The bullpen is definitely going to be our sore spot (again) this season unless our youngsters get better in a hurry. It almost hurts to say it, but Tavarez is the one out of that list I have the most confidence in at this point. I was really impressed with his spot-starter duty towards the end of last season. I couldn't believe that the same pitcher who couldn't even throw one scoreless inning out of the pen was going 6-7 innings strong.
I wonder if we should start spring training with Tavarez at #5 and put Wakefield back in the pen? Is Wakefield getting too old for relief duty? It looks like Mirabelli won't be back in 2007, so maybe it would be for the best to limit Wakefield's pitches at any given time? (...if you buy into the theory that some catchers just won't ever learn to catch that damn knuckler).
Outside help is probably a must for the pen to improve substantially, but at what cost and how much extra $$$ is this team going to have left after paying Matsuzaka and most likely one of Lugo/Drew?
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