Terry Francona In Hartford Talking Bullpen Issues

The skipper of the Red Sox, Terry Francona, was in Hartford yesterday looking fit, trim and ready. And he pointed out that the bullpen is the key for 2007, something that I've said over and over again. Here's a portion of the Courant article, which can be accessed by clicking on this post's title.


"I think our bullpen will dictate our success," he said. "We have a right to be optimistic, but we have to answer some questions. If we answer them successfully, this is going to be a lot of fun."
The Red Sox bolstered their team this winter, adding Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew to the offense and Daisuke Matsuzaka as a starter. But after adding Joel Pineiro, Brendan Donnelly, Hideki Okajima and J.C. Romero to the bullpen, there is still no automatic choice for closer.
Francona ruled out a return to 2003's improperly titled - and executed - closer-by-committee approach, with late-inning situations dictating usage more than predetermined roles.
"The idea of using a guy in situations, on paper, is outstanding," Francona said. "In reality, you just can't do it. You have to designate roles. We might be down a run or tied and we bring them in. That's more how I feel."
Pineiro, a converted starter from Seattle, is an early favorite to be the closer, but Francona intends to let roles work themselves out in spring training.
"It won't happen early," Francona said. "We'll tell the pitchers that. If they try to compete the first week of camp, that's not what they need to do. We need them to establish arm strength, work on mechanics and throw strikes, and then there will be the time to kick it into gear and we'll talk to them about that."

Peter here, and Terry was making sense. A role for each pitcher, not any kind of closer-by-committee kind of thing that failed so miserably four years ago. I just hope the talent is there....the names are, but some have checkered statistical pasts. The only stats this Red Sox team can afford are good ones when it comes to the '07 bullpen. And it will be a bullpen formed and structured during spring training, which makes me uneasy but hopeful.
I'll be back later on this Saturday of snow covered trees and wintery scenes. We received our first measurable snow last night, which is unusual in itself, and it's a wonderworld out there.