August 19, 2016

Kudos Clay; Tazawa Go Away



There's nothing like a cleansing rain along with boatload of runs to help you forget a shitty bullpen. That's what we were treated to in Baltimore as Boston extended their winning streak to 6 games in an 8-1 laugher only to have it end in the hands of the dubious duo of Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler in yesterday's 4-3 loss.

Ziegler gave up his second bases loaded walk in as many appearances as he was unable to stem the tide against the Tigers in an 8th inning cock up. It is also time to put Junichi Tazawa on the "Physically Unable to Retain a Lead" list, joining Fernando Abad in a troubling trend. I was once staunchly against the idea bringing Jonathan Papelbon back to the fold, but I now figure "What the hell?" He can't be any worse than what has been advertised as of late.

It may seem like I'm a John Farrell fanboy here, but I'm just trying to be logical in what has been an illogical practice used by all Major League teams with regards to their top bullpen arm - the closer. It's easy to say Farrell arsed the game up, but when you look closely, what he did was certainly not out of the ordinary. Going into the 8th Boston had a 3-1 lead, and with Matt Barnes unavailable, Farrell goes to the once reliable Tazawa who has fulfilled this role successfully before. Yes, Junichi has been struggling but what else was he going to do? Ross had already pitched the seventh, and he had Ziegler to back him. The real issue with this thinking is that you don't give your best bullpen arm a chance to save the day. When Tazawa went into his tailspin, Kimbrel should have come into the game. Ziegler has been slumping, and John went to the well once too often. However, the common practice in baseball today is to let your eighth inning guy get you to the closer which drives me nuts. I'll be willing to bet that 90% of the other managers would have done the same thing Farrell did. The closer is basically for the ninth - PERIOD! So, what I'm saying here is it might be a bit shortsighted to blame Farrell for SOP in many bullpens across the Majors.I remember John pondering at the start of the season that he might be a little more unconventional with his bullpen, but at that time, he had an embarrassment of riches with Carson Smith, and Koji Uehara. Now, Farrell may have to be even more creative with less talent.

Getting back to Clay for a moment, it looks as though Boston was wise to hang on to him. He delivered his first quality start since , giving up 9 hits to go along with 3 walks, 3 strikeouts and 4 earned runs.



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