I am sure Jonathan Papelbon is a very nice man but this year he stinks. I am not just saying this because of the blown save last night but all of this year he has been letting runners on base and getting out of the jams based on pure luck. Last night was a different story. He got crushed giving up three hits. You can blame the loss on Nick Green's two errors but Papelbon put them in that situation. He seemed to be throwing harder last night on the NESN gun (which is probably a couple of mph fast) he hit 99 MPH but that's not the point- you can't walk the leadoff batter! That is the biggest error a closer can make. Also, please pay attention to the runners on base. He let Jack Cust who has stolen two bases all season take second base last night. He has me pulling my hair out and finally he blew one. It was just a matter of time after putting all these runners on base. This season he has already walked more batters than he has in his career and his strikeouts are also drastically down. Well so much for bad news. I think Daniel Bard is great. He is dominating. He has been overwhelming major league hitters for the last two months with his 100 MPH fastball. The Red Sox need to put him in some pressure situations before I am completely sold but from what I have seen he is a star in the making.
Here is my proposal if we can't get Roy Halladay we trade Papelbon, Jed Lowrie, and Clay Bucholz for Hanley Ramirez the star shortstop for the Marlins who we traded away to get Josh Beckett. Bard is moved to the closers' role and Ramirez is your starting shortstop. The Marlins' are also in desperate need of a closer so this deal works out for everyone.
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