Why Not Papelbon?

Red Sox twitter has been filled with a couple topics lately. One is that the Nationals cut ties with nutzo closer Jonathan Papelbon. The general consensus seems to be that the Red Sox need to stay far far away from him. He's a crazy loon who has no place on this team.

The other topic has been the Red Sox bullpen. They have been struggling. It seems that at least one of them struggles in every game. Even when one of them pitches really well (Ziegler) it's to save the game from the implosion of another. Last night's win almost wasn't thanks to the bullpen coughing up the lead that Mookie gave the team. People aren't confident that Kimbrel can have a clean inning. They have no faith in Abad. Tazawa is so exhausted that he even looks tired in the dugout. They're all lamenting that the Sox only made one addition at the trade deadline, and he doesn't seem to be helping.

Get where I'm going with this?

So, the Sox bullpen is terrible. It's their fatal flaw. It could ruin their chances at going deep into the playoffs.

But, they shouldn't take a look at an available bullpen arm?

What's the harm in poking around? What's the harm in having a discussion. If things work out, what's the harm in giving him a try?

Assume things work out the way the Sox would want. Papelbon is willing to sign with a team, and not be the closer. He's not looking for big money because it's just a "prove it" contract for a couple months.

What would be the problem with giving him a try?

Would he be a problem in the clubhouse? He wasn't when he was here last time. Seems to me he fit in pretty well, on a World Championship team. Sure, all his boys are gone from those years. But, think Ortiz or Pedroia would let him get away with too much crap? Or David Price? And, if he does...cut him. Nothing lost except a little cash. He knows it, and you know it. 

Afraid he'd cost you a game? He might. He might go all Gagne and blow up outside the closer role. But, Abad's going to do that anyway, from what I hear. If Tazawa keeps on his current pace, he'll blow three. If Papelbon can't pitch? Cut him.

But, What if he's good? Heck, what if he's adequate? What if he can take even a third of the innings that Tazawa would have to take otherwise? Or Barnes? What if he can hold a few three run leads in the seventh inning?

Because, couldn't he be good? Back in his comfort zone? Back with Farrell? Back in Boston? If it could work anywhere, wouldn't it be Boston?

Isn't it worth a shot?

The Right Mindset

I've heard that some teams have practiced celebrating winning a championship. Get everyone in the dugout, and practice running out into a pig pile. 

Why?

It's not because they need to figure out the logistics of the dash from the dugout, or want to make sure everyone can do it without tripping. It's because they want everyone to get in the proper mindset. Personally, I think it's a bit overboard. But, they want the team to think like a champion. Imagine themselves doing it. Get it in their heads that this could actually happen to them. That actually makes a little sense, even if it goes to far.

So, if pretending to accomplish something is helpful, how great would it be to actually do it? That has to be better. Right? That's exactly what the Red Sox have accomplished over the last few days. They had been struggling is a few areas. The offense was hit or miss (pun intended). Their bullpen was blowing games left and right. Their starters were starting, but not exactly finishing. They were in a spiral. 

Then they weren't.

The last four games saw the Sox actually be successful at things that had troubled them the week before. And they didn't even have to pretend. They did it.

Their offense came alive. They saw very clearly that they could score runs. Lots of runs. Off a good pitcher. They saw that the starters could work deep enough to get the win. (Even Clay's short outing was due more to his spot start than his performance.) They saw that the bullpen could hold a lead. Even more important, they saw that one guy struggling does not always lead to a tailspin. If one guy walks the bases loaded, the next guy can strike out the side. It can happen. It can happen against bad teams. And, today, it happened against a first place club.

Because that was really the one piece missing. Sure, they can beat up on the doormats of the National League in Fenway. But, they have a lot of tough games coming up. Tough road games. Can they do it in those games too? 

Yes. Yes they can.

They went into Cleveland on a one game stopgap, and took down the division leaders. Their starter went deep. Their hitters hit home runs off a guy who gives up a lot of them. Their bullpen closed it out.

The Red Sox can do it. We all just saw them do it. They can keep doing it.

They didn't even have to practice it beforehand. 

My Positive ARod Story

As Alex Rodiguez plays in his final game with the Yankees (we assume) I thought it was a good time to tell about a positive experience I had with ARod.

I know. Amazed I actually have one of those.

About 20 years ago, I went to a Red Sox vs. Mariners game at Fenway. Actually, looking at the ticket stub it’s almost exactly 20 years ago. A coworker of mine bought the tickets, so we were sitting in Section 9. We were sitting there before the game, and it was raining. Hard. They were actually telling people that there were thunderstorms in the area and they should take cover under the grandstand. We must have been under the roof, because we were sitting in our seats. (Or, I suppose, we might have been young and stupid enough to sit in the rain.) As we sat there, we noticed a crowd was forming just to the left of the visitor’s dugout. Someone was signing autographs in the rain.

Alex Rodriguez.

My coworker was a big ARod fan. And, why wouldn’t he be? ARod was having a monster year, and should have ended up winning the MVP. So, we discussed whether or not we should go over and try for an autograph. As you know, section 9 is out right field, so it would be quite a distance to walk over there. Not that we weren’t up for the walk. But, really, how long would a guy be out there signing? In the rain?

We decided that we might as well give it a shot and made our way over. Amazingly ARod was still out there when we got there and added ourselves to the scrum. Eventually ARod made his way to me, and I was able to acquire this.

Yup. He signed it upside down. Makes sense, I suppose. The ironic part is that ARod did stop signing not long after we got there, so my coworker was not able to get an autograph. Naturally, I framed up mine nicely and kept it in the office where he could see it at all times.

You may wonder why this game isn’t included in my ARod Live list. Well, did I mention the rain? After sitting in it for long enough, we gave up and went home. Of course, my coworker tried to insist that he needed my ticket stub in order to get a refund for the ticket after the game was rained out. I assured him that I was willing to eat the cost and keep my stub. As it turned out, the rain did eventually stop and they got the game in after all. 

I always thought it was incredibly nice of ARod to be out there. It was raining. Nobody else was out there doing anything. But there he was signing autographs in a visiting park. It wasn’t for Mariners fans, it was for Red Sox fans, and he was still out there.

Have to give him credit for that. 

Ichiro Suzuki Live

You may have heard. It was in all the papers. Ichiro notched the 3,000^th hit of his major league career yesterday. I remember when Ichiro first came into the league, and his rookie cards were hot items. I remember thinking that people buying his cards were crazy. Sure, he was a great player. Sure he’d have some good years. But, he was 27 already. Not only is that old to start a career, but his game is based almost entirely on speed. If he lost a step or two, it would really show when he stopped beating out infield hits. His career was limited. He wouldn’t have enough time left to have a Hall of Fame type career. He may hit almost 300 hits a year for a while, but he doesn’t have the time left to reach a career milestone like 2,500 hits. Certainly not 3,000.

Yeah, I’m an idiot.

That was my first though upon hearing the news. My second? A question.

How many of those 3,000 hits did I see in person? I knew I had seen Ichiro play live. I must have seen a bunch of those hits. So, I grabbed the scorebooks again to find the answer:

Yup. Two. Ichiro had 2 hits with me in the stadium, and 2,998 without me. Apparently I’m not a lucky charm of any sort. In fact, of the three games I saw him play, he only got a hit in one of them. 

The thing that I think is even more significant than the two hits, though, is the last entry. April 10 of 2007, Ichiro was 0-3 with three strikeouts. How often could that have happened in his career? Josh Beckett apparently knew something that other people did not. Or, Beckett was just THAT good in 2007.

Beyond that, the small sample size makes most of the other numbers meaningless. I don’t see Ichiro getting 189 walks in a season. Nor do I see him batting .286. 

But, that doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that I got to see a great player do what he does best. 

Twice.

How did Ichiro perform when you were in the park?

Hello? Is This On?

Hi there! Miss me? I  know, it's been weirdly quiet over here this last week or so. Basically, I was out of town for a bit, and didn't dare schedule posts over the trade deadline. I knew once I did, the Sox would package Betts and bradley in a trade and everything i said would look ridiculous. (Almost as ridiculous as packaging Betts and Bradley in any trade that didn't return Harper and Scherzer.) Things were odd enough with all the west coast games as it was. You did't need me spouting off on things that didn't happen.

So, what did happen? A mixed bag really. Lots of wins, some losses. The division and the wild card standings are so packed that the Sox can go from leading both to being out of the playoffs practically overnight. Various injuries have caused the Sox to be without their usual line-up for quite a while now. So, things are really jumbled. 

Which is good, in a way. The Sox went (and are going through) a stretch where they don't have Pedroia, Ortiz, and Hanley in the line-up at one time. But, they sit merely 2 games out of the division lead, and have the second wild card by half a game. Imagine what will happen when everyone is, you know, actually playing.

Same goes for the rest of the team. The Sox just got Kimbrel back from the DL, but Koji is still there. So, the bullpen isn't full strength yet. Even so, they were able to throw five scoreless innings the other night to help the team get a win. Once again, the Sox are holding their own without being at fill strength.

Imagine how much fun these last two months will be once they get rolling.

2 games will be nothing!