Red Sox Report: Keeping Papelbon A No-Brainer!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
If there were ever any doubt about what the Red Sox should do regarding Jonathan Papelbon this offseason, it should have been eliminated last night in Minnesota.
Jon Lester and the Red Sox had battled the Twins to a 2-2 score after 7 innings at Target Field when Leter, who was already over 100 pitches for the game, was asked to come out and pitch the 8th. Unfortunately, Lester couldn’t keep the score tied at two, nor could Boston reliever Alfredo Aceves.
They gave up 3 runs to the Twins in the bottom of the 8th and lost the game 5-2 costing them a chance to sweep Minnesota for the first time since 2000.
The reason that things played out the way that they did in the late innings had to do with the fact that both Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard were deemed unavailable for the game. Papelbon was definitively ruled out of the game having pitched the previous three. Bard had pitched 3 of the previous 4 games and was also believed to be off limits.
As a result, Lester was left in the game a little too long and the bullpen couldn’t limit the damage leading to the loss.
There has been a lot of speculation in these parts that Bard is being groomed as the closer of the future for Boston. And, for that reason, Red Sox management may let Papelbon walk this offseason and take whatever draft pick compensation they receive for his signing elsewhere.
Let me be the first to say that this would be a terrible mistake.
Baseball has become a specialized sport to the point where starting pitchers have strict pitch counts. There are long relievers, set-up men, closers and the list goes on and on.
And through it all, what we have witnessed is teams that do a good job of owning the 8th and 9th innings, usually win a lot of games.
The New York Yankees have been the best example of this. It all started back in the mid 90’s when a young Mariano Rivera was the set-up man for closer John Wettland. New York starters needed to pitch just 7 solid innings because that duo would slam the door shut on opponents in the game’s final two innings.
This is the same dynamic that the Red Sox have with Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon. Does Theo Epstein really want to mess with that? I certainly wouldn’t.
There has been a feeling in these parts over the past couple of years that maybe Papelbon was losing his effectiveness. He has put those fears to rest this season essentially silencing his critics.
Had Bard and Papelbon been available tonight there was no guarantee that Boston would have won. But their chances of winning would have been dramatically better than by leaving Lester in too long and following him up with Aceves.
Jonathan Papelbon didn’t even pitch Wednesday night but his value to the team increased exponentially.
-Big Papi is on a tear! While some wondered if his post All-Star game slump was the result of participating in the Homerun Derby, that is now a thing of the past. Ortiz has been on fire lately. His homer in the top of the 8th (#23) tied the game at 2. In his last 4 games, Ortiz is 9-15 (.600 avg). He has hit 2 HR’s with 5 RBI and 4 runs scored.
-Jon Lester had some control problems Wednesday night (5 walks) but he certainly pitched well enough to win. Unfortunately, Minnesota’s Nick Blackburn stymied Boston bats all night long helping the Twins salvage the series finale at home.
-Boston’s loss paired with the Yankees’ 9-3 win over the Angels leaves the Red Sox 1 ½ games up on New York in the American League East. Boston is 8 ½ clear of the Angels in the A.L. Wild Card Race.
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