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August 10, 2007
Sean McAdam is off today, and Art Martone joins us for today's edition of projo SoxTalk. Click here to listen to the audio file. The topics: the Red Sox' bullpen strength; signs of starting pitching weaknesses; David Ortiz's health; J.D. Drew's struggles; the end of West Coast games; and the arrival of an easier stretch on the schedule.
Here are some excerpts from Art's comments:
On Wednesday night's bullpen rotation (Okajima in the sixth and seventh, Gagne in the eighth, Papelbon in the ninth): "I think that's going to be the blueprint for success for them the rest of the way, and I certainly think that once they get to the postseason, you'll be seeing that scenario quite a bit more. The starters will only have to go six [innings] -- shorten the game. This is why they acquired Gagne -- this is exactly what they had in mind."
On the starting rotation the rest of the regular season: "Lester is the X-factor, the wild card. They really don't have another option to put into that spot right now. Having put Tavarez back in the bullpen, he's not stretched out, and plus Tavarez is what he is, which is basically a one-time-around-the-order pitcher. So I think they're going to have to worry about Lester a little bit. There's also talk now of bringing up Clay Buchholz, which I think is wildy premature. I don't think he's ready to step into the situation that they'd be asking him to step into. I think they're just going to have to wait for Lester to come around."
On the Yankees: "I know there's a tendency for people to believe, 'Well, the the Yankees have been playing nobody,' which is true; and, 'They've been fattening up on teams that aren't really good,' which is also true, but the Red Sox kind of did the same thing in 2004. And what they ended up doing was, they built up momentum, and when they headed into a stretch of games against real teams, they carried that momentum right through and they continued to win. And that could happen with the Yankees as well."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 11:21 AM to Martone
| Permalink
Jeff | August 10, 2007 3:13 PM link
If Jon Lester cannot give the Sox six solid innings on a consitent basis, they need to consider another option, and Buchholz seems to be the best one. Or perhaps Devern Hansack. Do you think Hansack, or anyone else at Triple-A besides Buchholz, can give the Red Sox six strong innings?
Jeff
Sox and Pinstripes
http://www.soxandpinstripes.com