| Francona: Bullpen deals a ‘crapshoot’ | 07.31.10 at 1:41 pm ET |
The July 31 deadline for non-waiver trades is less than three hours away. Yet Red Sox manager Terry Francona suggested that he has “no idea” whether his club will do anything before it passes at 4 p.m.
“I just don’t know,” Francona said. “If you asked [Sox GM Theo Epstein] right now, I don’t know if he knows.”
One area that the Sox are unquestionably exploring is the market for bullpen help. Yet the Sox have been deterred by what they’ve seen as an excessive cost of doing business.
The team makes no secret of the fact that it has endured a significant bullpen struggle this year. The bullpen ERA stands at a pitiable 4.43 mark, and the options aside from Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon have been suboptimal for the Sox.
Yet the team is also leery of spending heavily to acquire relief help. Relievers are volatile, going from All-Star performances to virtual irrelevance, a fact that is evident even by looking at the Sox’ own bullpen corps.
“[Hideki Okajima] is a good example. He’s a guy that’s made the All-Star team. He’s run thorugh some tough times,” said Francona. “When you’re acquiring bullpen help, there’s certainly some amount of a crapshoot with it. That’s what I’m sure Theo and those guys are discussing right now, and it’s very difficult decisions. You’re probably going to overpay for a reliever, and that is very difficult.”
That, in turn, makes the notion of internal fixes appealing. And the Sox will certainly seek to bolster their relief corps from within.
Michael Bowden is currently in Pawtucket, honing his craft as a reliever. On Friday night, the organization informed left-hander Felix Doubront that he will likewise be groomed for relief duty for the rest of the year. Francona emphasized that the club still views the 22-year-old’s long-term future as being a member of the big league rotation, but for the rest of 2010, the team believes that Doubront can be part of the solution to its late-inning struggles.
“Everybody involved thinks this kid has a chance to impact us going forward this year in the bullpen,” said Francona. “He’s going to be a starter – a major league starter. But I think for the rest of the year, if he gets the chance, he can maybe impact us out of the bullpen. But we want to, like we do with these other guys, get him some innings out of the bullpen.
“He throws strikes. He’s quick to the plate. The game doesn’t speed up. There’s nothing that doesn’t [impress about him]. The only thing is, I think, he hasn’t done it. He’s been groomed as a starter. There’s some things he has to get used to: getting up in the middle of the game, mindset, again, we just want to give him a chance to do that. It’s the only way it’s fair.”
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