Time to honor Tavarez: 10th Player Award
Aug 27th, 2007 by Bill Burt
I’ve been trying to figure out how to honor this guy, Julian Tavarez.
Rather than being crazy — remember him punching a baserunner at homeplate during his first Spring Training here in March of 2006? — he has been probably the most stable member of Red Sox Nation.
There are so many stars on this team and so many players, particularly pitchers, who are having All-Star caliber seasons that Tavarez’s contributions could easily get lost in the shuffle.
But not here. I believe this guy is the most underrated on the team. First of all, for the first three months of the season he made that No. 5 spot in the rotation a coin flip. And that’s a good thing. Mind you Tavarez was going against a bevy of No. 1-caliber pitchers (Juan Vasquez, Kevin Millwood, Roy Halladay, Johan Santana & Co.) and live to tell about it.
Rather than go 5-15, which is really what was expected, he has been hovering around the .500 mark for most of the season and four of his seven wins have come after Red Sox losses.
Rather than whine about the impending placement of Jon Lester in the rotation, Tavarez instead said he was ready, willing and able to heat up Lester’s seat in the rotation until his return. When there was talk about acquiring another starter, he said Lester is worth the wait.
On the bench and in the club house, Tavarez gets an A+ for conduct. He has been a confidant of Dice-K and has been a good baby-sitter for Manny Ramirez.
But back to the original concept here: Tavarez has been one heck of a pitcher. If he had struggled mightily there is no doubt the Sox would have traded some of their younger talent. But it never happened because of Tavarez.
Yesterday was not a big game. The Sox didn’t necessarily need the win in Chicago. But Tavarez showed the moxie this team needs and has been missing. He went for the jugular and had one of his best performances of the year.
This, is my mind, is a gimme. My guess is the fans/voters of NESN will agree.
Your thoughts?
3 reader comments to “Time to honor Tavarez: 10th Player Award”
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1January said:
Couldn’t agree more. It was kinda a shame he hit a wall midseason(I think he must have been tired or mildly hurt or something, as he returned to form after some rest). A fair bit of credit for the Red Sox great record at this comes from the fact that you have to have the back of your rotation pitch decently also. And that has happened this year. 10th player award is a good way to look at it. His flexibility and willingness to pitch in multiple roles are probalby more valuable than people realize.
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2Colin said:
Tavarez deserves to win the award if for nothing else than his Manny head-rubbing antics. But I can see the award going to Okajima, who technically isn’t a regular and for whom fans had even lower expectations than they did for Tavarez.
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3Tom said:
I agree that Tavarez should get the 10th player award.
I disagree that he is the most underrated. That’s got to be Coco who has been flat-out amazing all season long in center. “Gold Glove favorite” should be mentioned any time someone speaks or writes his name.
