’07 Season: Julian was 7-11 with a 5.15 ERA for the Red Sox. He was a member of the rotation while the team waited on Lester to return and when other starters were hurt. His first half of the season was better, especially May and June where his ERA was under 4. He started to struggle in the second half and was given as short leash by Tito and would be pulled as soon as he got in a jam. He finished the season out of the pen and was not on the post-season roster but as I posted earlier he was a total team player.
’08 Outlook: The Red Sox picked up the option on Tavarez but he appears to be the odd man out. He will not be in the rotation where the Sox have 6 solid options and Snyder seems to have locked up the long reliever position. Tavarez was not good as the setup guy in ’06 so that is not really an option. His stats vs. left and right handed hitters is pretty close so he is not going to be a specialist. He has limited value for Boston with Lester and Buchholz coming up so look for him to be traded before the season starts. If he does remain on the team he will most likely spend some time in AAA and be called up when injuries occur. He has shown he can be handle being that type of pitcher in the past and that might be his asset.
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