The Globe is reporting that Mike Timlin's DL stint to start the season enances the liklihood that Jilian Tavarez will begin the year as the Sox's closer.
The question is, why?
The Sox certainly don't have a lot of great options in the pen now that Papelbon will be in the rotation, and Joel Pineiro is hardly the second coming of Joe Nathan. But Tavarez? While Pineiro has struggled this Spring, he seems to have been getting better with each outing. Tavarez, meanwhile, has been fairly awful, though he recently had an effective outing against the Orioles Spring stats don't mean everything, but there's nothing in Tavarez's resume that suggests he would make for a particularly effective closer.
All in all, the Sox closer situation is a mess. I'd think I'd pass on any of them in the draft.
Original Story:
http://redsox.bostonherald.com/redSox/vi....
The question is, why?
The Sox certainly don't have a lot of great options in the pen now that Papelbon will be in the rotation, and Joel Pineiro is hardly the second coming of Joe Nathan. But Tavarez? While Pineiro has struggled this Spring, he seems to have been getting better with each outing. Tavarez, meanwhile, has been fairly awful, though he recently had an effective outing against the Orioles Spring stats don't mean everything, but there's nothing in Tavarez's resume that suggests he would make for a particularly effective closer.
All in all, the Sox closer situation is a mess. I'd think I'd pass on any of them in the draft.
Original Story:
http://redsox.bostonherald.com/redSox/vi....
