I've been harping all season that Valentine is overusing Aceves and tonight it burned him. Bobby brings him in to start the 8th and face the heart of the Twins order and that was a good move. Get through the meat of the order and have someone else pitch the 9th.But he starts Aceves in the 9th with a 2 run lead and with 2 outs and a pitch count over 30 Aceves gives up a 3 run HR to Maur while Breslow is warm in the bullpen. Why did they bother trading for Breslow if they don't trust him to get 1 lefthander out? Maybe the Sox should do to Valentine what the Yankees did to Torre with maximum pitch counts to Hughs and Chamberlain.
Because Torre really abused them with the half of a year he had them. The 30 innings Torre put on Joba's arm in his career are the ones that blew it out. Scott Proctor is the name to bring up if you want to bash him.
IP 2012 - 55.2 IP 2011 - 114.0 Tito abused Aceves far more than Bobby has. Perhaps Aceves is better suited though to fewer but longer appearances. Games appeared in 2012 is 51. Games appeared in all of 2011 is 55. So basically as everyone pretty much figured Aceves really isn't a closer but he is a guy who can go out there every few days and eat up 3 innings and keep the team in the game.
Aceves has been fine as a closer when he is used 1 inning a game but Valentine has brought him in non closing situations, pitched him for more than an inning and brought him back the next day.Watch, he'll use him again today. If you saw the game last night, Aceves looked good in the 8th inning. In the 9th, he gave up base runners and was flying open just enough to throw his control off. You are probably right in that Aceves may be better suited to middle relief but right now he is the best Sox closing option. My complaint has more to do with the way Aceves has been used that the number of IP.
Bobby has stated time and again that he doesn't believe in pitch counts and often goes with his gut when it comes to taking players out of a game. That can lead to players being overused and falling apart around mid August due to fatigue. Well, it is August 5th and perhaps it is happening with Aceves. He looked good today though, after Padilla got him into a save situation. Another thing, if the Sox had just done what everyone thought they would do and stick Bard in the closers role instead of jerking him around, who knows if there would have been some different outcomes this year. Aceves as a swing guy and Bard as a closer may have been more effective than what they attempted to start the year. Each had some level of success before this year in those respective roles.
Didn't see the game today but i predicted Bobby would use Aceves again today after he threw over 35 pitches yesterday and pitched on Friday and every game before that I can remember. Aceve's fatigue showed yesterday in the 9th inning when he started flying open and getting wild in and out of the strike zone. There hasn't been as much as a distant rumor that Bard is coming back to the big club in any role. The Sox managed to shave 4-5 mpf off of Bard's fastball by making him a starter. Bard has a big arm and the hope is they haven't screwed him up permanently. I remember how impressed I was with Chamberlain's hard slider; maybe the best I've ever seen. The Yankees managed to turn a dominating pitcher into an average one by stretching him out. The Sox may have done the same with Bard.
In Bobby's defense (I can't believe I just typed that), he did not want to go to Aceves. They were up 6-1 when Padilla gave up a solo and two run homerun over the course of three batters in the top of the 9th to make it 6-4. He had no choice. He only had two other arms out in the pen, Miller and...someone who is escaping me at the moment. I agree that I worry about Bard being "Joba'd" by the organization.
As I stated before, I don't think Bard would be a good closer. He tends to be very streaky and no closer is going to last long if he has a bad two weeks every once in a while. Bard was at his best as a set-up man. I don't thing he will return to the Sox this year and I think you will see him back in his old role in spring training. The Bard scenario is remarkably like Joba with the Yankees. I hope it has a good ending.
