Just four days after Danny Santana was reinstated from the COVID-related injury list, the Red Sox have sent the utilityman back to the COVID-IL. Infielder Jack Lopez has had his contract selected from Triple-A, and Lopez will take Santana’s spot on the active roster.
Santana has tested positive for COVID-19, MLB.com’s Ian Browne reports (via Twitter), so he will miss at least 10 days while quarantined. Santana previously spent only two days on the COVID-IL due to symptoms, rather than any positive tests. He now becomes the latest Red Sox player to test positive in what has been a long-lasting outbreak within the Boston clubhouse. While some players have started to return to action, Santana is the tenth Sox player currently on the team’s COVID list.
After an elbow injury limited Santana to 15 games with the Rangers in 2020, health issues have again plagued the utilityman in his first season in Boston. Between a foot infection, a left quad strain, a left groin strain, and his two COVID-IL stints, Santana has appeared in just 38 games for the Red Sox, and batted only .181/.252/.345 in 127 plate appearances. Santana’s minor league contract became a guaranteed deal worth $1.75MM when he made the big league roster, though a reunion between Santana and the Sox doesn’t seem very likely in 2022.
This is the second time Lopez has been selected to Boston’s roster in the midst of this coronavirus outbreak, resulting in the 28-year-old getting to make his Major League debut after nine seasons in the minors. A 16th-round pick for the Royals in the 2011 draft, Lopez has spent much of his career in Kansas City’s farm system before moving to the Braves’ organization in 2019 and then signing with the Sox this past offseason. Lopez hit .167/.231/.333 in his first 15 PA as a big leaguer.
Jack Lopez needs to thank covid for his MLB career
fr
is anybody managing this team?
Wow, kind of a creepy thread so far
I could make it even creepier by pointing out past escapades of Red Sox managers …. but I won’t.
pburns, define “managing”.
Seemingly every day there’s new cases of Red Sox players going on the IL for Covid.
No other team has gone through this all season, to this extent in terms of numbers and time frame.
Henry is nowhere to be seen.
Bloom’s top level experience consists only of last year’s joke of a season, and this season.
And Cora is all about retaining friendships with the players, letting them do whatever they want and giving them more rest than any other team in MLB.
It really, truly feels like winning is not a priority at any level this year.
I think you are reaching a bit there. Unless you are in the clubhouse behind closed doors, I don’t think you could know what Cora is all about or that winning is not a priority.
Would you agree at this point in the season Cora should be putting out the best lineup every game? He hasn’t been.
Would you agree Cora should be leaning on his best pitchers by keeping them in high leverage situations longer? He hasn’t been.
Would you agree the Red Sox approach to Covid has been the worst in MLB? All the continuing positive tests, going on for more than a month now, prove that out.
I think we would agree that they should be playing to have the most wins possible. I think part of that is resting players. Teams schedule days off for players, so I think it may look like they are not trying or not putting their best line up out there. I’m sure they have a plan for managing pitchers’ innings and they probably stick to it or else they will have someone end up like Loisiga on the Yanks. As for covid, I don’t think they get force anymore to get a vaccine or enforce social distancing at all times. The bottom line is I don’t know what is really going on there, but I am not to the point of being down on them yet. Sometimes I thought Francona didn’t care about winning with some of the line up he would put out there, but he won enough that I stopped worrying about it. I kind of get that feeling with Cora sometimes too. I think Cora and Francona like to keep all the position players involved so they use the whole roster. If a player is there, he will be involved.
But my question was, at this point in the season …. clinging to a wildcard spot with just 3 weeks to go … .. shouldn’t the “resting” thing be stopped? It’s mid-September, not mid-May.
Same thing with the pitchers, their pitch counts have been monitored all season and they’ve been given plenty of rest. At some point all the bullets the pitchers have saved up need to be used, and now is that time.
And BTW the more games that are won now, the faster they can clinch the top wildcard and start resting their players for the postseason.
Can’t force them to get vaccines, but they can certainly force them to social distance and wear masks and basically be placed in a bubble similar to what the NBA did last year. With all the luxuries and resources the Sox have to offer, there is no reason why the ONLY places the players should be going are to the park, the hotel room, or their home..
You have a good point about Tito wanting the bench players involved, but the game has changed a lot since then. In Boston Tito had probably a bench of at least 6 position players, now Cora has only 4 including the backup catcher. Nobody is sitting on the bench collecting dust.
I don’t know the answer as to whether or not they should stop resting people. It does make sense that they should rest their best players less, but maybe some of these guys are pretty beat up or running on fumes five months into the season. I think they will err on using younger pitchers less such as Whitlock. I just think we don’t always know the full story. I also don’t think Cora makes all these decisions by himself. I think other people must be involved. Maybe you follow them a lot more closely than me and are onto something. I will keep an open mind.
I don’t know if you could force social distancing since you are not with people 24 hours a day. I also suspect if someone doesn’t care about getting a vaccine, they won’t care about social distancing. It is a tall order to contain Covid-19.
AITSTYW – If you have ever played a lengthy baseball season it is tiring. In the month of September Boston has 5 open days the latest being Sept 9th. Does it make sense to you to rest a player on the 10th? The day after a day off and knowing another day off is just 7 days away? Especially when there are 5 teams vying for the 2 wildcard spots and a total of 3 games in loss column separate 1st from 5th?
This is one of my biggest complaints about Cora. Being a bench jockey he has no idea what is in the mind of a player like Cal Ripken Jr. who didn’t want to take a day off because there were enough rest days during the season. On April 15th 2018 Cora rested Mookie for the first time. He had played a whopping 5 games in a row by the 15th and there had been 3 open days from April 1 to April 10th when he started his five game streak. The 9th was the most recent open day.
Cora started Sale that day so of course he wouldn’t start the regulars since Sale was so good. He never once considered how many extra pitches are thrown when the defense has guys like Devers at 3B, Lin at SS (Yes, the idiot also sat Bogey that day) and he played JD in LF so Hanley could be the DH. Benny played CF and JBJ played RF. This was my first sign that this guy was absolutely clueless as a manager. Sale threw 5 innings and gave up 2 hits 2 walks an ER and had 8 Ks throwing 93 pitches. Sale left after the top of the 5th losing 1-0. Boston scored 1 in the bottom of the 5th and 2 in the bottom of the 6th and won 3-1. Hembree got the win because he pitched the 6th when they scored.
I couldn’t believe a manager could be this stupid. This happened countless times during 2018 and I wrote about each time because it was so incredibly stupid. Also, many of the rest games were put on Sale’s shoulders. The impact of removing star hitters is reducing runs scored and ultimately reducing Sale’s wins and increasing his stress innings. The stress on a pitcher when pitching from a tie or from behind is far greater than when they have a comfortable lead. When Sale wears down late in the season a big contributor is Cora’s screwed up resting system.
The ONLY people who benefit from excessive rest are scrub players like Cora was when he played. He caters to the bench at the cost of his star pitchers and he impacts star hitters by resting them an extra day a month over other teams with comparable stars. He’s not qualified for his job and will never relate to star players. He’s a bench players dream because he uses his bench far more than he should and it costs the teams wins and hurts the pitchers who have to pitch with secondary hitters and fielders in the game. Each team gets roughly 25 or 26 games a month which means 4 or 5 days off. Most teams add one more day off for their star players. Cora adds at least 2 for his stars. During a season it may cost a team between 12 and 24 wins depending on how the extra rest days play out. In 2018, I totaled 12 additional losses so the team could have won 120 games with normal resting of the star players.
That’s how screwed up the Cora approach is for resting star players!!!
Same here, I’ll keep an open mind. I do agree that Cora might not be making all the decisions on his own, some things we can never truly know without access to the front office.
Fever Pitch: You know anything about baseball, other than the same BS every post.
Your first point. “He hasn’t been” Says who, other than you and your 3 or 4 lapdogs that follow your idiotic posts with more minutiae.
Your second point. Pitchers burn out all the time. They’ve already overworked their “best pitchers” and leaving them in longer would be stupid beyond belief. But, then you’d cry ‘the manager burns out all his pitchers’. Its a marathon, not a sprint.
Third point. Agree. They need to get the clubhouse straightened out, and find out where its coming from.
My point: The team has GREATLY OVERACHIEVED. They weren’t in top 20 for chances to win WS, according to anyone willing to lay money on it. If you guys were so sure they should have been this good, Show us the Betting Stubs. Because you could’ve gotten 50 to 1 Odds on WS victory back and Feb., and pretty good odds on making playoffs too, I’m sure. You didn’t bet, because you didn’t know. But if you admit the fact they weren’t suppose to be good, your whole ‘GM Sucks’, ‘Manager Sucks’ mantra would fall apart.
They’re in the playoffs, as of right now. They had an awesome victory last night against one of the best teams in the league. So stop crying and enjoy the ride.
Cal Ripken was from an era when 10 or 15 guys would play 160+ games every year. Conditioning was a different animal back then. The players could party late at night, drink and smoke cigarettes in the clubhouse, then half-ass on the field the next day.
Ripken was a health nut and a workhorse, but he also had some horrendous slumps, he should’ve taken more time off, especially late in his ‘games played’ run. Ripken has nothing to do with todays baseball. If he played today, his manager would order him to take days off.
Fever Pitch Guy13 hours ago
Would you agree at this point in the season Cora should be putting out the best lineup every game? He hasn’t been.
===============================
That’s kind a silly assumption, imo. Do you think that Cora looks at a player, sees he is 8=15 against the opposing pitcher, healthy, and well-rested, and decides he is not going to play him that day? If that’s your opinion, I would give substantial odds that you are wrong.
But let’s take a real life scenario, like today.
JDM-He is 3-21 against Lynn, with -0- XBH. I would sit him and give his back an extra day’s rest going into the more important Seattle series. I’d have Shaw in there.
Vazquez is 1-12 v Lynn. Since catchers sit one out of every five days, why not today? I’d start Plawecki
Bogaerts is 1-17. I’d slide Iglesias over, but I am not sure we have enough active infielders to make a move.
Is that your definition of not putting out our best lineup?
Joe it’s not assumption, it’s a fact.
I already wrote in great detail about Friday’s game as an example, where Cora decided to start Iglesias at 2B for only the second time in his career and first time since 2013. End result is Iglesias made an error that cost an unearned run in a 4-3 loss, and he also swung three times at Ball Four with a runner on 3rd and just one out. Cora then put the best lineup out there mid-game, but the damage was already done.
Stats are often misused. A perfect example is going into that same Friday game our only true 2B was career 3-for-4 with 3 homeruns against Rodon. But you can’t just look at the numbers like Cora does, you have to look behind the numbers too. Those 3 homeruns happened in 2017 when Rodon was nowhere near the pitcher he is today.
Since neither of us can truly know how JD’s back is feeling, I’m fine with him sitting again today if need be.
Catching is a grind, much more difficult than the other positions. I have no problem with Vazquez sitting out, especially a day game after catching last night’s game. And I like Plawecki, he’s a very good hitter for a catcher.
Absolutely NO to Iglesias starting today. Unless there’s more injuries or illnesses, he should not start another game this season. Use him as a pinch runner, occasional pinch hitter, or bring him into blowout games … that’s it. You don’t bench an elite player like Xander just because of his career numbers against the SP.
Denny I’ve given many examples of Cora not going with his best lineup, you probably missed several of them because you seem to disappear whenever the Sox lose. Look down below to see my most recent example from Friday’s game when Cora decided to start Iglesias at 2B for only the second time in his career, and first time since 2013. Shameful.
Your statement about the best Sox pitchers being overworked is false. No Red Sox pitcher is in the Top Ten in IP, and only Evo is in the Top Fifty.
Meanwhile Wainwright at Age 40 already has more than 184 IP, go figure.
I’ve never bet on sports, but only a fool would have thought they’d be among the ten worst teams in MLB this year.
Just curious, which players do you think Cora magically made better this year?
dennyd – Don’t you find it ironic that today the athletes are better conditioned and less ready to play 160 games a year? The theory that resting a slumping player will bring them out of a slump is guess work. Did you play?
What I did the day before or the week before or the month before had next to no impact on what I did that day when I played. Things that happened that specific day or possibly the night before had a far greater impact on my performance that day.than any history of playing so many days in row prior. A bad night’s sleep, a bad meal or just low energy often impacted performance not playing several days in a row. It was the most fun part of the day playing so playing multiple days was something to look forward to not to dread.
Players love to play baseball and the good ones I played with all wanted to play and start every day. Lazy players were the guys that needed a day off or guys not really into baseball that much but were talented. Cora fits into the category of player that was lazy. That’s why he rests people too much because he didn’t have the edge good players have.
Cal Ripken was a perfect representation of the diehard baseball player that simply wanted to start every day. The days that he should have not played had nothing to do with how many days prior he had played because as I have explained there are roughly 4 days a month for rest so games occur roughly 87% of the days each month. There is no need for additional days off. Ripken, however, played hurt which is very uncommon today. If he twisted and ankle or knee he rubbed dirt on it and played that day. Those might have been the days that would have stopped slumps because there was an actual reason for the slump.
It’s too bad baseball became a business to so many players.
You tell’em KD!!
As many have said, it’s the pussification of baseball we are witnessing. Players aren’t able to build up their stamina or endurance because they are rested more and more, pitchers are removed with very low pitch counts, catchers now avoid home plate collisions (Gary Sanchez), outfielders stop trying to catch a ball 10 feet away from the wall, stolen bases are now frowned upon, relievers who pitch two innings are deemed unavailable for the next couple games … where does it end? How soft will the players get?
Can you imagine working only 3-4 hours a day and complaining about being tired? I’ll try that today and see what my boss says. LOL
As predicted, JD, Bogaerts & Vazquez all sat, and their replacements went 3-8. We lost because the rest of the team went 1-21. So we effectively got as much offense and managed to rest 3 guys for the Seattle series.
Fever Pitch Guy
it’s the pussification of baseball we are witnessing.
==================================
I don’t think so. I think managers and GMs are just playing the long game more. When you have a $30M investment in an SP, you have to treat him carefully. And the reason why we have less IPs out the SPs is largely a result of recognizing Your OPSa increases from the first PA, to the second PA, to the 3rd PA.
The 3rd time thru a lineup results in a .774 OPSa for an SP. The first time thru a lineup for an RP results in a .713 OPSa. That’s a substantial difference.
“outfielders stop trying to catch a ball 10 feet away from the wall”
==================================
I don’t find that a problem. It would be nice if everyone was JBJ, but they aren’t. If the game is on the line, I’m okay with the outfield hitting the wall. But how many games did Victorino miss from hitting the wall? Fred Lynn almost certainly missed the HOF from too many collisions with the wall. It just isn’t worth it to miss a week because you took a 50/50 shot at the wall. Not to mention, the collision will cost you an extra base when you don’t catch it.
“stolen bases are now frowned upon”
===================================
And with good reason. SBs, like sacrifices, are often (not always) a poor strategy. SB % is now 77% in the AL. In 2001, it was 71%. The net variance is 637 less SBs, and 370 less CS. it is all about the lost outs.
“Can you imagine working only 3-4 hours a day”
==========================================
There have been studies on this, and this might’ve been mentioned in one of the Huxley books. You might be better off working an hour or so, then taking a 15-minute break.
Sorry to be late to this thread but I blame everyone including the players. I still don’t get the rules that need to be followed. If you had symptoms, you should assume it’s not a coincidence and stay out despite negative tests. Common sense right now. Tests are not 100% accurate. To come back and then go out again just exposed others that the team can’t afford to lose.
KD. We don’t know specifics. Some players are battling injuries, others have already pitched a lot of innings, etc. I also don’t think Cora has total control of the lineup.
JB – That’s one way to look at it but it’s not realistic. What you got was a loss. Why? Because JD, Bogey and Vazquez didn’t play. The team dynamics are different. The momentum created by one of the three players could have inspired the other guys to not go 1-21.
Playing the best players maximizes the chances of winning. I thought you were a gambler. That’s something you should know.
Dewey – You think someone else should be fired for the bad line-ups? Give me a name and I’ll write about it. Lets hope it’s not a stat nerd sitting in his basement thinking hunches like JoeBrady.
JB – Your four part response to FPG is so “out there” I waited for FPG to respond. I’m just thinking we have found the reincarnation of Nuke Laloosh. I know I’ve said that before but you keep coming up with these comments that are so bizarre, I can’t help but feel like Costner just shaking his head in disbelief.
You are worth the price of admission!
Joe you’ve followed baseball as long as I have, maybe longer.
Do you really think all this excessive rest helps the team in the long run?
Do you really think the games in Chicago should be treated as unimportant compared to the games in Seattle? And it’s not even just Seattle that is chasing.
BTW – We lost that game because of a rare error by the players whose name I am not allowed to type, and a rare gopherball by one of our best relievers. There’s no shame in failing to score against a guy with a 2.50 ERA and 1.05 WHIP.
A little late with this one, but I don’t think the rest helps a lot, but it might help a little..
But it still remains that we have a much better defensive alignment, with not a lot of offensive loss. I’m not sure why this is not more obvious.
No great loss of Santana.
But who else did he infect? That’s the question, and we won’t know the answer for two more weeks.
based on timing, prolly just a cc. and at this point it’s probably to late to prevent any spread.
Check out the article, Santana tested positive.
We nearly lost half the team to covid already. Who else is left?
When you see Bloom at the Boston Bus Depot offering bags of candy to anybody to join the roster, tell him I said hi.
Not getting any less creepier…..
I’ll pitch, I’ve got a sinker and cutter. Meta pitching right there
Johnny Damon has his phone on him.
Damon already used the one phone call he was allowed.
Please could everyone just get on the Covid list so we can watch some guys that want to play… this BS has gotten way way past the OLD stage!
Sox won last night. COVID and all. So there’s that.
Way too many people getting too wrapped up in the peripherals, and not enough in the games. That was a fun game. We got a nice appearance from Robles, who (SSS) is slowly starting to look like his 2019 performance. Two more scoreless innings from the RS MVP. And a gutsy performance from Taylor who managed to escape 1st & 3rd with -0- outs. We’ve had our 5th different pitcher get a save this month, which should be a record in the first 11 days of a month.
So we are now 1-1 on this road trip. That’s a good start.
I’m glad you think it was fun. Not all my hairs are gray yet but the Sox are helping me get there. They’re keeping the games close which is essential right now.
I agree. Blowing another huge lead is not fun, even if they still manage to win. I’d like to be able to enjoy a game where they have a 5+ lead and there’s no concern about losing.
Ah, you’re new at this. Just kidding. I’ve been a Red Sox fan since 1963 and there’s always been the fear of losing no matter what the lead. Isn’t it great?
Of course, the only problem with 5-run leads is that, if you blow a 5-run lead, it hurts a lot more than say the Friday game.
That said, I’m not fanatical about it. If I catch some FB today, and look around and see a 10-1 RS lead, I am certainly not saying no.
LOL! I’m wondering if the RS have an investment in Grecian Formula.
“Turning hair grey since 1967”
JB – As I reported the likely outcomes for the rest of the season a few days ago, the Red Sox followed the expected pattern and lost 2 of 3 in Chicago. Expect 2 of 3 losses in Seattle as well. The good news is Baltimore is at home after that!!
The media never does in depth analysis to explain hot streaks and cold streaks in baseball. Boston plays CLE, TEX and MIN and suddenly they are hot!! No they played bad teams and are expected to win 2 of 3 so 6 of 9. That’s exactly what happened during their late August surge. Then their early September swoon occurred when the played TB 7 times with CLE wedged in between for 3 games. As expected they won 2 of 3 from CLE and they won 3 of 7 from TB. That’s better than expected so the swoon was actually the Red Sox playing one game over expectations.
Right now they are in a 9 game span where they were to win 3 of 9 and after 6 games they have 2 wins just as expected. See predicting series is actually much easier than your prediction method. It’s probability based with a key assumption about which team is the better team and which team is the home team. The tough predictions come when the better team is playing away. Then it’s a judgement call on which team wins 2 of 3.
There are 17 games left and Boston should win 8. That will give them 89 wins. TOR has 19 games left and should win 11 and that will give them 91 wins. NYY have 19 games left and should win 11 and that will give them 90 wins. OAK has 19 games left and should win 9 and that will give them 86 wins and SEA has 19 games left and should win 11 and that will give them 88 wins.
So for OAK or SEA to have ANY chance of the second playoff spot they need to sweep multiple series remaining. Boston needs to sweep at least one and the NYY would benefit by sweeping one but they don’t have to if Boston doesn’t. Toronto is in the drivers seat. 2 out 3 will get them the #1 WC spot.
The Yankees, As and Mariners hurt their chances over the weekend. They lost more than the probable number of games and lost ground on Boston and Toronto. The Red Sox need to win 5 of 8 on the next home stand to keep themselves in the hunt for the #2 WC spot and they MUST win at least 1 of 3 in SEA.
The last 3 weeks should be fun. Players need to play over their heads to keep the hope alive.
Red Sox won’t make the playoffs if Cora continues to manage the way he has been, or if players continue to become unavailable because of Covid. It’s really that simple.
Xander, Devers, Verdugo, Schwarber, Renfroe and the player whose name I can’t type here all need to play EVERY GAME until they clinch something. JD needs to play EVERY DAY that he’s healthy.
KD17
JB – As I reported the likely outcomes for the rest of the season a few days ago,
=====================================
Yup, I read your likely outcomes. I got as far as the first team, when you said that Oakland would take 4-6 on the road against Detroit & Toronto. At that point, I offered to make you an honor wager that Oakland would not beat out the RS.
I can never tell whether your predictions have any mathematical bases, or whether it is all based on hate. But the idea that Oakland would be favored over Det & Tor on the road was pretty far-fetched. Detroit has been outplaying Oakland for several months now, and were at home. Toronto is flat-out a better team than Oakland. The expectation for Oakland in those two series was maybe about 2.5 wins, which is not close to 4.
IRT the RS, I expected one win. A lot of times, 3 games on the road is closer to an expectation of 1.4 or thereabouts. But starting Houck, Seabold, and Pivetta, against Rodon, Cease, and Lynn, we were substantial underdogs in all three games.
Against, Seattle, the expectation is again about 1.5 games, We have better pitching matchups this time, and Seattle is not as good as the WS. I’d like to take 2-3, but we could easily lose 2-3.
KD17
The media never does in depth analysis to explain hot streaks and cold streaks in baseball.
===============================
This has been a pet peeve of mine for 50 years. The vast majority of the time, hot and cold streaks are a function of schedules and one-run games.
Atlanta, as an example, had a 9-game winning streak. But they only played Washington, Miami, and Baltimore. Then they played LAD, SFG, and the NYY, and went 2-6. Now they just played Washington & Miami and went 4-2.
IRT the RS, coming off the AS break, they played 23 of our 26 games against TB, TO, and NYY, with the other three on the road against Detroit. TB is surely better than us, TO is likely better than us, the NYY are about the same, and Detroit at home might be a coinflip. We went 11-15.
We went 4-3 v the NYY, 5-5 v TO, and 1-5 against TB. TB was a little disappointing, but those results are not really way out of line. I just think the press doesn’t understand the impact of schedule on results.
Even against the WS, all three games were coinflips. We could’ve just as easily gone 3-0 as 0-3, had we gone 3-0, the press would’ve lauded us as world-beaters. Had we gone 0-3, they would said we were collapsing.
JB – 50 years? Is that dog years?
I’ve been a fan since ’77 and I do remember those teams from that era having horrible pitching. Blowing a 10-0 lead to Toronto I think in 1989?
But we’ve had really good bullpens the last 17 years, including first half of this year.
The bullpen has had some studs this millennium in Foulke, Papelbon, Uehara, Kimbrel, although Kimbrel got scary. Not quite there this year. I always feel that the strength of your bullpen starts at the back, the strength of your rotation starts at the top.
In 1967, 1975, 1986, they just ran out of pitching. They were trying to fix the bullpen after 1986, but they had some lousy luck with some good closers, like Lee Smith, Jeff Reardon, Rick Aguilera, Tom Gordon, and Byung-Hyun Kim.
I’m just happy they’re playing competitively right now.
Your first list includes the exact 5 guys that I’d include. In terms of sheer dominance, I’d put Koji on top followed by Papelbon.
Foulke was fantastic for the many innings he pitched in 2004, one of a kind.
My only disagreement is with the last two players on your second list.
Flash was phenomenal, 54 consecutive saves before the injury that led to TJ surgery..
Kim was never a great closer, he had one good year in 2002. After seeing his performance in the 2001 WS and his body language, I wanted no part of him.. That was a desperate trade by the Red Sox, due to the complete failure of Theo’s “Closer By Committee” plan.
Hopefully Barnes’ second half issues were Covid related, because he was totally dominant first half of the season.
FPG – There is a very small margin for error with Barnes due to his 12 to 6 curve ball. What made Hoffmann great was his change which didn’t bounce in. What made Rivera great was his cutter like Kenley Jansen.
The Red Sox need a more prototypical closer with either an outstanding cutter or change-up. The reason Barnes had a good first half was more about having better luck not bouncing the ball away from the catchers than his actual stuff. His curve is a critical pitch for his success which is why he should NOT close for a living.
But you do realize the reason Barnes was so incredibly dominant first half of the season was because he turned into a prototypical closer by increasing his fastball usage from 39.1% to 64.6%. and he developed the confidence to throw it over the plate a lot more, rather than nibbling.
FPG – Excellent numbers. I did not know that. It explains the huge drop off since the all-star game.
Kim was never a great closer, he had one good year in 2002.
=======================================
Kim was really good once he went to the BP. He had a 2.28 with 16 saves, after 6/30. Sometimes things go awry.