There was a shared characteristic among the division series losers this past week–closers failing.
When the Boston Red Sox signed closer Jonathan Papelbon to a one-year contract worth $6.25 million in January, they locked up his rights through 2011 via arbitration. After those January ’09 talks, Papelbon said he turned down a two-year deal in the range of $15-16 million before accepting the one-year deal thus avoiding arbitration for the time being.
If Papelbon wants a record deal than he needs to pitch like he deserves one. To be clear I am not talking about the one awful outing he had this Sunday.
Jonathon Papelbon has stated that he wants the all-time saves record and he wants an all-time record contract for a closer. This is why he would not sign a mid-range contract last January.
All season Papelbon has not been the same pitcher. The difference being that over the last two season he has become incredibly one dimensional and thus very predictable. In short, all he throws in fastballs. That good splitter that we saw two years back has disappeared.
In fact, for example, in Sunday’s outing Papelbon threw 32 pitches; 28 were fastballs and the other for were a walk to Vlad Guerrero. He threw all fastballs. Having Varitek or Martinez behind the plate certainty doesn’t matter if you are just holding down the 1 every time.
This past Spring Training, pitching coach Brad Mills was on record saying that they knew that this was something they needed to work on. Unfortunately, the situation has still not been rectified.
