You mentioned a guy who shouldn't even be brought up this season in Hermanson, the 6th guy out of the pen in Clifford and the biggest question mark in Thornton. What about Cotts? He has playoff experience and has been pretty damn solid this season. How about Riske? The guy has a ton of previous success on good teams and has pitched well for the Sox thus far.

 

Right now the Sox have 4 guys in the pen who can be counted on at all times (Jenks, BMac, Cotts, Riske) with Thornton knocking on the door. I don't see it as being a huge concern right now.

 

I was remiss in leaving Cotts out of there. He was awesome last year and is doing well again this season after somewhat of a shaky start. I'm not sure about Riske, though. His career numbers are impressive, but he also has a reputation for folding under pressure. I'd like to see more out of him in a Sox uniform before declaring that he can be "counted on at all times."

 

I still think that this 'pen needs another arm to replace Politte who, despite pitching a scoreless inning last night, is pretty much worthless at this point.

 

 

The best bullpen in baseball would not do a dam thing for you if the starters are giving up 5-8 runs in a start.

 

That's true. I don't see that being the norm for the rest of the season, though. There's too much talent in this rotation for all of them to continue under-performing like this.

Bullpen because we all know what our starters should pitch like and they have better track records.

 

I can't figure out McCarthy in the BP. Some time he looks great, other times he's serving up long ones.

Politte is not helping this team one bit, and he is really hurting us.

I love the Riske trade, and I think he will be solid.

Jenks is great.

Cotts is not the same as last year with giving up the long ball, but he is still very good.

Hermanson is an unknown at this point

Thornton has really settled in nicely.

 

I'm not sure there's too many available GOOD right handed setup at the dealine either

Edited July 4, 200619 yr by santo=dorf