Jonathan Papelbon

n 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.

Continue reading "MLB's Top Five Bullpens"

Dear Readers (all five of you):

I've been active on my other blog at www.fannation.com, under the username JFro, but I continually forget to publish those posts here. That said, the next five posts should be considered my belated MLB preseason predictions -- a preview, of sorts. There's the top five infields, outfields, bullpens, and starting rotations, and of course The Big Kahuna:

Continue reading "Note about forthcoming posts"

with Detroit topping Seattle 2-1 in 15 innings last Sunday, the Yankees coming from behind to beat Jonathan Papelbon and the Red Sox in 10 innings on Sunday, Boston edging out Minnesota in a 1-0 stalemate with a Manny Ramirez RBI single in the eighth on Monday, Hiroki Kuroda flirting with a perfect game on Monday, the Pirates scoring three in the eighth to beat the Astros 4-3 on Tuesday, and the White Sox outlasting the Royals 8-7 in a back-and-forth 13-inning game on Tuesday.

Continue reading "Mets Go For Seven Straight Tonight at Shea"

erson’s future is as a reliever.

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.

Continue reading "Get Masterson in the Bullpen, Now!"

h;a $55,00 raise from last year–comes on the heels of Prince Fielder slamming the Brewers and Jonathan Papelbon claiming the Red Sox need to pay him more. Granted these are all star players who are certainly worth more than they are getting paid, they’ve hardly paid their dues in the Majors and with only two years under their respective belts, haven’t earned the right to start telling their front offices how to conduct business. They will all get their chance to cash in next year when they are eligible for arbitration (players are eligible for arbitration after three full seasons of Major League service time and can file for free agency after six). While it would behoove teams to lock up their young stars, they are under no obligation to and certainly shouldn’t be told how to run the organization by 24 and 25 year olds. Besides, these guys aren’t exactly hurting for money at $400-500,000 per year. Forty years ago, most players made so little they often had to get part time jobs in the off season.

Continue reading "Looking Forward to the Hank Steinbrenner ..."

The recent induction of "The Spaceman" Bill Lee to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame brought on a flood of memories, which, in addition to putting a smile on my face, brought to mind a rather cogent fact of Red Sox Nation life: We have always LOVED our characters; the stranger the better, it would seem, and Lee would have to rank up there among the strangest.

Continue reading "The Spaceman, Manny being Manny and ..."

nt part in the Red Sox title run last year led by Dustin Pedroia winning the Rookie of the Year and Jonathan Papelbon definitively closing out games. Clay Buchholz pitched a no hitter in his second major league start, Jacoby Ellsbury stepped in when he was needed and became a vital part of the offense, and Jon Lester got the win in the World Series clincher. All are expected to be key contributors to the team this season. However, this influx of talent from the minors has not left this cupboard bare as Boston’s farm system still ranks in Baseball America’s top 5. Here are some of the next big prospects to keep an eye on in camp this spring and follow their progress this summer.

Continue reading "Boston Farm System Still Flush With Prospects"