As I mentioned earlier, and as has been suggested by ESPN all day, Terry Francona announced today that Jonathan Papelbon will indeed be the Red Sox closer for at least the 2007 season. Paps says that closing games is what he wants to do for the rest of his career, but there's no telling what the Sox will do with him after this season, especially regarding the development of Craig Hansen and Bryce Cox. As for who will take Papelbon's slot in the rotation - well that will be former #5 starter Tim Wakefield. Duhhhhhh. Filling Wakefield's #5 slot is going to be Julian Tavarez, at least to start the season. This makes me think that the Sox are going to go extra hard after Roger Clemens as it seems like there is more of a need for him with Papelbon in the bullpen. Keep an eye on The Baseball Beat for further updates.PS: At the risk of tooting my own horn a bit, I'd just like to point out that I actually scooped the Boston Globe on this story. My "rumors and speculations" post earlier today came at about 1:00pm (10:02am PT as seen in the timestamp) while the Globe made no mention of the Sox's intentions to move Papelbon into the bullpen until a 2:26pm post in the Extra Bases blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment