| 01 July 2010
Manny Delcarmen coughed up 5 runs on 4 hits and walk in last night's loss to the Ray. He was unable to record a single out.
MDC has now allowed 9 runs through his last three games, and says that his elbow/forearm has been hurting for almost a week:
"My elbow, a little bit," Delcarmen said. "I think it's something in my forearm. It's been for like a week. It's been getting better every day, just having a little trouble getting extension on the ball. So I'm going to see how the day off goes, and see how I feel on Friday."
Up until about a week ago, Delcarmen was actually one of our better RPs. Okajima has been a mess, Ramon Ramirez can't seem to get his act together, and even Papelbon is struggling - are leaving Bard overworked and on pace for 80+ innings.
This is bad.
If Delcarmen hits the DL, the Sox don't have many options to replace him. Dustin Richardson is already in the bigs and could see more action, but asa lefty, he's not likely to used as the 7th inning guy straight up. Fernando Cabrera has an ERA under 4.00 - which is more than I can say for most of our RPs at the moment - and has a 45/15 K/BB ratio through 31 2/3 innings. He might be the guy, but I wonder if it's too early to call on one of the young starters?
Felix Doubront pitched well in his MLB debut earlier this month, but he just worked his way up from Double A and is left-handed. The Sox would probably prefer to not mess with his development at this point. Michael Bowden is a different story, however. Bowden is a starter, but has yet to develop into the pitcher the Sox hoped he would. He struggled through his first two months in Pawtucket, posting a 7.20 ERA in 4 April starts and a 4.13 ERA in 6 May starts. He's been much better in June, logging a 2.35 ERA and a 22/7 K/BB ration through 5 starts. Part of me wants to leave him alone, now that he's found his groove, but part of me thinks he would make a great reliever - given his make-up. He's a big boy and he throws on adrenaline. He seems to learning to harness that and spread it out over 5 or 6 innings, but I wonder how good he would be if he just let it fly for an inning or two max.
Bottom Line: With limited options in the farm, Theo is likely calling every GM he can to make a trade for some bullpen depth. You hate to give up young talent to rent a reliever for three months, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
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