Boston's Bullpen Breakdown

[nsulham]

Wow, lot's of B's there eh?

Anyways, I see a lot of talk about this and who's going to be the closer. Since I'm an avid Sox fan, but by no means do I claim to be the most knowledgable, I figured I'd try to shed a little light on the subject going by what I know about the situation and the players involved. Since I am a Sox fan and I tend to skew my coverage towards them, I can't help but to think Embree's going to establish himself as THE guy there and for a team that could win 100 games, that has pretty big sleeper ramifications if you ask me. But here's the Boston "commitee" and how I see the players in it:

Embree- SHOULD be the guy; has the attitude, has the stuff but might be the only lefty they use in the pen (lefty/lefty matchups) which could hurt his save opps.

Chad Fox- If healthy they say he has a devastating curve. Insiders say he could be the guy but I want to see him healthy first.

Mike Timlin- Former closer but I see him as a much better setup guy.

Bobby Howry- See Timlin.

Ramiro Mendoza- Long relief/setup. To be used much the same way NY used him.

You could also include Ryan Rupe and Willie Banks in there but I don't know why I just wasted my time typing their names so forget you read this part. Now if you REALLY want to talk about a darkhorse, I could see a case where Wakefield doesn't perform well in the rotation, they tire of the commitee approach and instead of going out and trading for a closer, make Wake the man. I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts, espc. any fellow Sox fans. Hope this helps!

[The Jury]

Tim Wakefield would be as unpredictable a closer as ever. I don't knuckleballs were designed for the ninth inning.

[rjforlife]

forget about wakefield. embree is the guy. they may start at closer by commitee, but embree will pitch his way right into the job after a month.