-June and again in early July; he allowed three runs in his final three appearances before the All-Star break. He then bounced back with a scoreless inning at Toronto on July 18 before his five-game hiatus.
“I’ll keep waiting,” said Ramirez, a native of the Dominican Republic who speaks English with a thick accent. “I can’t control the manager. I can’t control when I’m pitching. But I’m waiting. Sometimes I feel not so happy. I can’t say I’m happy if I’m not.”
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ramon Ramirez skirts danger in late innings
Ramon Ramirez was worked as hard as any Red Sox pitcher in the early going, making 20 appearances in his team's first 38 games. It was then that Terry Francona tried to ease off the throttle and give his power-armed reliever a little bit of a break.
There's only one problem: When Ramirez gets a break, he starts to feel too strong. When he feels too strong, he starts to overthrow.
"I feel so loose sometimes, and when I feel so loose, I try to throw so hard," the Dominican righthander said.
He got himself into trouble in the eighth inning on Wednesday, walking Hanley Ramirez after an eight-pitch battle and leaving a fastball in the middle of the plate for Jorge Cantu to rip into left field for a base hit.
The final two pitches he threw Ramirez both were fastballs out of the zone. Three of the four pitches he threw Cantu, including the pitch on which the designated hitter singled, were fastballs.
He then started Jeremy Hermida with yet another fastball up and away and got a hard-hit fly ball with a fastball on the outside part of the plate.
That's when he went almost exclusively to his offspeed pitches. There's no better way to corral runaway velocity, after all, than by throwing offspeed pitches.
"I threw my slider," he said. "My slider and my changeup are almost the same speed. People sometimes confuse them because sometimes it's over here, and sometimes it's over here. It's my slider, but it looks like the same pitch."
Dan Uggla took back-to-back offspeed pitches for strikes, falling behind quickly. He then didn't chase a slider below the knees and fouled off a fastball up and a slider on the outer half of the plate before striking out on a slider up and away.
Cody Ross then saw offspeed pitches -- it's even more difficult to tell the two apart when they're up in the zone -- on five of the six pitches Ramirez threw to him. He swung and missed at an offspeed pitch down in the zone on a 3-1 count, and he swung and missed at a slider up in the zone for the third strike that ended the inning.
"Once he's able to get some swings, get some guys involved in the at-bat, that offspeed comes into play," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He's throwing hard, but once he gets guys swinging, the deception with the offspeed comes into play."
It was an important escape for a young pitcher who has allowed three earned runs in his last 2 2/3 innings after starting the season with 15 scoreless innings.
"I want to throw the best I can," Ramirez said. "I want to put 100 percent into it when I'm pitching, but too many things can happen in this game. I don't want to put my mind down or anything like that because something happened. I just try to do my best all the time."
There's only one problem: When Ramirez gets a break, he starts to feel too strong. When he feels too strong, he starts to overthrow.
"I feel so loose sometimes, and when I feel so loose, I try to throw so hard," the Dominican righthander said.
He got himself into trouble in the eighth inning on Wednesday, walking Hanley Ramirez after an eight-pitch battle and leaving a fastball in the middle of the plate for Jorge Cantu to rip into left field for a base hit.
The final two pitches he threw Ramirez both were fastballs out of the zone. Three of the four pitches he threw Cantu, including the pitch on which the designated hitter singled, were fastballs.
He then started Jeremy Hermida with yet another fastball up and away and got a hard-hit fly ball with a fastball on the outside part of the plate.
That's when he went almost exclusively to his offspeed pitches. There's no better way to corral runaway velocity, after all, than by throwing offspeed pitches.
"I threw my slider," he said. "My slider and my changeup are almost the same speed. People sometimes confuse them because sometimes it's over here, and sometimes it's over here. It's my slider, but it looks like the same pitch."
Dan Uggla took back-to-back offspeed pitches for strikes, falling behind quickly. He then didn't chase a slider below the knees and fouled off a fastball up and a slider on the outer half of the plate before striking out on a slider up and away.
Cody Ross then saw offspeed pitches -- it's even more difficult to tell the two apart when they're up in the zone -- on five of the six pitches Ramirez threw to him. He swung and missed at an offspeed pitch down in the zone on a 3-1 count, and he swung and missed at a slider up in the zone for the third strike that ended the inning.
"Once he's able to get some swings, get some guys involved in the at-bat, that offspeed comes into play," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He's throwing hard, but once he gets guys swinging, the deception with the offspeed comes into play."
It was an important escape for a young pitcher who has allowed three earned runs in his last 2 2/3 innings after starting the season with 15 scoreless innings.
"I want to throw the best I can," Ramirez said. "I want to put 100 percent into it when I'm pitching, but too many things can happen in this game. I don't want to put my mind down or anything like that because something happened. I just try to do my best all the time."
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Ramon Ramirez's long road to Fenway
The question almost made Ramon Ramirez laugh.
The Red Sox reliever had just walked into his apartment late Wednesday night, a couple of hours after giving up back-to-back home runs to Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira. It was easily his worst outing of the season. The timing was terrible. It was the first time his mother and his wife, visiting from the Dominican Republic, had seen him pitch at Fenway Park.
“Are you mad?” his mother asked.
He almost laughed. Mad? How could he be mad?
Ten years ago, he was hauling boxes in a Coca-Cola warehouse by day and working on his pitching by night, throwing and running and watching Pedro Martinez pitch on TV as often as he possibly could. He was out of baseball. He wasn’t yet 20 years old.
Now, though, he’s perhaps the best relief pitcher in the American League. Acquired from Kansas City for outfielder Coco Crisp, his ERA is a career-best 2.10. Opponents are hitting a ridiculous .176 against him, and he gets more swings and misses than anyone on the staff.
He gave up two home runs in a game his team ended up winning. Mad? How could he possibly be mad?
“I said, ‘No, I’m not mad. This is a game, and this is going to happen sometimes,” said Ramirez, whose English has improved enough that he only occasionally speaks with the assistance of a team translator. “I said, ‘Don’t worry. Don’t worry. This happens in the game. I feel so happy because you are here and my wife is here. This is what makes me feel happy – no matter what happens in the game.’”
Ramirez signed with the Texas Rangers organization as a 16-year-old and played in the outfield for a team in Santiago, the city nearest his home, for a couple of months in 1997. But the Rangers sponsored two Dominican teams – the second was in Santo Domingo – and only needed one.
When they consolidated the two teams, Ramirez was left without a team. He didn’t play organized baseball for the next three years.
He had to take a job at a Coca-Cola factory nearby. The job paid 3,000 pesos a month – “about 50 bucks,” he said – but it was enough to support his wife and his growing family. His first daughter had been born just before he turned 16 years old; his second daughter had been born two years later.
All he could do was practice his baseball whenever he got a chance. Having decided he wanted to be a pitcher, he watched legends like Martinez and John Smoltz every time he got the chance and did everything he could to keep himself in shape for his next opportunity.
“I practiced for almost three years and a half,” Ramirez said. “The year has 365 days – and I run every day. It’s hard. It’s hard, but I love that.”
He couldn’t keep kidding himself forever, though. When he tried out for a spot at a baseball academy run by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan’s Central League, he told himself he’d hang up his spikes if this last effort didn’t work out.
***
Ramirez does one simple drill just about every time he throws. Instead of pitching off the top of the mound, he pitches off the back of the mound with the catcher a few feet in front of the plate. It’s a drill he learned from Kansas City pitching coach Bob McClure during his one season with the Royals; the idea is that he’ll keep the ball down better when he’s striding downhill if he can keep the ball down when he’s striding uphill.
“He did that drill relentlessly,” McClure said. “After a couple of weeks, we saw better results – he kept the ball down real well Once he started to keep the ball down and getting good results, he was sold on it. Keeping the ball down is No. 1.”
Learning to pitch still is a work in progress for Ramirez. When he tried out for the Carp Baseball Academy in August of 2000, he couldn’t even say he was a pitcher yet. Other than the extra attention he’d paid to pitchers both on television and in his games in the Rangers organization, he had no idea how to pitch.
“It’s not like pitching because I had never pitched in a game,” he said. “They wanted to see how fast I was throwing.”
(For the first half of his interview with the Union Leader, Ramirez spoke in Spanish through staff assistant Alex Ochoa – but for the second half of the interview, he spoke in English.)
Eighty players participated in the tryout. Ramirez was the only one to earn a spot at the academy – the same organization from which Alfonso Soriano launched his career. By the next spring, he’d been sent to Japan. That’s where he learned to pitch.
“He was throwing 100-pitch bullpens every day,” Ochoa said. “All the running they did, he would have never expected that. But it was a great experience because he got to learn how to pitch by throwing so much and staying in shape and how they run for long periods of time and get that stamina.”
Just prior to the 2003 season, he’d pitched well enough that the Yankees spent $300,000 to buy his rights from Hiroshima. Three years and a trade to Colorado later, he pitched in the major leagues for the first time. When he pitched at Fenway Park for the first time a year ago, he whiffed Dustin Pedroia and Manny Ramirez.
***
Ramirez quickly has become the linchpin of perhaps the best bullpen in baseball – and not just when he’s on the mound. He’s the only pitcher out in the bullpen who can communicate with everyone whether they speak English (Daniel Bard, Manny Delcarmen, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon), Spanish (Delcarmen), or Japanese-speakers (Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito).
“He knows some simple phrases in Japanese, and he’s always joking with me and throwing these Japanese words at me,” Saito said through team interpreter Masa Hoshino. “You see him learning English from Masterson, you see him speaking Spanish sometimes with Manny, and Papelbon jumps in there every now and again and tells everybody to speak English.”
While Ramirez began the season as the quietest guy out in the bullpen, he’s certainly opened up. He swapped his first stories with Saito over lunch in spring training, and he’s gradually coming out of his shell with the rest of the guys on his side of the locker room.
They all know that his wife and mother have come to visit. They all know his children – he has four now, ranging in age from three years old to 12 – are coming to visit once they’re finished with school.
They all know that his oldest son, eight years old, so far has resisted playing baseball. They’ve heard all about how he gets enjoys going to school than he enjoys tagging along with his father on the baseball field.
That’s just fine by Ramirez. No one, after all, knows how important it is to find your own way than then best pitcher in the Red Sox bullpen this season.
“For me, I respect what my boy wants to do,” Ramirez said, speaking without the aid of a translator. “If he wants to play baseball, I try to help, but if he doesn’t want to, I don’t want to say, ‘OK, you’ve got to play baseball because I’m a baseball player.’ No. Do whatever you feel is comfortable for you. That’s what worked for my life.”
The Red Sox reliever had just walked into his apartment late Wednesday night, a couple of hours after giving up back-to-back home runs to Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira. It was easily his worst outing of the season. The timing was terrible. It was the first time his mother and his wife, visiting from the Dominican Republic, had seen him pitch at Fenway Park.
“Are you mad?” his mother asked.
He almost laughed. Mad? How could he be mad?
Ten years ago, he was hauling boxes in a Coca-Cola warehouse by day and working on his pitching by night, throwing and running and watching Pedro Martinez pitch on TV as often as he possibly could. He was out of baseball. He wasn’t yet 20 years old.
Now, though, he’s perhaps the best relief pitcher in the American League. Acquired from Kansas City for outfielder Coco Crisp, his ERA is a career-best 2.10. Opponents are hitting a ridiculous .176 against him, and he gets more swings and misses than anyone on the staff.
He gave up two home runs in a game his team ended up winning. Mad? How could he possibly be mad?
“I said, ‘No, I’m not mad. This is a game, and this is going to happen sometimes,” said Ramirez, whose English has improved enough that he only occasionally speaks with the assistance of a team translator. “I said, ‘Don’t worry. Don’t worry. This happens in the game. I feel so happy because you are here and my wife is here. This is what makes me feel happy – no matter what happens in the game.’”
Ramirez signed with the Texas Rangers organization as a 16-year-old and played in the outfield for a team in Santiago, the city nearest his home, for a couple of months in 1997. But the Rangers sponsored two Dominican teams – the second was in Santo Domingo – and only needed one.
When they consolidated the two teams, Ramirez was left without a team. He didn’t play organized baseball for the next three years.
He had to take a job at a Coca-Cola factory nearby. The job paid 3,000 pesos a month – “about 50 bucks,” he said – but it was enough to support his wife and his growing family. His first daughter had been born just before he turned 16 years old; his second daughter had been born two years later.
All he could do was practice his baseball whenever he got a chance. Having decided he wanted to be a pitcher, he watched legends like Martinez and John Smoltz every time he got the chance and did everything he could to keep himself in shape for his next opportunity.
“I practiced for almost three years and a half,” Ramirez said. “The year has 365 days – and I run every day. It’s hard. It’s hard, but I love that.”
He couldn’t keep kidding himself forever, though. When he tried out for a spot at a baseball academy run by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan’s Central League, he told himself he’d hang up his spikes if this last effort didn’t work out.
***
Ramirez does one simple drill just about every time he throws. Instead of pitching off the top of the mound, he pitches off the back of the mound with the catcher a few feet in front of the plate. It’s a drill he learned from Kansas City pitching coach Bob McClure during his one season with the Royals; the idea is that he’ll keep the ball down better when he’s striding downhill if he can keep the ball down when he’s striding uphill.
“He did that drill relentlessly,” McClure said. “After a couple of weeks, we saw better results – he kept the ball down real well Once he started to keep the ball down and getting good results, he was sold on it. Keeping the ball down is No. 1.”
Learning to pitch still is a work in progress for Ramirez. When he tried out for the Carp Baseball Academy in August of 2000, he couldn’t even say he was a pitcher yet. Other than the extra attention he’d paid to pitchers both on television and in his games in the Rangers organization, he had no idea how to pitch.
“It’s not like pitching because I had never pitched in a game,” he said. “They wanted to see how fast I was throwing.”
(For the first half of his interview with the Union Leader, Ramirez spoke in Spanish through staff assistant Alex Ochoa – but for the second half of the interview, he spoke in English.)
Eighty players participated in the tryout. Ramirez was the only one to earn a spot at the academy – the same organization from which Alfonso Soriano launched his career. By the next spring, he’d been sent to Japan. That’s where he learned to pitch.
“He was throwing 100-pitch bullpens every day,” Ochoa said. “All the running they did, he would have never expected that. But it was a great experience because he got to learn how to pitch by throwing so much and staying in shape and how they run for long periods of time and get that stamina.”
Just prior to the 2003 season, he’d pitched well enough that the Yankees spent $300,000 to buy his rights from Hiroshima. Three years and a trade to Colorado later, he pitched in the major leagues for the first time. When he pitched at Fenway Park for the first time a year ago, he whiffed Dustin Pedroia and Manny Ramirez.
***
Ramirez quickly has become the linchpin of perhaps the best bullpen in baseball – and not just when he’s on the mound. He’s the only pitcher out in the bullpen who can communicate with everyone whether they speak English (Daniel Bard, Manny Delcarmen, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon), Spanish (Delcarmen), or Japanese-speakers (Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito).
“He knows some simple phrases in Japanese, and he’s always joking with me and throwing these Japanese words at me,” Saito said through team interpreter Masa Hoshino. “You see him learning English from Masterson, you see him speaking Spanish sometimes with Manny, and Papelbon jumps in there every now and again and tells everybody to speak English.”
While Ramirez began the season as the quietest guy out in the bullpen, he’s certainly opened up. He swapped his first stories with Saito over lunch in spring training, and he’s gradually coming out of his shell with the rest of the guys on his side of the locker room.
They all know that his wife and mother have come to visit. They all know his children – he has four now, ranging in age from three years old to 12 – are coming to visit once they’re finished with school.
They all know that his oldest son, eight years old, so far has resisted playing baseball. They’ve heard all about how he gets enjoys going to school than he enjoys tagging along with his father on the baseball field.
That’s just fine by Ramirez. No one, after all, knows how important it is to find your own way than then best pitcher in the Red Sox bullpen this season.
“For me, I respect what my boy wants to do,” Ramirez said, speaking without the aid of a translator. “If he wants to play baseball, I try to help, but if he doesn’t want to, I don’t want to say, ‘OK, you’ve got to play baseball because I’m a baseball player.’ No. Do whatever you feel is comfortable for you. That’s what worked for my life.”
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.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Ramirez sets down the lefties
Terry Francona didn't exactly give Ramon Ramirez favorable circumstances when he summoned him from the Fenway Park bullpen for the first time. Ramirez is far, far better against righties than lefties -- righties have hit .198 off him in his career, while lefties hit .283 -- and Francona called on him to face Akinori Iwamura (lefty), Jason Bartlett (righty) and Carl Crawford (lefty).
Predictably, Ramirez looked sensational against Bartlett and serviceable against the other two. Iwamura flied to center and Crawford flied to right; Bartlett, on the other hand, looked silly swinging at a 94-mile-an-hour fastball at his eyes.
(Here's the dilemma: Do we make it sound more dramatic by pointing out that he struck out the Most Valuable Player of the American League champions, or do we make it sound less dramatic by pointing out that Bartlett isn't, at all, in any way, a good hitter?)
***
Jason Varitek sure is hitting the ball hard tonight, isn't he?
***
Give Bob Davidson points for consistency. If the pitch doesn't hit the dirt, he's not going to call it low. It's like he gets bonus points sfor degree of difficulty. (As in: It's more difficult to call a strike if it isn't really a strike.)
Jed Lowrie just struck out on a pitch below his knees -- just like Jason Bay did in the sixth and just like David Ortiz did in the third. At a certain point, the Red Sox have to make that adjustment, don't they?
Predictably, Ramirez looked sensational against Bartlett and serviceable against the other two. Iwamura flied to center and Crawford flied to right; Bartlett, on the other hand, looked silly swinging at a 94-mile-an-hour fastball at his eyes.
(Here's the dilemma: Do we make it sound more dramatic by pointing out that he struck out the Most Valuable Player of the American League champions, or do we make it sound less dramatic by pointing out that Bartlett isn't, at all, in any way, a good hitter?)
***
Jason Varitek sure is hitting the ball hard tonight, isn't he?
***
Give Bob Davidson points for consistency. If the pitch doesn't hit the dirt, he's not going to call it low. It's like he gets bonus points sfor degree of difficulty. (As in: It's more difficult to call a strike if it isn't really a strike.)
Jed Lowrie just struck out on a pitch below his knees -- just like Jason Bay did in the sixth and just like David Ortiz did in the third. At a certain point, the Red Sox have to make that adjustment, don't they?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Rocky outing for Ramirez
Red Sox fans don't know much about Ramon Ramirez, the flame-thrower acquired from Kansas City in a trade for Coco Crisp. But manager Terry Francona certainly is excited to add him to his bullpen.
The 27-year-old right-handed has a 3.62 ERA in his career, which is even more impressive considering he spent his first two big-league seasons in Colorado. Outside Coors Field, in fact, his ERA is just 2.14; at Coors Field, it was 6.62.
A year ago with the Royals, Ramirez appeared in 71 games and compiled a 2.64 ERA. He struck out 70 and walked 31, though six of those were intentional.
"Strike-thrower," Francona said. "Doesn’t back down. Real tough on righties. Look at his numbers outside of Coors Field the last couple of years, and it’s a really low ERA. They got his lunch a couple of times in Colorado, but other than that, a pretty good ERA."
They got his lunch on Tuesday at City of Palms Park, too -- but there were a few extenuating circumstances.
He surrendered a bunt single to Norris Hopper to open the inning and induced a fly ball from Jacque Jones. So far, no problem. He then had Hopper all but picked off only to see first baseman Lars Anderson wait too long to relay the throw to second base and allow Hopper to dive in safely.
Jay Bruce then lofted a lazy fly ball into foul territory; Paul McAnulty settled under it and appear to make the catch before dropping it on the transfer, trying to get it back to the infield to keep Hopper from going to third. The third-base umpire, however, ruled that McAnulty hadn't caught the ball.
"I'm not going to go out and yell at Randy Marsh on March (3rd)," Francona said wryly after the game. "But I think maybe he did (drop it on the transfer)."
After that, Bruce turned on a pitch and crushed it over the right-field fence. Brandon Phillips followed with a sharp single to center; when he tried to steal second, Jason Varitek threw the ball into center field. Edwin Encarnacion then hit a home run to left field.
"We gave them five outs," Francona said. "He was up with a couple of pitches, and he paid the price. But we didn't convert the popup and we picked a guy off, so we gave them five outs -- and when you leave a couple of balls up, that's not a recipe for having a real good inning. ...
"He's trying to develop arm strength, work on his off-speed. He's competitive. None of them want to give up runs. It's just to get in the flow, getting your feet under you, getting used to throwing in a game."
***
Postgame entertainment: Francona went over the Drew situation again after the game for the benefit of reporters who hadn't been there the first time. Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy asked one follow-up question and then said, "Just so you know, this is Boston, and there's a tendency to over-react to everything."
Francona grinned.
"Go ahead," he said. "I'm telling you what happened. I can't change my story. Have a ball with it."
He paused for a moment before continuing: "If it was that big of a deal, we wouldn't have told you guys because nobody asked me. You crack media guys didn't even know he was gone."
The 27-year-old right-handed has a 3.62 ERA in his career, which is even more impressive considering he spent his first two big-league seasons in Colorado. Outside Coors Field, in fact, his ERA is just 2.14; at Coors Field, it was 6.62.
A year ago with the Royals, Ramirez appeared in 71 games and compiled a 2.64 ERA. He struck out 70 and walked 31, though six of those were intentional.
"Strike-thrower," Francona said. "Doesn’t back down. Real tough on righties. Look at his numbers outside of Coors Field the last couple of years, and it’s a really low ERA. They got his lunch a couple of times in Colorado, but other than that, a pretty good ERA."
They got his lunch on Tuesday at City of Palms Park, too -- but there were a few extenuating circumstances.
He surrendered a bunt single to Norris Hopper to open the inning and induced a fly ball from Jacque Jones. So far, no problem. He then had Hopper all but picked off only to see first baseman Lars Anderson wait too long to relay the throw to second base and allow Hopper to dive in safely.
Jay Bruce then lofted a lazy fly ball into foul territory; Paul McAnulty settled under it and appear to make the catch before dropping it on the transfer, trying to get it back to the infield to keep Hopper from going to third. The third-base umpire, however, ruled that McAnulty hadn't caught the ball.
"I'm not going to go out and yell at Randy Marsh on March (3rd)," Francona said wryly after the game. "But I think maybe he did (drop it on the transfer)."
After that, Bruce turned on a pitch and crushed it over the right-field fence. Brandon Phillips followed with a sharp single to center; when he tried to steal second, Jason Varitek threw the ball into center field. Edwin Encarnacion then hit a home run to left field.
"We gave them five outs," Francona said. "He was up with a couple of pitches, and he paid the price. But we didn't convert the popup and we picked a guy off, so we gave them five outs -- and when you leave a couple of balls up, that's not a recipe for having a real good inning. ...
"He's trying to develop arm strength, work on his off-speed. He's competitive. None of them want to give up runs. It's just to get in the flow, getting your feet under you, getting used to throwing in a game."
***
Postgame entertainment: Francona went over the Drew situation again after the game for the benefit of reporters who hadn't been there the first time. Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy asked one follow-up question and then said, "Just so you know, this is Boston, and there's a tendency to over-react to everything."
Francona grinned.
"Go ahead," he said. "I'm telling you what happened. I can't change my story. Have a ball with it."
He paused for a moment before continuing: "If it was that big of a deal, we wouldn't have told you guys because nobody asked me. You crack media guys didn't even know he was gone."
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