5-(Tie) Boston Red Sox: Justin Masterson (or Manny Delcarmen), Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon.
and Kansas City Royals: Robinson Tejeda, Ron Mahay, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, and Joakim Soria.
5-(Tie) Boston Red Sox: Justin Masterson (or Manny Delcarmen), Ramon Ramirez, Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon.
and Kansas City Royals: Robinson Tejeda, Ron Mahay, Juan Cruz, Kyle Farnsworth, and Joakim Soria.
Posted by John Frascella | No comments yet
The Red Sox need help badly in a bullpen which, outside of Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima, has been shaky at best and putrid at its worst. Manny Delcarmen, who was expected to step into Mike Timlin’s role as the top right handed set up man, has been awful, especially when it comes to inherited baserunners. Opposing hitters boast a .385 batting average against with runners in scoring position when facing Delcarmen. Javier Lopez has given up 6 walks already in only 9 and 1/3 innings pitchers, 5 of those to the lefties who he is usually brought on specifically to get out. Mike Timlin is doing better after a shaky return from the disabled list but still sports and ERA of 13.50. In fact, after Papelbon and Okajima, the only other reliever with an ERA under 4.00 is David Aardsma.
Posted by Joe Sauer | No comments yet
Then, of course, there's Hideki Okajima, who was awarded Major League Baseball's "Set-Up Man of the Year" award, over the Yankee's Joba Chamberlain and Rafael Betancourt of the Indians. Originally hired to be little more than a 'pal' and cultural adjustment tool for Dice-K, he turned out to be a very important building block in the edifice of last year's championship.
Posted by Skip Maloney | No comments yet