Sheet1

[MidnightC]

Per Rob Bradford, JC Romero was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Timlin. Not particularly shocking considering his wildness and that his salary is much smaller than Pineiro's.

The Herald also makes it sound like something might be in the works trade-wise:

Quote

The team has 10 days to either trade or release the left-hander, who was 1-0 with one save and a 3.15 ERA in 23 appearances, but manager Terry Francona indicated a trade may be in the works.

“I know they’re trying to make a trade to a place where J.C. can help but it wasn’t ready,” Francona said.

Not sure what value Romero has at this point, but you never know. Either way, at least his last outing for the Sox was a memorable one.

[tailwind]

Well, he was the worst out of all the bullpen arms.

I doubt they can really get anything in return in trade, but even if it brings a barely-fringe prospect, it's still a gain. With Lopez and Okajima, Romero was easily the most expendible arm in the pen. I agree with the decision to let him go, because as bad as Pineiro's been, he's still got more potential, and his salary is higher.

[TheYellowDart5]

I know that the million or so dollars that the front office spent on Romero in the offseason is a drop in the bucket to this team, but based on last season's suckage, and 2005's mediocre numbers, the FO couldn't have been expecting too much good.

Basically, this was a pretty predictable waste of cash. I don't know if this team would have benefitted from having Craig Breslow or another Pawtucket bullpen arm up instead of Romero, but it's certainly not inconceivable.

[Mike in CT]

Wow. I was wrong in the game thread.

While this is the right move, I though the Red Sox would value retaining as much depth as possible (by optioning Lopez)... more than retaining the strongest bullpen in the short term (by keeping Lopez up and DFA'ing Romero).

[SoxScout]

Hallelujah, thank the lord... Mike & others definitely got me wondering/nervous in the game thread after I stated that there was no doubt Romero would go.

I would like to thank Romero for his 17.6 base runners per 9 innings and one good outing against the Mariners.

Maybe Detroit will gives us a PTBNL for him (Porcello).

[Mike in CT]

Quote

“I’m stunned,” said Romero after hearing the news. “I would rather wait to talk until tomorrow when I know more.”

http://www.bradfordfiles.com/?p=105

[TallerThanPedroia]

Well now that he's gone and there's no more question of predicting what he will do, let's look at what he did do:

Sheet1

NAME	WXL	LEV	IP*LEV	WRA
Hideki Okajima	1.889	1.07	31.8	-0.75
Jonathan Papelbon	1.268	1.3	27.7	0.57
Manny Delcarmen	0.007	0.16	0.2	0.77
J.C. Romero	0.465	0.62	12.4	1.37
Mike Timlin	0.234	0.74	6.4	1.48
Javier Lopez	0.46	0.93	13.0	1.58
Brendan Donnelly	0.413	1.07	20.0	3.00
Kyle Snyder	-0.199	0.66	13.2	6.46
Joel Pineiro	-0.42	0.53	12.3	8.29

Our third-most effective reliever by WRA!

How about just regular WPA for all our pitchers?

Sheet1

Name	IP	WPA
Hideki Okajima	29.7	1.64
Curt Schilling	85.0	1.51
Jonathan Papelbon	21.3	1.30
Josh Beckett	64.0	0.96
J.C. Romero	20.0	0.49
Javier Lopez	14.0	0.48
Brendan Donnelly	18.7	0.41
Mike Timlin	8.7	0.23
Daisuke Matsuzaka	79.7	0.16
Kason Gabbard	5.0	0.122
Tim Wakefield	74.7	0.05
Manny Delcarmen	1.0	0.008
Devern Hansack	4.7	-0.184
Kyle Snyder	20.0	-0.24
Joel Pineiro	23.3	-0.60
Julian Tavarez	54.0	-0.82

Fifth best!

And we paid him $1.6 million dollars. By the average of last winter's FA market, that's the equivalent of about 4 VORP. JC's VORP to date? 6.2.

I say we came out ahead. Would he have kept it up? Let's hope some other team thinks so.

[Doza]

Mike in CT, on Jun 9 2007, 03:02 AM, said:

“I’m stunned,” said Romero after hearing the news. “I would rather wait to talk until tomorrow when I know more.”

I can't believe he has the audacity to say this. That ERA is amazing deceptive, as Donnalley and Okajima usually had to come in to clean up his mess. 3/2 walk to K ratio is awful, and if you throw in the amount of hits this guy has given up - ug.

If they MUST have a LOOGY, I am so glad they kept the right one.

[TallerThanPedroia]

Doza, on Jun 9 2007, 08:20 AM, said:

I can't believe he has the audacity to say this. That ERA is amazing deceptive, as Donnalley and Okajima usually had to come in to clean up his mess. 3/2 walk to K ratio is awful, and if you throw in the amount of hits this guy has given up - ug.

You're right, he bequeathed 11 runners, only one of which scored. Of course, he also inherited 15 runners, and only 2 scored. His Fair RA was 3.06.

Donnelly, by contrast, bequeathed 15 runs, 0 scored and has inherited 21, allowing 5 to score. Fair RA 4.12.

[OCD SS]

TheYellowDart5, on Jun 9 2007, 02:27 AM, said:

I know that the million or so dollars that the front office spent on Romero in the offseason is a drop in the bucket to this team, but based on last season's suckage, and 2005's mediocre numbers, the FO couldn't have been expecting too much good.

I think he was a reasonable risk, and at the cost of Phil Sieble, given the pitching depth the Sox are working with, not a bad one. A lot of relievers can put it together out of nowhere to have a good season; I think Romero was a better bet to preform than Sieble, and if he regains some of his old form he's a valuable pick up.

That said, I'm glad he's gone. It seems like the FO learned something from the heartbreak that was the '06 season, and aren't going to wait around hoping for a crappy reliever to pull his shit together.

[Crazy Puppy]

OCD SS, on Jun 9 2007, 08:51 AM, said:

I think he was a reasonable risk, and at the cost of Phil Sieble, given the pitching depth the Sox are working with, not a bad one. A lot of relievers can put it together out of nowhere to have a good season; I think Romero was a better bet to preform than Sieble, and if he regains some of his old form he's a valuable pick up.

Romero was actually signed as a free agent. They got Donnelly for Seibel (who is now out for the year with another injury).

[TomRicardo]

tailwind, on Jun 9 2007, 02:23 AM, said:

Well, he was the worst out of all the bullpen arms.

I doubt they can really get anything in return in trade, but even if it brings a barely-fringe prospect, it's still a gain. With Lopez and Okajima, Romero was easily the most expendible arm in the pen. I agree with the decision to let him go, because as bad as Pineiro's been, he's still got more potential, and his salary is higher.

I am not crying about Romero leaving but Pineiro is clearly the worst of the bullpen arms. Pineiro has a larger contract and there is zero hope of a team trying to trade for him. Thats why Romero was DFA'd instead of Pineiro. I would have been shocked if I was Romero too. Fact is he has some value and they probably wll be able to trade him. The next big question is what happens Thursday when Lester hopefully comes back.

[Manny's Hammies]

Yeah -- b/c Romero has decent stuff and b/c Pineiro makes a boatload, I'd been hoping they would option Lopez once more, even tho he's clearly outperformed both by a mile. But it makes sense that the team wouldn't want to mess w/ Lopez's success to wait on the Second Coming of Rudy Seanez.

[PedroKsBambino]

Pineiro has very good stuff, though, and that's why I think he's the better bet to be useful down the road. I don't know that it's all that likely to happen, but I can imagine it happening given some good appearances he's had and his stuff. He also could (in theory) start if there's a 2006-style disaster, and the money is likely a small part of it beyond those other reasons, too.

Romero's stuff is ok, but his control is awful and has been that way since mid-2005. I simply don't see much reason to think that's going to change and thus, he seems like the right guy to jettison to me.

[OCD SS]

Crazy Puppy, on Jun 9 2007, 09:05 AM, said:

Romero was actually signed as a free agent. They got Donnelly for Seibel (who is now out for the year with another injury).

'Doh!

The aquisition still made sense to start the season, IMO. And releasing him now seems like the best move. Right now with Ozzie Guillen's displeasure with his own bullpen I'd like to think that something could be worked out for a fringe prospect.

[Rudy Pemberton]

Romero had been decent enough, especially lately, that I would have optioned Lopez and waited this out a few more weeks. It would shock no one were Timlin to be ineffective / hurt, and I say that as a big Timlin fan. We lost a little bit of depth; I guess the positive is that we've got Breslow down on the farm but keeping Romero over Lopez or Pineiro, at this point in time, seems a little odd.

With a good chunk of the Yankee games done, did they no longer feel the need for 3 lefties? Ultimately, though, you probably can't argue too much. He was too wild to really be counted on. But, the Sox should have known that several months ago.

[shoebox91]

Romero isn't the only one who is stunned. I thought for sure the Sox would make the wrong move here and option Lopez simply because they could and not "lose" anything. Well, they did the right thing performance-wise. Between this and Drew's night last evening I think we have indeed entered bizarro world glenhoffmania...

This post has been edited by shoebox91: 09 June 2007 - 09:16 AM

[mr guido]

Quote

Fifth best!

And we paid him $1.6 million dollars. By the average of last winter's FA market, that's the equivalent of about 4 VORP. JC's VORP to date? 6.2.

I say we came out ahead. Would he have kept it up? Let's hope some other team thinks so.

For those wondering where that WPA came from, it was the 5/3 Seattle game where he picked up the save when Papelbon/Okajima were unavailable, and this week's extra inning game vs Oakland when he pitched 1.1 innings, keeping it a tie game despite putting 3 of the 6 men he faced on base (getting that 9th inning 3rd to home to first double play).

It was nice to have Romero & his groundball tendencies in the bullpen for moments when a double play was needed, but I'm also a Lopez defender and he's an even better groundballer. Romero's allowed a .928 OPS against, so it makes sense for him to go. (Assuming, of course, that Timlin has anything left to contribute at this point. This might be a topic of discussion.)

This post has been edited by mr guido: 09 June 2007 - 09:54 AM

[reggiecleveland]

Count me as one who thinks the best move is probably to DFA Timlin.

This post has been edited by reggiecleveland: 09 June 2007 - 10:06 AM

[Bowlerman9]

By the end of the year, Timlin and Pineiro will both be gone, Delcarmen and one of the other youngsters will be up, and this will all be moot.

:crosses fingers: