Typical media. The New York Daily News says that Foulke: I’m Sick of Boston. Let’s review the quotes that the Daily News attributed to Foulke.
“When everything is peachy and going well, sometimes success allows you to deal with things a little easier. But after a while you get tired of hearing everybody’s opinion on what you’re doing wrong.”
“I can’t express to you how disgusted it makes me feel,” he said. “I am a private person and to have people talk to me every day about failure is gut-wrenching.”
“I’d like to be a big part of this team and the playoffs aren’t easy when they come. You need good pitching. It’s hard wanting to be the pitcher I know I am and have been, but not being able to perform like that.”
“I don’t know why I am not pitching (well).”
Okay … um … where here does he say he’s sick of Boston? I think it’s smart of Keith Foulke to move to the suburbs (as the article says) because as we have learned since Foulke arrived, he is a private person. Him being fustrated has nothing to do with being sick of Boston. It has everything to do with how fustrated he is at his season, and how words of encouragement from fans just don’t help. And where does it say he’s sick of Boston?
Typical media.
Meanwhile, Sox Scout over at Sons of Sam Horn posted a nice little graphic outlining Foulke’s struggles this year:
We really have to think about, at this point, whether or not it’s best to carry Foulke on the postseason roster. We know that even though he’s had one knee surgically repaired, the other one is giving him trouble, so he probably won’t regain 2004 form until said knee is fixed. We know that while his velocity now is back to similiar 2004-levels, his crazy movement and excellent location have not returned. In a nutshell, he’s not Keith Foulke. If we carry 11 pitchers on the postseason roster, the locks are:
Schilling
Clement
Wells
Wakefield
Arroyo
Myers
Bradford
Timlin
Papelbon.
That means out of the pitchers currently on the team, there are two spots for the following people: Manny Delcarmen, Lenny DiNardo, Keith Foulke, Jeremi Gonzalez, and Chad Harville. All of them have their positives and negatives, and Delcarmen and DiNardo are high locks not to make it. That leaves Foulke, Gonzalez, and Harville. All could reasonably be put on the postseason roster if we went to 12 pitchers, which is not all that bad an idea. However, for the sake of argument, let’s assume the Red Sox slot in at 11 pitchers. That would mean Jeremi Gonzalez, who has served us well over the season, is a lock much more so than Foulke and Harville, because he’s had a good season with an inflated ERA. His ERA as a reliever is currently 4.91 and even that number is a bit misleading. So then it’s down between Foulke and Harville.
We all know what Foulke has done, but Harville (4.75 ERA on the season)? With the Red Sox he has posted a 8.10 ERA. That’s in 3.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 2 K. He has had a 2.89 ERA since the All-Star Break, however.
What does this mean? Nothing. Nothing at all, because we haven’t seen enough of both Foulke and Harville to make a good choice. They both aren’t great choices, but they both have qualities among them that we’d like to see on the postseason roster. It is certainly possible that both could make it if we go to 12 pitchers, but even so, we really ought to see some more out of Foulke and Harville. Hopefully, Francona will give them some more work down the stretch (hopefully we can blow out a lot of opponents) and we can make a more informed decision.
I said I’d have some Fire Brand news today, and I’m not dissapointing. Ever since college started, my goal of turning in a quality column every day has suffered. I have maintained the everyday mantra, but not quality. I have not been happy with my posts for quite a while now, and I feel I need to start taking a day or two between posts to be able to turn out articles that I am proud of. So, I decided that getting a partner or two would work, because then I could keep up the daily posting mantra, but have it spread out, so I’m not doing it every day (although I will be more than likely posting every day, more on that in a minute).
I went searching, and I found four Red Sox sites that I thought might fit on Fire Brand. I polled a ton of people, and asked the top two winners. I asked them, and both have agreed to join Fire Brand, although in different capacities. First, the person you will be seeing the most of is Zach Hayes of Destination: Dynasty who has agreed to move over fulltime as a partner (although he will be satellite posting at his website through October to complete his season documentation of the Red Sox). People polled consistently ranked Zach at the top for good writing, a sharp mind, and great humor. I’m confident Zach will bring that into Fire Brand. In addition, he does something that I never really did – he does quick game recaps and reviews which I think will add another dimension to Fire Brand – a welcome dimension.
And then the next website that agreed to join most of you are familiar through with the comments. In fact, you may have argued with him recently in the comments, as he said Alex Rodriguez should win the MVP, not David Ortiz. No, he’s not a Yankee fan, just simply misguided. That’s Andrew Lipsett of 12eight who will be maintaining 12eight, but will contribute additional columns to Fire Brand. He’ll be tabbed a contributing writer and will be posting the occasional article which will be attempted to be one per week, but may not be. Whenever he posts, though, you can be sure that it will be a quality article just like his articles on 12eight.
He will also be alive on Fire Brand on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, where he will be posting … game threads. This is also a new addiiton to Fire Brand, because I never really did them aside from the occasional one. We will be attempting to make this a permanent feature of Fire Brand, because a lot of commenters have been sounding off on the game in the comments recently, and we want to give the commenters their own thread to be able to sound off. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday I will be doing the game threads although Zach may poke his head in on the game threads from time to time.
There may be days where only one article is published, but there may be days where it’s three, or even four. I don’t mind that at all, because the more articles, the better. I won’t dissapear off the face of the earth, I have invested too much in this to, but this will allow me to spend more time on posts, and Zach and Andrew I think will help bring fresh voices to Fire Brand that will make Fire Brand even better than it currently is. Tomorrow, you’ll be meeting the new writers. I hope you’ll continue to read Fire Brand even though it’s undergoing a facelift.
Right now, though, I’m only concerned with one thing. That’s Bronson Arroyo continuing his winning streak and us putting Dan Haren’s 3.90 ERA over 4.00. That’s at 7:05, be there or be square!
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