Thursday, September 22, 2005

Has a team ever won with one average reliever?

And with inherited runners on base, Mike Timlin is well below average. The Red Sox have the worst bullpen in the history of baseball, and to make things worse Keith Foulke's done for the season. If the Sox make the playoffs (that is a very big if), I guess Francona will just have to depend on all of his starters pitching complete games (I'm not sure if Matt Clement can pitch a complete inning right now). In other words, Francona needs to do something to improve the bullpen. Some ideas:
  • Try the young arms. Hansen, Papelbon, and Delcarmen have the talent, but are they ready? Let's find out and put them in pressure situations. Francona's other option is to pitch Timlin too much or put in a veteran who he already knows will fail. It is a risk to put in young pitchers in a pennant race, but the Sox are in a desperate situation, and they'll need more than Timlin if they make the playoffs. The Sox need to find out if some of these guys can do it.
  • Overwork Wakefield. His arm is amazing, so you could put him in some situations between starts.
  • Put Arroyo in the bullpen. This might be the most drastic move because he's one of the better starters on the team. However, he has a rubber arm and has come up big in the playoffs out of the pen. The problem is you're taking him out of the rotation, which means David Wells and Matt Clement play a bigger role.
  • Score 20 runs a game.

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