The Revolving Door
For a team that had "too much pitching" a few months ago, the Red Sox find themselves in a bit of a pickle. The back end of the rotation has been a revolving door of pitchers including Dice-K Wakefield, Buchholz, Penny, Smoltz, and Tazawa. Now the 5th spot belongs to Paul Byrd, who helped the Red Sox late last season before being dispatched to the netherworld and eventual retirement. Byrd will start tomorrow in Wakefield's spot, and with Tazawa being sent to rookie ball it might be his spot until Dice-K returns. Theo sure loves old retread pitchers. One of these experiments is bound to work out.
3 comments:
So why did they send Tazawa all the way to the Gulf Coast league instead of Pawtucket or Portland? To build confidence?
HI Clyde. They sent him to the GCL so that they could bring him up sooner and be able to use him in the post season. So, it was just about making space for the moment...nothing else.
Thanks Shelley. Makes sense about the space need, but there must be something I'm not understanding about the "sooner" - maybe the rosters of the other leagues were full so that was a simple place to toss him for the moment until Sept 1? Minimize the roster shuffle in the minor leagues? Just trying to deepen my knowledge of how it all works in case I have to take over for Tito :)
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