Red Sox Relief Pitching 2023

[moonslav59]

Only during multiplication, not during addition or subtraction…

That is not untrue.

(See how I did that?)

[mvp 78]

@IanCundall
Red Sox RHP Garrett Whitlock in Worcester today: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K. 46 p/33 s/5 whiffs. Sinker 92-94, CH 82-84, sweeper 78-80. Got better as outing went on, but seemed to be feeling things out & lacked crispness. CH best secondary. Used frequently, 3/5 whiffs with it.

[mvp 78]

@SmittyOnMLB
‘Who cares?’ Red Sox’s Garrett Whitlock cool with any role, ‘ready to go’
He'll be used as a multi-inning reliever when he returns (maybe Sunday).
“Whatever I can do to help,” Whitlock said. “Whatever that looks like, I’m just excited for that.”

[vegasbob]

And the parade through the BP continues with Barraclough and Walters back up, Lamet DFA'ed, and Robertson sent down to WooSox . If this is an organization with a game plan to do anything except rearrange the deck chairs, please start showing some concept of how they will improve this team's abilities. Open tryouts time was last Spring.

[Bellhorn04]

And the parade through the BP continues with Barraclough and Walters back up, Lamet DFA'ed, and Robertson sent down to WooSox . If this is an organization with a game plan to do anything except rearrange the deck chairs, please start showing some concept of how they will improve this team's abilities. Open tryouts time was last Spring.

Back end of the pen is never a pretty thing. We've just seen way too much of it lately.

[vegasbob]

Back end of the pen is never a pretty thing. We've just seen way too much of it lately.

And overuse due to injuries among the "starters" exacerbates and exposes sharply the inabilities of the truly marginal talents we have seen at the back end of the pen.

[mvp 78]

And the parade through the BP continues with Barraclough and Walters back up, Lamet DFA'ed, and Robertson sent down to WooSox . If this is an organization with a game plan to do anything except rearrange the deck chairs, please start showing some concept of how they will improve this team's abilities. Open tryouts time was last Spring.

Barraclough could actually start if they wanted.

[moonslav59]

And overuse due to injuries among the "starters" exacerbates and exposes sharply the inabilities of the truly marginal talents we have seen at the back end of the pen.

Maybe some better pen depth guys would have done better than this parade of clowns had they not gotten hurt, either.

Not that all these guys were locks to do better, but some had promise:

Joely: while a 4.28 ERA and 1.39 WHIP from '20-'22 is not good, it's better than the ones we used.
Kelly was ranked 27t on SPs in DEC '22.
Mills might not have done better, but its hard to imagine worse.
Mata was widely viewed as our best ML ready prospects before he got hurt. His ranking of 6th on SP's in DEC was the highest ranked pitcher on the Sox farm.
We ended reaching down to Murphy and Walter, among other prospects, too

The other thing is just how many SP'ers and RP/SP types have gone down with injuries. Having to move so many RP's to the rotation or to pitch pen games killed us.

It's hard to name who our true starting 5 would have been had they all been healthy, but pick any 5 and look at how much the others could have helped the pen, had they not been needed to start. (Pivetta is unique, as he was demoted, did well in the pen, then went back to the rotation.)

Pick 5 and imagine the rest as deep pen help:
Sale
Paxton
Whitlock
Bello
Kluber
Paxton
Houck
Crawford
(Winckowski has not been used as a SP.)

[mvp 78]

Walter was optioned to AAA to make room for Sale.

[mvp 78]

@ByAndrewParker
Lefty Joe Jacques has been called up from Worcester by the Red Sox, source says.

[moonslav59]

@ByAndrewParker
Lefty Joe Jacques has been called up from Worcester by the Red Sox, source says.

Will he be the next Bear Claw?

[mvp 78]

Will he be the next Bear Claw?

Jacques is Bloom's 2nd best Rule 5 Draft pick??? (Whitlock, Arauz, Ort, Jacques)

They clearly didn't like what they saw with Brandon Walter the last go around!

[moonslav59]

The pen has been one of the most improved areas on the team from 2020-2022 vs 2023.

Some pen numbers:

OPS Against as RP ONLY
.471 Crawford
.561 Pivetta
.572 Martin
.657 Jansen
.662 Bernardino\
.680 Llovera
.738 Schreiber

Inherited run scored %
7 Martin
17 Bernardino
17 Jansen
22 Jacques
32 Wink
(32% is league avg.)

ERA as RP'er only
1.25 Martin
1.66 Crawford
2.70 Bernardino
2.81 Jansen
3.08 Pivetta
3.09 Wink