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?

Green Grass

There's an old saying that applies to the Red Sox these days. "The grass is always greener on the other side of fence. Until you get there, and see that it's artificial turf"

That quote has come to mind a lot lately. Especially as it applies to the Red Sox pitching staff. Now, I'll bet the first to admit that the staff did not exactly shower itself in excellence this weekend. Maybe even the past week. But, some of the tweets I saw made me think that people just don't get it. "We can't win meaningful games with this bullpen!" "This rotation is killing us!" "If this rotation doesn't improve, the Sox can't win anything."

Now, again, I'm not saying the pitching staff is perfect. It's the "can't win" portion of those comments that get to me. Let's take a look at the situation that the Red Sox currently find themselves in. They sit in a virtual tie for first place in the American League East, a mere .003 behind the Orioles. They have the second most wins in the American League, one behind the Rangers. So, clearly, they can win with this pitching staff. In fact, since they have put Clay Buchholz in the bullpen and Joe Kelly in the minors, some would say the rotation is actually better than it was with them in it. So, they have won games with a rotation worse than what they have now. They have also won games with the bullpen they currently have. A lot of games. More than almost anyone else in the league. So, why do people think they "can't win"? 

Are they focused on the "meaningful" portion of the tweets? I'd argue that since more than a third of the season is gone, the fact that they're still at the top of the division is very meaningful. I'd say that two months of wins have meaning. 

So, are you talking about the Playoffs? September? Are those the "meaningful" ones? Well, so far the Sox have played six games against Cleveland, and seven against Baltimore. So, the other teams that would be in the playoffs have made up almost a quarter of the Red Sox schedule thus far. I'd say the fact that they're still putting up wins is a good sign. And if you want to get really specific and say that the playoffs are all that matter, the pen and rotation will be much different. Joe Kelly won't start in the playoffs. So, the fact that he imploded won't affect the rotation in "meaningful" games. 

So, yes. The Red Sox staff has had a rough stretch. There have been a few garbage outings. But, if you're saying it's going to kill the Sox when Koji sometimes has a bad inning, then you're never going to be happy. Could he blow a playoff game? Of course he could. So could Kimbrel. Jonathan Papelbon threw a terrible game once. Marino Rivera blew two saves in two playoff games on the same day. Sometimes people have bad innings. Since the Sox are at the top of the league, clearly other teams are having bad innings too. And bad games. And bad stretches. It happens. It happens to the Sox. It happens to the Orioles. It happens to the Cubs. The good teams overcome the bad spots. Just like the Sox have overcome theirs.

So having a bad inning in May doesn't not mean the team can't win with that pitcher. Or group of pitchers. 

Especially when you can clearly see that they have been doing exactly that.

For the past two months.

Red Sox All-Ring Team

I’m not sure how the topic came up. But, at some point recently, a buddy of mine and I started wondering what the Red Sox all ring winning team would be. You know, it’s one of those tangents people get on during discussions sometimes. I thought it might be fun to see what that team might look like.

The first question that needs to be answered before starting an exercise like this is, what qualifies someone to be on the team?  I think the original topic was something along the lines of best World Series performers. But, does that mean the players who performed the best during the World Series? Is that a lifetime award? What about Someone like Manny Ramirez who had one great World Series as part of an amazing career. Does he lose out to someone like Jacoby Ellsbury who had two World Series trips to star in? What about Jake Peavy? A wonderful pitcher with a long career, who didn’t have the best trip to the Series.

So, I decided to just go with career. Overall. The best players to ever win a ring with the Sox. The all-ring team. Maybe one day I’ll try an all-World Series Championship team. But, that’s for another time.

So, who do I think is the best team you can make up of players who won a ring by playing in a World Series game with the champion Red Sox? I’m glad you asked.

OK. You didn’t ask. But here’s my answer anyway.

DH: David Ortiz. Let’s start with the easy one. He’s the only DH to play for a World Series champion Red Sox team. He might later be the only full-time DH in the Hall of Fame. End of discussion.

C: Jason Varitek. Not much more difficult. But, there’s at least some competition. Sort of. I don’t think TEK would be scared of Saltalamacchia or Sam Agnew. But, they’re there.

1B: Kevin Youkilis. The Red Sox have had a surprising lack of depth at first on their World Series winners. As much as I want to go with Stuffy McInnis for comedic value alone, it has to be one of the modern guys. So, is it Youk or Napoli? I think it’s safe to say that Youkilis had the better career. Barely. So far.

2B: Dustin Pedroia. I promise you, the early championship teams had some good players. But, best I can tell Pedroia is the only World Champion Red Sox second baseman with an MVP award on his shelf. 

SS: Orlando Cabrera. Seriuosly, how did the Red Sox win eight titles but still have their best shortstop be Cabrera? But, it’s not Drew or Lugo. (Maybe one day this will be Bogaerts?) And, no offense to Everett Scott, but how he won three rings with the Sox is beyond me. So, I go with OC.

3B: Jimmy Collins. Welcome to the team 1903 champs! Honestly, someone like Mike Lowell could make a pretty strong argument. But, Collins is in the Hall of Fame, so I don’t care to think about it anymore.

OF: Manny Ramirez, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth. Basically Ruth and Speaker might be more obvious choices than anyone but Ortiz. The only possible reason you’d have to exclude either of them is if you argue over the selection rules. Ruth played in three World Series with the Red Sox, but only played in the outfield in one of them…in two games. So, he’d be the closest to not making it, but only on a technicality. The only question with Ramirez is if a Hall of Famer like Harry Hooper would beat out a non-Hall of Famer. But, it’s hard to argue against Ramirez’s career numbers. He gets the spot.

SP: Cy Young, Pedro Martinez. That’s it. I’ll have Young go games 1,3,4,5,7 and Pedro go games 2 and 6. Sound like a plan? Honestly, I narrowed it down to a top ten. From there, as much as I want to include Babe Ruth, his career as a pitcher wasn’t quite long enough. (Although, if it was based solely on performance in the World Series itself, he’d be an automatic inclusion.) Same with Smoky Joe Wood. If this was based solely on time with the Red Sox, he’d be hard to ignore. He was THAT good in 1912. Jake Peavy has that Cy Young, but not sure he really had enough of a career other than that. Lackey never even won the Cy Young. Curt Schilling has to be on the team. He’s the closest of the bunch to being a Hall of Famer. So, that leaves me with Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester for two spots. So, I’m dropping Lester because his career is just too short. Final answer: Cy Young, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett.

CL: Jonathan Papelbon. Can I use Cy Young here? I really wanted to go with Keith Foulke here. But, I think Papelbon has had a more sustained career as a closer. You really can’t go wrong with either one, though.

So, there’s my team.

Who makes it on yours?

TTM Success!

Especially if, as I do, you consider a success anything better than being completely ignored. In this case, I had two wonderful responses on the very same day.

These were new response forms for me. I have been sending letters to Red Sox players for quite some time, and never had this. It wasn’t enclosed in the SASE I sent, which is usually the way I know I got a response. In this case, it was in a Red Sox envelope. I looked at them and wondered…why are the Red Sox sending me a letter? Why are they sending me two?

They were responses to my requests from Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon. When I sent out the request, I mentioned that I didn’t expect Wakefield to respond. I had heard he only signs for charity. So, I was really only hoping for a form letter telling me how to do that. Papelbon was also risky. As an elite player in the league, I figured he got his fair share of fan mail. So, the chances of being lost in the shuffle were pretty high. What I think is most interesting about the letters is how they are different, in spite of being so alike.

Starting with the Wakefield letter, it was very well written. He thanked me, and explained the situation. He enclosed the team issued picture, which is great. It even has a facsimile autograph on it so it will display nicely. Wake was kind enough to include the extra note saying he was sorry, but was too busy to personally respond. He even went so far as to send my card back. (Unlike Youkilis and Francona, it even appeared to be the same card I sent him.) It was really a fantastic response.





The Papelbon letter is also a great one. It’s even worded differently than Wake’s version. Wouldn’t you imagine that Pap and Wake would use slightly different vocabulary? He also included the great team issued photo in the letter. Papelbon didn’t return my card, but that’s OK. It’s a great response as it is.

But, once again, a response from a Red Sox player has left me with questions. How does this all work? From what I remember, I didn’t send the Wakefield and Papelbon requests on the same day, but they were returned to me at the same time. The letters themselves are interesting. They both have the same basic format and paragraph structure. That would certainly imply that the players didn’t sit down and write them out themselves. Did they have any part in it? Were they given a mad lib? “Dear Fan, Thank you for the letter it was (adjective).” Were they interviewed, and a staff writer put it into a letter? Did some flunkey write the whole thing, but know that Papelbon would say “awesome” but Wakefield wouldn’t? Fascinating.

Despite the questions, or maybe because of them, I couldn’t be happier with the responses. I certainly want to thank Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon for whatever role they played. I also need to thank the Red Sox organization. It’s this sort of fan respect that makes them so classy. They provided paper, an envelope, postage, and a picture just to respond to someone bugging one of the players. Pretty cool.

Guess I need to write more letters.

Red Sox A-Z: P is for…

Papelbon, as in Jonathan

Jonathan Papelbon is in his fifth season as Red Sox closer. As closers go, he’s been everything you could ask for. He gets the job done much more often than he doesn’t. He does it with ease, and generally doesn’t scare you when he’s on the hill. He also has just enough Pedro in him to make things enjoyable.

No, nobody’s Pedro. Papelbon’s not even close. But, he does run his mouth like Pedro did. He has the attitude and confidence that Pedro had, and that’s a great thing for a fan. I love when a pitcher comes into a game and just knows that the batter is overmatched. I can imagine Papelbon asking a reporter to wake up the Bambino so he can drill him in the butt. Swagger is a wonderful thing. Papelbon celebrates too much for my liking, but that’s a small complaint. I always like Pedro’s reaction to a big strikeout…simply walking off the mound looking annoyed that he had to waste his time throwing the guy three strikes. Contempt is an even better thing.

As a Red Sox fan, one thing that concerns me about Papelbon is his apparent me-first attitude. The Red Sox wanted him to be a starter. Every good pitcher should be a starter, not wasted in the bullpen. Papelbon, apparently, asked to stay in the closer’s role. He wanted to feel the rush of coming into the game. Of course, he probably also likes amassing those easy to get saves. That artificially boosts his value at contract time. It’s also, probably, the reason he balked when the Sox wanted to bring in Eric Gagne. The Sox needed bullpen help, and wanted Gagne. They, apparently, asked Pap to take the set-up role for half a season. Again, Papelbon balked at losing the saves. (Apparently the rush of coming out of the bullpen wasn’t enough anymore.) Gagne agreed to take the set-up role, and it failed miserably. He couldn’t handle the change to having a closer looking over his shoulder every time he pitched. But, at least he gave it a try.

Papelbon has said again and again that he wants a big contract. That’s why he keeps gobbling up saves at the team’s expense. I can only assume that he’s figured out a couple things. He’ll be free agent eligible in not too long, and Mariano Rivera isn’t getting any younger. I bet he knows what New York can do with all the money they’re using to overpay Rivera. So, Sox fans will have to enjoy him while he’s here. Theo’s smart enough not to overpay for him. Until then, the swagger will be on display for all to see.

P is for Papelbon, Jonathan.

Collecting the Sox: Bobbleheads

Bobbleheads are an old collectable that has made quite a resurgence in recent years. With the improvement in manufacturing and materials, they have become an affordable collectable. So much so, in fact, that they are becoming a standard give-away at stadiums across the country. Minor league parks, in particular, can’t seem to get enough of them. What are they, exactly? They are exactly like they sound like they are. They’re a statue of a ball player made out of plastic, or ceramic, or resin, or whatever. The player has an absurdly large head, sort of like Phil Hughes. The head is connected to the neck with a spring. If you nudge the head, it will bob (or bobble) up and down on the spring. It’s really a silly little concept to become so popular. They’re a little campy, and a little different. They look pretty odd with a bunch of head bobbing away. Which is probably their charm.

These days, in the strive to be different, bobbleheads have come out with things other than bobbling heads. Following the 2007 Red Sox playoff run, a bobbleleg came out featuring Jonathan Papelbon. This allowed the collector to reproduce his famous Irish jig. My favorite bobble variation has to be the Grady Little bobblearm. This was a give away from a minor league team (I wish I could remember which one) in the aftermath of the 2003 ALCS. In this case, the bobbling was Grady’s arm signaling for the pitching change he never made. I love its cleverness. The bobblearms created enough of an issue that the team never did give them away. But, apparently Grady calmed down and allowed their release, including his autograph. It one of the things I keep meaning to grab off eBay, but just haven’t.

As a collectable, the bobbleheads are a nice one. They’re generally not very big, about the size of a large soda at Fenway. It wouldn’t take much space to display a decent sized collection. They’re not super-expensive either. If you go to the right ballgames, you might be able to grab some for “free.” For a while the secondary market for the give-aways was crazy, but I think that’s clamed down a bit. There’s also quite a selection. As I said, minor league parks love these. The low level Red Sox affiliates pump out bobbleheads of current Red Sox to draw fans. They’re also available in retail settings for a reasonable price. It’s a nice combination, really, or scarcity and availability. They’re not everywhere to the point of over saturation. You can have some fun trying to track them down. But, they’re not so rare that they’re not worth collecting. That sounds just about perfect to me.

Anyone have a favorite bobblehead?

Lester is More

So, that’s why people in the Red Sox organization were split on whether Lester or Papelbon was the better prospect. He appears to be right on the verge of “getting it”, if he’s not there already. I know last night’s performance was against the Orioles. But, it was still a great performance. On the road, coming off an embarrassing weekend, the Sox needed a quality start from Lester. They got even more than that. He went seven inning of 1-run ball. Even more impressive are the four hits and one walk. Lester has been keeping his walks down so much lately, I almost feel funny mentioning them. It’s starting to become the norm, as opposed to something to be excited about.

This brings Lester’s record to 5-1 following a Red Sox loss. His ERA in those situations is well below 2.00. I know that many of those situations aren’t “we need a stopper” games, but it sure does help to stop a losing streak of any length. If momentum really is tomorrow’s starting pitcher, I like seeing Lester’s name in the boxscore.

Have I reached the point this season where I’m more confident going into a Lester start than I am with a Beckett start? I’m pretty close. I’m still at the point where I assume a good Beckett outing, and I hope to get a good Lester start. But, that’s starting to change. Especially on Lester’s end. That’s really what separates the elite pitchers from the rest of them in my book. When Beckett, or Schilling, take the mound, you expect a good outing, and know the Sox should be in a good position to get the win. When vintage Pedro took the mound, you knew the Sox would win. When Lester or Dice-K take the mound of late, I’m not quite at the “expect” a good outing stage. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a good. But, if they blow up I’m not shocked. If Beckett blows up I’m shocked. If vintage Pedro blew up, I feared injury. It’s the difference in pitchers that makes one an ace, and others top pitchers. Lester’s not an ace yet…Beckett’s pretty close…but he sure should be soon.

This weekend displayed a glaring weakness of the Sox entering the stretch run. For some reason, they can’t figure out how to beat Toronto. Now, some of that is the presence of Halladay. Some of that is Burnett. I get that. The problem is that the Sox face the Blue Jays nine times from here on out. It’s not easy to make up a 4.5 division gap, or hold a 1.5 game wild card lead if you’re playing 25% of your games against a team you can’t seem to beat. Add to those nine games six against the Yankees that you just know they’re going to split and six against Tampa that are up in the air. This could get pretty dicey. Frankly, their entire remaining schedule scares the crud out of me. In addition to the games I just mentioned, they have the rest of the Baltimore series, they have three against division leading Chicago. Then three more against Baltimore, three at Texas, and four against Cleveland. Not many places to make up much ground. Yikes. Tampa Bay better remember that they’re Tampa Bay pretty darn quickly. A quick estimate puts an optimistic 23-14 finish for the Sox. That puts them at 95-67, which is a dang good mark. But, that means the Rays only need a 20-18 finish. Ick. If Beckett continues to struggle, this could be a long September.

Papelbon signs

You can cross off one more distraction from the Spring Training list. Jonathan Papelbon signed his contract yesterday. Even this “distraction” was really a non-issue. Papelbon wasn’t going to hold out, or become a free agent, or anything like that. He just wanted to get a little bit more money than the Sox were planning. And, really, who can blame him? He was, apparently, looking for something around $900,000 for next year. The Sox were haggling over that? They can’t pay the best closer in the game as much as they give Schilling for not being fat? I understand there’s a pay scale structure with younger players. I’ll even go along with the moneyball belief that closers are overvalued. But, sometimes it’s not about the money. They need to sew up Pap for a “long” term deal soon. I can only assume that a three year deal is at least being floated out there. If the Sox can’t find Alex Cora money somewhere to give Papelbon, there’s something gravely wrong with their system.