The Red Sox may be putting together one of the scariest bullpens in baseball.
We won’t know how the roster shakes out until the club heads north in April, and not everyone who’s in the running for a bullpen berth is going to make the club. But whomever Terry Francona decides to keep, opposing batters are going to be experiencing a lot of discomfort in the late innings of games.
As the roster stands now, there will be six strikeout artists in camp this spring who between them averaged 9.36 strikeouts per nine innings last summer and have averaged 9.50 strikeouts over the courses of their respective careers.
Some of the relievers are already familiar to Red Sox fans. Jonathan Papelbon, of course, averaged 10 strikeouts per nine innings last year and has averaged 10.57 during his career. Manny Delcarmen averaged 8.72 and Hideki Okajima 8.71 last year. Okajima has averaged 8.45 and Delcarmen 8.32 during their brief careers.
David Aardsma averaged 9.06 K’s in 2008 and has averaged 8.65 over his career.
During the off-season GM Theo Epstein has added a couple more power arms to the mix.
Despite elbow problems last year that limited him to 47 innings, Takashi Saito fanned 60 batters for the Dodgers and averaged 11.49 strikeouts. That’s a shade under the 11.62 he has averaged in the majors.
Unheralded Ramon Ramirez averaged 8.79 strikeouts for the Royals last season and has averaged 8.39 during his career.
There will almost certainly be a spot in the bullpen for soft-throwing Javy Lopez, who had an excellent season in 2008. And Justin Masterson, who will probably strike out more batters as he gains experience, likely has an inside track for a seat.
But no matter who’s in the bullpen in 2009, there are going to be a lot of frustrated hitters around the American League.
Now consider that the Red Sox’ top three starters — Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Daisuke Matsuzaka — have averaged 8.21 strikeouts over their careers, and there’s a very good chance Red Sox pitchers are going to lead the league in strikeouts.
If John Smoltz pitches, either as a starter or out of the bullpen, he’ll make things even tougher on enemy hitters. Smoltz has averaged 7.98 K’s over his career and has more than 3,000 strikeouts on his resume.