It’s true
Mar 22nd, 2007 by Rob Bradford
Jonathan Papelbon will be the Red Sox’s closer. More after breaking it down on EEI for the next three hours … (shameless cross-promotion).
Your thoughts …
33 reader comments to “It’s true”
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1DirtyBeagle said:
that’s awesome, it’ll be another world series season this year
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2Jim Behrle said:
Other guys in that pen have to step up, too. Big time.
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3Dusty Pagoda said:
Closer is a vastly overrated “role.” I think this is a huge mistake.
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4Mike said:
Great move - a needed move.
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5Orville Overall said:
I was really looking forward to seeing him every fifth day. Why not wait till May, and if it’s going bad then, and Lester’s looking good at Pawtucket, then. . .
Right now, my gut says ‘bad move’. -
6Anonymous said:
So much for the best rotation in baseball.
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7Anonymous said:
I think its a good move as long as his are can hold up.
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8Anonymous said:
Well, I am disappointed. Closers are a dime a dozen compared to top of the rotation starters.
Hopefully Pap doesn’t end up getting hurt again.
Time will tell if this is the right move.
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9Anne said:
I would feel better about this announcement if it didn’t come with the apparent news that T-rez will be our number 5 guy. I love Papelbon coming in in the 9th, but I’m slightly worried about the 5 spot until Lester’s ready. I wouldn’t have minded seeing someone else (Pineiro?) start out as the closer and see if we could give Papelbon a shot in the rotation, at least until Lester is back up to speed. Poor Papel-bot - this is exactly what happened last year in ST!
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10Anonymous said:
Great News…why tinker with sucess ? He loved hearing the fans chant his name to close the game out. Should be a fun season now.
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11Anonymous said:
This is hideously stupid.
Starters are more important than closers. Papelbon would have been the “number 5″ starter in name only. Is there any doubt that he could have outperformed either or any of the other members of the sox rotation?
Anyone can close games. Look at todd jones. Look at joe borowski. An elite closer does not win games, he preserves already existing leads. A starter can win games.
Probability favors the pitcher. Any pitcher. That’s why hitting .300 for a season is considered very good. You’re still not getting a hit 70% of the time. Most of the times hitters fail.I’m not saying that you can make the worst pitcher in the world a successful closer. But I think any number of members of our bullpen as currently constructed would be good enough to close out games.
Theoretically a closer could have an ERA of 9; give up a single run every outing, and go 40 for 40 in save chances if they are all 2-run games.I give up. End rant.
-Ben White
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12Chris said:
Stupid. This team lacks a closer but at this point you go out and overpay for somebody to get the job done. This team is too close to be stingy. Now we go from one of the top rotations in the league to simply above average.
Stupid move. And Papelbon wants to start. If they don’t let him, in a couple years he’ll go find a team that will.
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13Anonymous said:
Stupid.
The Red Sox have shifted their philosophy. No longer do they care about the long term. It’s all about the short term.
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14Anonymous said:
The proposition of having a known shutdown closer takes pressure off the rest of the bullpen and the starting staff. papelbon clearly wants this role, and having questions about the 5th starter is a problem most teams have.
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15Tom P said:
Cowardly move. The ruling troika seems to have decided they’ll take less flack if the team fails with a closer than if the team fails without one. Now that they’ve gotten their revised medical “advice”, their butts are covered if Paps suffers another fatigue-induced subluxation.
I’m hoping everyone remembers that Papelbon is going to be a part-time closer — no 3-in-a-row appearances, and no two inning saves (provided Tito’s natural inclination to overwork him is reined in). Lots of save opportunities will go to the “committee” on his forced off days.
This is a direct slap in the face to Joel Pineiro, who had improved dramatically over the course of the spring. He was a fool to sign here. He never had a chance.
Let’s hope this is just a one year postponement to Papelbon’s permanent move to the rotation. Next year’s closer had better be named Cox or Hansen. Meanwhile, I think Kason Gabbard has pitched well enough to have earned a shot at the 5th slot while we’re waiting for Jon Lester to be ready.
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16s1c said:
This is the best news of spring. Papelbon (hmm a solid #4 starter or a 45 save closer). You take the closer, a #4 starter is the gil meche type of starter and Paps is much more valuable in the pen then filling up the #4 hole. I expect we will see Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, tavarez and Wakefield. Look for Gabbard or Lester to be called up by mid-june to fill tavarez’s spot.
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17Anonymous said:
Stupid move.
YOU DON’T HANDICAP A ROTATION TO IMPROVE A BULLPEN. EVER.
Starting pitchers make more moolah for a reason, they’re more important.
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18Lockland said:
This is bitter sweet to me too, I wanted to see what Paps could do with 200+ innings too, but come on people!!!!
Closers aren’t important?
Closers are a dime a dozen?
Tell that to the Yankees, hell, the 2004 Red Sox WS does not happen without Foulke, period.
Closers, closers that almost never blow saves, are very important.
Especially since we aren’t going to be scoring 7 runs a game this year.
We are going to need to win all the games that are close and there are going to be a lot of those games.
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19Anonymous said:
I agree with most, this is an awful move. More proof that Theo is a very poor GM.
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20mouse said:
This is so stupid. Sure, let’s go ahead and blow out Papelbon’s shoulder again–why the hell not?
This reeks of caving to public pressure and I hate it. We’re moving Pap back to the pen to make room for JULIAN TAVAREZ?!?! Are you kidding me??
Awful, awful decision.
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21Clem said:
Joel Pineiro said he didn’t care what role he had in Boston, just as long as he pitched and helped the team. So this is hardly a slap in the face to him. Papelbon was an All-Star and might’ve been R.O.Y. if he’d stayed healthy. You really think Pineiro finds this move offensive? If he did, he’d his head checked.
As for the “ruling troika” comment, this decision seems to be an agreement between a front office that obviously wants to win (hence the payroll) and a young pitcher who has his whole career to consider. What aspect of this decision seems like a move to placate the fans? Especially when obviously a lot of fans want Pap to start?
“Anyone can close.” Well, yes, but not just any closer can post an ERA of 0.92 in their first season ever as a reliever. Not everyone has the mental make-up to both do it well and get over it when they don’t. Not everyone would CHOOSE to be a closer rather than a starter, especially when the $$ is considered. Pap is all three.
Stupid, horrendous, horrible, cowardly move? Whatever. This was always an issue of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” At the end of last year it looked broke, but now he’s not. Ergo, leave him where he wants to be and where the team wants him to be.
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22Anonymous said:
Any chance that Snyder gets a shot at the fifth spot or maybe Gabbard? I really can’t decide how I feel on this move.
On the one hand, I love Papelbon as a shutdown closer, but at the same time I think a top line starter is much more valuable and I am afraid their rotation is being weakened significantly.
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23Anonymous said:
Finally a voice of reason. Thank you for shutting up all these mindless idiots.
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24James said:
At least Cla Meredith got 2.3 IP before the Sox gave up on him. Pineiro didn’t even get to throw a regular season pitch.
Why does this FO continue to panic with it’s relievers? -
25boof bonsai said:
Why not put Schill in as closer? Paps has been the best starter in SP and is likely to be the best or second-best SP this season.
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26boof bonsai said:
“I hadn’t been sleeping well all spring because I had this feeling that I wanted to close…In my heart, I had feelings for being a closer.”
“This is something I want to do for the rest of my career,” Papelbon said. “Hopefully, what (Mariano) Rivera did for the Yankees, I can do for the Red Sox.”
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27Anonymous said:
As a fan I don’t want this on my hands, reminds me of that guy in North Dallas Forty who gets shot up then obliterated. No good can come from mixing a North Florida Swampbilly with a golden arm and paranoid cyborgs who’ve got $160M on the line.
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28Anonymous said:
“Wild Thang” and that nasty stare…game over…red sox win…
once lester is healthy and steps up, or roger decides to come play, the rotation will be just as strong
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29JT said:
WEAK MOVE
And, I’d rather see Snyder than Tavarez. Maybe even Gabbard.
I do think this move makes it easier to give Lester a spot in the rotation when he’s ready…
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30Anonymous said:
This IS the correct move. Paps in the pen makes this team a whole lot better. This move also makes everybody in the bullpen fall into place. This guy was arguably the best closer in the game last year. As far as the 5th starter goes i believe the correct choice is Tavares. He piched very well @ the end of last season, plus in the 1st month of the season you can get away w/just 4 starters because of the extra off days……great blog by the Rob!
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31lamna61 said:
I like it. You have Julian for a few months, then Lester comes in and Julian goes back to the pen. In the meantime, early time, you get the entertainment value of Tavares as a starter, the guy is pretty jacked on the mound, maybe that will pay off for him early on. And if he sucks, you have Lester ready for a call up. Julian did a good stint as a starter last year, so I think that he is worth taking a flier on, short term anyway.
I liked the idea of Papelbon as a starter, but I loved Papelbon as Mr Automatic, lights out,it’s all over.
Putting him back in the closer role has helped restore some of my faith in the team. Some, anyway. -
32Mike said:
I like the idea of Paps as the closer but for the wrong reasons. He is lights out and the front line up is killer already - I bet the other starters are happy to know he is going to be there and save their wins. Add to that the idea Lester will probably be ready by the All Star break (not to mention Clement, who could turn out to be healthy and ready for some action) and this gives the club a lot of options.
M
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33Julian said:
I’m among those who think that the 1-inning closer role is waaaaay over valued. On the other hand, having a lights-out relief “ace” who you can run out to preserve leads in close and important games is under valued. Whether it’s more valuable than what Papelbon MAY have done as a starter is also open to debate (even if it’s a moot point because we’ll probably never know what he could do as a starter).
In the final analysis, if this is indeed what he wanted and the team agrees that it’s a safe move, then I’m on board. If another reliever emerges with a good year, the back end of close games won’t be the ulcer-inducing roller-coaster they’ve been in years past.
j
