Riddle me this

[southsider2k5]

I know there's a fair share of Neal Cotts Koolaid produced on Soxtalk, and granted he has been at the unfortunate end of the Jackson experiment, but you can't blame all his struggles on others. 

 

Besides yesterdays unfortunate ruling Neal has had to put baserunners on in order to score, no?  Blame him for giving up the walk or hit proceeding his removal.  Or if you choose to avert Cotts of any responsibility shoulder some of his failures on Guillens mismangement.

Definately not all of his struggles, but it goes to reason if you either let Neal finish his own jams more often, or relieve him with a RHP who can pitch in the clutch REASONABLY well, his era could be about a run lower. Jackson let something like 75% of his inherited runners score, and it seemed like Jackson was always relieving Cotts.

 

I look at Neal's peripherals, such as his baa and K/9 and see that his numbers could be a hell of a lot better. I know BBs have always been a problem for Neal, but he has always been able to pitch over them. His ML peripherals indicate to me that he would do way better than the assclowns who have been letting all of his runners score.