[Foulkey Reese]

Quote

Lopez designated for assignment

The Red Sox have designated struggling relief pitcher Javier Lopez for assignment, removing him from the 25- and 40-man roster.

In his place, the Sox have brought up hard-throwing righthander Daniel Bard from Pawtucket.

Lopez was 0-2 this season with a 9.26 ERA. In 11 2/3 innings, he’d given up 20 hits and nine walks.

Bard was 1-0 at Pawtucket with a 1.12 ERA. He’d appeared in 11 games, pitching 16 innings, striking out 29 and recording six saves.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/r...position=recent


Praise god!

[foulkehampshire]

BABIP is a just God.

Now who can I focus all my bullpen hate on?

This post has been edited by foulkehampshire: 10 May 2009 - 03:59 PM

[amarshal2]

While I do think there is merit to EV's points about how Lopez has been above average the last few years, he's clearly a pitcher with very little margin for error who has made lots of mistakes this year. When there is an in-house option that looks like a safe bet to pitch better than Lopez for the rest of the season and perhaps even become a dominant set-up man, this makes for an easy decision. The question of who is better between Hunter Jones and Lopez is not as simple but either way I expect Masterson to be back in the pen forcing one of them out in the near future. Good move.

[Sprowl]

foulkehampshire, on May 10 2009, 01:59 PM, said:

BABIP is a just God.

Now who can I focus all my bullpen hate on?

If Van Every can pitch in a blowout, can Hoolio White Flag be far behind? Hunter Jones looks like AAAA material so far, but at least he can throw strikes.

I guess Theo despaired of getting Lopez untracked on the DL. Now he's got 10 days to find a team willing to trade a bunch of bats for him. Solid maple preferred, but he may have to settle for particleboard.

[SoxScout]

I guess it is my irrational Lopez hate, but I am ecstatic. Lopez was just miserable.

Hopefully Master is back in the pen soon and I think we'll then be ready to go to war with the current roster for a while.

[CreightonGubanich]

Frankly, I'm surprised he lasted on the roster as long as he did. He definitely brought value to the team in the past, but he certainly isn't now. It's possible he could regain his effectiveness, but even at his best Lopez is probably the worst pitcher in the Sox bullpen. Since there are clearly better options available, there's really no point in waiting to find out. I'm pumped for the Daniel Bard Era; I also think we'll see Masterson back in the pen shortly.

[mikeford]

foulkehampshire, on May 10 2009, 04:59 PM, said:

BABIP is a just God.

Now who can I focus all my bullpen hate on?

He's not in the bullpen but I feel all the hatred is going to be aimed squarely at the H1N1 of shortstops.

[Yazdog8]

amarshal2, on May 10 2009, 02:02 PM, said:

While I do think there is merit to EV's points about how Lopez has been above average the last few years, he's clearly a pitcher with very little margin for error who has made lots of mistakes this year. When there is an in-house option that looks like a safe bet to pitch better than Lopez for the rest of the season and perhaps even become a dominant set-up man, this makes for an easy decision. The question of who is better between Hunter Jones and Lopez is not as simple but either way I expect Masterson to be back in the pen forcing one of them out in the near future. Good move.

We're essentially swapping out a lefty that doesn't really get lefties out (or anyone this year for that matter) for a guy that has a ++ fastball and can be a dominant reliever. This is a complete no brainer...glad it finally happened.

[TomRicardo]

Sprowl, on May 10 2009, 05:07 PM, said:

I guess Theo despaired of getting Lopez untracked on the DL. Now he's got 10 days to find a team willing to trade a bunch of bats for him. Solid maple preferred, but he may have to settle for particleboard.

They will most likely outright Lopez.

[Sprowl]

TomRicardo, on May 10 2009, 02:21 PM, said:

They will most likely outright Lopez.

You may be right, but why? Doesn't it depend on the degree of desperation of potential trading partners?

[ToxicSmed]

Sprowl, on May 10 2009, 05:33 PM, said:

You may be right, but why? Doesn't it depend on the degree of desperation of potential trading partners?

I just don't think they are going to be able to get anything of even marginal value for him. Lopez has some value when he's pitching well but, even then, it isn't like he'd have been worth a ton. As it is, I don't think any teams are going to want to take on his full salary. He'll be dropped and someone will pick him up for 400k.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

OK, I'll say it. He got some big outs in 2007 down the stretch. His time may have passed, but he got a lot further than 99.99% of us who have tried. Good luck.

[yecul]

He received unfair treatment from a lot of us on this board (myself included) in the past. This year, however, he has been terrible and the question is not whether he has been good in the past, but whether he can be good going forward.

Many didn't think so. The organization doesn't think so. And, frankly, who can blame them? Everything about his season has been bad and even a quick glance by a casual fan would see the reasons why he's not getting it done.

Can he be good again? Sure. But how good and does it even matter? We're talking about the last spot on a 12 man staff. If he turns it around elsewhere they're losing... nothing much.

[roundegotrip]

Whether or not Lopez would have turned things around, the bullpen just got upgraded either way. Good luck to Lopez, and thanks for the contributions he's made, but the Sox are better today than they were yesterday, and a scary bullpen for opposing teams just got even scarier.

[hittery]

I'll be honest. I'll miss gazing upon his fine ass. But I won't miss his pitching.

[Rudy Pemberton]

He was useful in the past, perhaps even good...but he was terrible this year and most importantly, his manager had zero confidence in him. Not sure what happened; but he didn't seem to have any ability to throw strikes this year and the pen is in a position where they have a lot of pitchers better than him, which is a great thing. Ultimately, I don't think you even need the second lefty since you've got a bunch of really good righties who can get both RH and LH out. Once Dice K is back, you move Masterson back to the pen. That leaves you with a bullpen of Papelbon, Okajima, Ramirez, Delcarmen, Saito, Masterson, and Bard. Yeah, that's pretty good. Lopez will surely catch on somewhere, but I really don't think anyone is worried about that. Hated trading Riske for him, but I grew to admire Lopez as his results were pretty good, somehow.

FWIW, not even close to the worst Javier Lopez to play for this franchise

[Eric Van]

yecul, on May 10 2009, 03:56 PM, said:

He received unfair treatment from a lot of us on this board (myself included) in the past. This year, however, he has been terrible and the question is not whether he has been good in the past, but whether he can be good going forward.

Many didn't think so. The organization doesn't think so.

I'm sure the opposite is true. If every pitcher in Pawtucket were getting their head handed to them, getting Lopez straightened out would be a priority and a more than reasonable hope.

In fact, there are six guys down there with True ERAs of 1.80 or less (five with Component ERAs that low). And you've got Smoltz coming back. So he's not close to being one of the 12 best pitchers in the organization, which means that moving him is a no-brainer.

Looking at his last 8 outings:

4/20, good
4/24, loaded the bases on wildness, then found it and pitched out of the jam
4/28, pitched good, fielded terribly
4/29, vintage despite working on 0 days rest
4/30, takes one for the team pitching 3 days in a row in a blowout loss; awful
5/6, hasn't pitched in almost a week, predictably wild
5/7, has the GB out going but also gives up a run on two roped hits, typical for 0 days rest
5/9, gives up a cheap Fenway run but actually looks quite good

That's not a lot different from what you'd expect given his career splits previously. I don't think there's any reason to think he won't be good from this point in the season onwards, if he gets enough outings on 1-3 days rest.

[pokey_reese]

I'm certainly not sorry to see Lopez go, but after the quotes posted in the poll thread about how the organization wanted to wait a while to bring up Bard, I am a little surprised by the about face. I am really looking forward to seeing if his command can stay strong facing selective major league hitters, and watching to see if he is hitting triple digits on the gun.

[TomRicardo]

Sprowl, on May 10 2009, 05:33 PM, said:

You may be right, but why? Doesn't it depend on the degree of desperation of potential trading partners?

Why trade for him? The only team that might take him would be first on the waiver list. He is either in Pawtucket or the Washington Nationals by Thursday. Funny thing is there isn't much of difference between the teams. Well pawtucket might have better pitching.

[SoxFanSince57]

Another side-armed throwing lefty from a local Fairfax HS goes down in flames. Lopez (Robinson) and a kid named Mike Venafro (Paul VI) were two local players that made it to the bigs. Both had a stretch when they did well and then got hit pretty regularly.

Oh well, maybe he will come back and coach around here someday.