Um, really? Just taking a quick look, in the last two weeks (including tonight's game): Ramirez: 5.06 ERA/2.06 WHIP Saito: 8.10 ERA/3.00 WHIP Masterson: 9.95 ERA/1.42 WHIP Delcarmen: 3.60 ERA/1.50 WHIP Okajima: 6.75 ERA/1.13 WHIP That looks like a pretty ineffective pen right now, without including what they've done with any inherited runners. And Papelbon hasn't been looking to hot, either, numbers aside. But hey, that's only most of your bullpen. Maybe Bard can pitch innings 7-9 every night.
I was there, and goddamn was this a frustrating game. I still have no idea how they were winning 4-0 against KC and managed to blow it.... Anyways, re: the bullpen: shit happens. Pens have their ups and downs. Saito is their worst pitcher and Masterson just shouldn't be allowed to face lefties. Ramirez scares the shit out of simply because they rely on him pretty heavily, but he has a 193 BABIP and isn't missing enough bats. Karma is coming for him. But, Bard has been looking lights out, and Okie and MDC are still both solid. This pen is still better than the either of ones they had in '04 and '07. The real thing to be worried about is offense.
I was going to gloat in this thread, but I checked fangraphs and for the most part Sox relievers' FIP have been pretty good (other than Saito or Mastersuck). Looks like the Sox pen has been the victim of horrible defense/luck these past two weeks.
Um, small sample size? Isn't that your "thing"? I think it's pretty stupid to call a bullpen with the best ERA in baseball a "liability". Unless of course it's more hyperbole. And I thought Bard wasn't that good?
Only insofar as being an whiny antagonist is your "thing." I imagine neither of us is fully defined being labeled as such... although one might paint a better picture than the other. And I think it's pretty naive to take a look at how the bullpen has performed recently and be happy with it, small sample size or no. Will they stay like this? I'm sure they won't. But I bet Francona isn't feeling so good when he needs to make a call to the bullpen these days. And I imagine you aren't feeling so good about it, either. Seriously, for a guy who can type things that appear intelligent, you can be remarkably dense. I have to imagine it's on purpose. For whatever it's worth, it doesn't suit you. He's done rather well. Good for him. Actually, he's done extremely well for a guy who had a BB/9 of 6.0 in the minors and is walking four guys per nine in the majors. We'll see if that success lasts, or if he becomes Farnsworth Jr. He's got a hell of an arm, though I'm not sure I'd trust a guy with that many walks in a high-leverage situation.
Where did I say I was happy with it? Obviously I'm not, I'm just saying that I'm not ready to call the bullpen a "liability" based on a combined 27 1/3 IP between 5 guys. Regardless, the talent is there and they have shown overall that they have the best bullpen in baseball. The relievers have been used a lot lately as the Sox offense has struggled resulting in a lot of close games and I'm sure that contributes to the slump. But the All Star break is coming, they will get some rest, and likely pitch well going forward. The reality is, 27 innings isn't anything to get too upset about. Hello there pot, kettle here... Though with you it's not so much dense (most of the time) as it is that you love to apply things to situations only when it supports the point you're trying to make. The Yankee bullpen is struggling all of April and part of May it's way too small a sample size. The Sox bullpen pitches 27 bad innings and they're a liability. And that's just one example. It can be hard to take people like that seriously, even if it is clear that they know about the subject they are discussing. I'm less concerned with naked BB/9 and more with K/BB which is still good. Obviously it's a much different level, but there's a kid on my team that's the same way. He walks a ton of guys (much higher rate than Bard) and strikes out a ton, and doesn't get hit very hard and has very good success. If you are able to get Ks consistently, walks don't hurt as much. Obviously it would be better to not put as many guys on, but as long as he keeps piling up Ks it's not TOO bad.
I'm not saying that they are now and therefore will continue to be a liability. I was saying that they HAVE BEEN a liability. The problem isn't that I am applying things only to situations that support my point. It's that people (i.e. you) either don't read the words I write, or try to take things beyond the context in which I say them. This is actually a perfect example. You're right... I don't think the first month and a half of the seasons wasn't a good sample to project the Yankee bullpen performance going forward. For a myriad of reasons. Was the Yankee pen shitty in April? Of course. Did I ever say it wasn't? No. What I said was that there was plenty of reason to expect improvement... namely that they have plenty of pieces to move in and out, some of which should be able to find success. Likewise (as I already stated, actually) I don't expect the Red Sox pen to continue to pitch so horribly, all around. But did their bullpen go from one of the team's strengths to one of its liabilities in the past two weeks? I have a hard time seeing how anyone would argue that they haven't... well, unless the person was overly concerned with trying to find contradictions with someone else's points. Then I suppose that point might get lost. But the Sox pen went from every single guy in the pen pitching really well, to (almost) every single guy in the pen pitching like they're on the Nationals. Sample size is irrelevant to the point I made. It's at such a different level as to be a meaningless comparison. Major league hitters have, on average, FAR better plate discipline than even AAA batters... never mind the batters in whatever slo-pitch softball beer league you play in*. Relievers who walk batters at a high rate will have a difficult time finding sustained success in the majors. Especially if they're expected to perform in high-leverage situations, where there is typically less room for error. * - I know you play actual baseball. So don't bother correcting me.
So what's your fucking point then? If you aren't saying they won't go back to pitching well, then why bother posting at all? Anyone who has watched knows that they haven't been pitching well in the bullpen the last week and a half. You say people read too much into your posts, but maybe it's because if they are taken at face value they are absolutely worthless and provide nothing that isn't incredibly obvious. So apparently I've given them too much credit and they really are just mindless observations of the obvious. I'll keep that in mind next time since it's getting old watching you post a paragraph of semantic bullshit to explain how you didn't really mean 4 when you said 2+2, you just meant 2+2.
You know what? This particular observation was a pretty obvious one. They went from nearly all members of the pen doing really well to nearly all doing really shitty... and it happened pretty quickly (and was pretty fun to watch, incidentally). I thought it was somewhat noteworthy that it went from being a lights-out pen to a pretty bad one nearly across the board... and said so. Considering what passes for post quality around here (including some of your gems, by the way), I wouldn't think that it's such a faux pas. If some overly sensitive Sox fan wants to make a bigger deal of a one-off comment like that, I'm really not going to lose any sleep over it. But please do keep that in mind. It'll save me from having to explain that which should be obvious.
