3 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I still am not really sold on the bullpen so I'm hesitant to really change anything about my expectations. 

While I agree last year was a fluke - they led baseball in blown saves despite the fewest opps - this team is arguably worse on paper. Paper doesn't mean anything, but the fact you can argue that isn't a glowing endorsement for the group. 

You can argue anything though with or without facts. I thought overall the SP and BP would both be better.

I don't think it was wishful thinking either. Maybe a little since it is spring but I thought Burke, Martin had good potential, Cannon and Perez could be steady and then they got a Wild card who started to look great with Smith. Remains to be seen if they can consistently be what I thought .

BP same thing. I liked some of the low-cost arms and I basically trust Bannister being given a long leash seeing guys he likes from the junk pile and spruce them up a little. Again always a crap shoot when working with those kind of arms but they really seemed to focus on giving up less walks and taking more walks offensively. That goes a long way towards scoring more runs if you run into one occasionally which is still their biggest problem.

If the Sox bullpen pans out, heist up the Cubs in trades.  Their bullpen looks like it is going to be putrid.

13 hours ago, wegner said:

.500 is fun 

What a difference a couple of years can make

15 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I still am not really sold on the bullpen so I'm hesitant to really change anything about my expectations. 

While I agree last year was a fluke - they led baseball in blown saves despite the fewest opps - this team is arguably worse on paper. Paper doesn't mean anything, but the fact you can argue that isn't a glowing endorsement for the group. 

If I remember correctly in one of Robin Ventura's managing years the bullpen looked great for the first month or so. But they got overused and fell off a cliff. It truly is a wait and see proposition with an MLB bull pen, which are often a crapshoot.

16 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I still am not really sold on the bullpen so I'm hesitant to really change anything about my expectations. 

While I agree last year was a fluke - they led baseball in blown saves despite the fewest opps - this team is arguably worse on paper. Paper doesn't mean anything, but the fact you can argue that isn't a glowing endorsement for the group. 

Yep. Only 4 games in.