Sox Return Papelbon To The Pen
Posted by Steve L. on March 22nd, 2007 · Comments (5)
Julian Tavarez will take his place in the Boston rotation.
Julian Tavarez?
OK, just how great can the Red Sox starting pitching be if “The Pine Tar and Tantrum boy” represents 20% of it?
To me, this move now makes the Yankees and Red Sox starting rotations even. As much as I have concerns about Igawa, he stacks up better against Tavarez than he would against Papelbon.
The Sox would be better off inserting Joel Pineiro into the rotation, but both guys are terrible.
This might be a dumb question but what happened to Matt Clement? Did he retire or something? He’s their version of Pavano but don’t they owe it to themselves to try and maximize his value as long as they’re still paying for him?
As for Tavarez, it’s a small sample for last year but he was 3-0 in 6 starts with a 4.01 ERA in 33 2/3 IP. For his career, he’s definitely not a good starter (31-28, 5.04 in 460 2/3 IP (85 starts)).
Either way, it never made sense to move Papelbon from a role that he seemed so comfortable in last year. Why mess with what was working? Boston’s back end of the ‘pen certainly looks better with Papelbon and Brendan Donnelly than it looked with Piniero.
This might be a dumb question but what happened to Matt Clement? Did he retire or something?
=================
Shoulder surgery. He should be back later this year.
Courtesy of the Banter
“27. Shaun P
22 Speaking of Steve L., Rob Neyer’s blog linked to WasWatching today, in a very nice post about Colter Bean. If you’re reading this Steve – congrats! ”
I remember that tantrum because he broke his hand just like Kevin Brown. He really had to suffer by pitching later on in the series with that injury.