Sunday, April 10, 2005
Bullpen
Over at the Remy Report message board, some Remdawgs are already down on the Sox bullpen. Not me. The 2005 bullpen is much deeper than last year's. And it will get deeper still when Wade Miller moves into the rotation and someone--Arroyo? Wake? Boomer?--gets assigned relief duties.
Matt Mantei is off to a slow start. But he looks healthy and strong, and if so, he is a true closer pitching in a setup role. His velocity is fine, he just needs to shake off some rust and fine tune his command. In fact, this can be generalized about Red Sox pitching: the early season difficulties for guys like Wells, Foulke, Halama, and Mantei all seem to be problems of command, not stuff or health.
In other words, a lot of Sox pitchers are not yet in mid-season form, because it's just the first week of the 2005 season. Give 'em a break!
Let's get home, spend time with our families, pick up our WS rings as the Fallen Evil Empire looks on, and get a few more innings under our belts. That's all we need.
Matt Mantei is off to a slow start. But he looks healthy and strong, and if so, he is a true closer pitching in a setup role. His velocity is fine, he just needs to shake off some rust and fine tune his command. In fact, this can be generalized about Red Sox pitching: the early season difficulties for guys like Wells, Foulke, Halama, and Mantei all seem to be problems of command, not stuff or health.
In other words, a lot of Sox pitchers are not yet in mid-season form, because it's just the first week of the 2005 season. Give 'em a break!
Let's get home, spend time with our families, pick up our WS rings as the Fallen Evil Empire looks on, and get a few more innings under our belts. That's all we need.
