Pitching Out Of Order

With all of the roster moves surrounding the trade deadline, there has to be a slight degree of forgiveness if the casual fan hasn't quite memorized the new roster... never mind the line-up. But it's not everyday when the manager forgets who the closer(s) are.

Tuning into a tie game in the ninth against a division rival, one would expect to see... maybe Jonathan Papelbon... maybe Daniel Bard - clearly the closer of the future. No, no, dear friends. Ramon Ramirez. That is what we saw.

Now, for those unfortunate souls watching the game on the trusted MLB.tv, we actually didn't "see" this per se. Instead, we found ourselves cursing the webmaster and then cursing Takashi Saito via ESPN's gamecast... a lovely way to spend an evening indeed.

But back to the pitching. Daniel Bard is, almost unquestionably going to be the closer for the Boston Red Sox at some point in the future, barring injury or trade - although the Fangraph boys think his "untouchable" tag is a bit undeserved. He gave up a two-run jack to Evan Longoria, who despite his uncharacteristically low numbers this season, has a propensity for tattooing young pitchers with not a lot of ball movement when their velocity tails... he is after all a professional ball player. But despite Longoria's jolt to Bard's confidence, the kid looks like the real deal. But the only way to give him a go is to give him a go... in a close situation.

If the Sox management was looking to play tonight a little more conservatively and give Papelbon the green light in the ninth... all well and good. That's what the team pays him for. That is not, however, what they pay Ramon Ramirez for. Nothing against poor Ram Ram - who ended up pitching his way out of a serious tight spot, but what? Why? Huh? So confused... must lay down.

Leave A Comment

---

---

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Please only click "Post" once. It may take a few moments to process.