Boston Red Sox first half grades
By Rick McNair
Bullpen
Anthony Varvaro – A
Yes – he didn’t pitch but had the good sense to retire before they called him up to be embarrassed.
Craig Kimbrel – B+
Just what I expect with maybe a few too many walks at times. Had some early jitters and the occasional meltdown, but that is expected of any top of the line closer. Kimbrel relies on two pitches with his fastball being tossed 70.6% of the time and a nasty curve the other 29.4% Velocity is right in career parameters. K% and BB% are right in line with career numbers.
Junichi Tazawa – B
Looking at the numbers Tazawa has had a relatively nice season. What catches our memory synapses is the occasional meltdown. Taz has a second best career LOB% at 82.6%, a career low .243 BABIP and a K/9 % of 10.68. The HR/9 jumps out at 1.48. Maybe his innings will keep from being elevated?
Koji Uehara – C-
A career best 13.50 K/9 rate. LOB% is 67.8 – not a good sign. An HR/9 of 1.84 so the balls are leaving the yard all too frequently. How much has a wrist injury impacted his ability? Don’t know, but it could be a consideration.
Koji has shown glimpses of being the standout, he was for 2013-15 and has shown glimpses of a pitcher whose career may be done after 2016 – at least in Boston.
Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree – B
I get both confused, so why not just treat them as bullpen twins since both are very similar. Both throw hard (edge: Barnes), can go multiple innings, can toss secondary pitches with varying degrees of accuracy and have been a nice stabilizing force in the ‘pen. Neither will get any “Wow” comments, but have been dependable in the first half – especially Hembree.
Tommy Layne and Robbie Ross – B-
The portside twins out of the bullpen. Layne gets hit with a bit more authority from lefthanders (.250) than righties (.231). Ross has been especially troubling for lefties who are hitting just .129. Both are serviceable pitchers, but this is not Andrew Miller – the flat out dumbest free agent move they chose not to sign.
The rest – F
You saw them, you laughed at them, you cried when line drives sprouted like weeds in my garden and now you can do what I do and forget about them.