With a mid-90s sinker and a hard slider, Tavarez has posted ERA+ of 116, 176 and 125 since returning to the bullpen in 2002. He's a righty killer, holding them to a .611 OPS (including a .318 SLG) from 2003-05 (righties did slightly better, with a .753 OPS). Over the last three years, he has held all batters to .253/.317/.342.
His OPS Against stats were a bit higher than that average in 2005, though: .727 vs RH and .823 vs LH.
And he and Manny Ramirez were close in Cleveland. From an article in Newsday from May 16, 1995:
A couple years ago, Ramirez and teammate Julian Tavarez asked a sportswriter if they could borrow $70,000 so they could buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. "That's just Manny being Manny," Hargrove said.Plus, we learn that the expression "Manny being Manny" is nearly 11 years old.
Right now, we have a pretty solid staff:
Schilling, Beckett, Clement, Wells, Wakefield(with Hansen, Delcarmen, DiNardo and others down the road in Pawtucket). However, I have to assume the club is not done and someone -- Wells, Arroyo, and/or Mota -- will be gone by April.
Foulke, Timlin, Mota, Seanez, Tavarez, Papelbon, Arroyo
Also: Kevin Millar agreed to a $2.1 million, one-year contract with the Orioles.
He's slightly worse against lefties.
ReplyDeleteI love this signing. Even if the Sox trade 2 of wells/clement/arroyo the staff will be much improved over last year. With the wealth of young arms at Pawtucket this could be the start of a dominant era for Sox pitching.
Man does it feel strange to write those words and actually believe them!
Good luck to Kentucky Fried Kevin! Those two walks -- as well as the "Don't let us win tonight." line -- forever sealed his place in Red Sox history.
ReplyDeletePedro booed? ... Man, if that happens, any fan doing so should be branded so as to never be allowed back into Fenway Park ... or maybe something drastic should be done.