The Red Sox Have a MAJOR Problem...

The Boston Red Sox have a major problem, specifically coming out of the bullpen in the form of set up arms. I'm here to break down the newest example, as today, once again, the relief guys simply did not get the job done for the Boston Red Sox, resulting in another loss. We'll break down all of that on this episode of Red Sox Digest, but first, before we get to the news and information, please do remember to subscribe to the channel, as nearly 80% of you guys watching this video are not currently subscribed. We do appreciate all the love and support, so thank you guys, but now let's get to it and break down all of the new information that we have, and really, just citing today's game against the Minnesota Twins, and the bullpen problems for Boston. Now, the Red Sox did lose 5-3, and the offense did spark first for the Red Sox in this game, once again. The Red Sox offense was able to jump out on the Twins, and they were able to establish a lead earlier in this game, but because of Crochet exiting after 5 innings of work, where he looked pretty damn good, outside of taking a fastball off the nose, which I, in the moment, thought his nose was totally broken, after seeing the side, really the side-angled replay, where it totally missed his glove that he put out blindly, and it just caught this edge of his nose, as it whizzed by up the middle of the field, again, if you missed it, there was a stoppage, he did have medical attendance, he obviously, he did stay in the game, he did finish the 4th inning, did finish the 5th inning before being relieved. After being relieved, that is where all the major problems really started for this Boston Red Sox team. Garrett Whitlock, who, if I'm going to say that we all know and love from this Red Sox fanbase, if you will, I'm a big fan of Whitlock, as well as a bunch of other guys in this bullpen for the Boston Red Sox, but simply, it has not been working, in the sense that Whitlock has now gone more than one inning in his last three innings, or last three appearances, I should say, and there's a lot of, really, similarities in these appearances. Now, if you look, this is Whitlock's last three appearances, last two times, he's went two innings, and there's a lot of extra, really, material on these box scores. Today, against the Twins, two innings, two hits, two earned runs, one walk, three strikeouts. The first inning of work for Garrett Whitlock was really, really good. He went one, two, three, and went unscathed, seemed like it was going to be another electric outing from Garrett Whitlock. That was not the case, as he came out in the seventh inning for his second inning of work, and that's where the damage really happened and began against Garrett Whitlock, against this Minnesota Twins team. Ended up giving up those two hits, two walks, or excuse me, two hits, two earned, and one walk in that second inning of work, and really, just, they were able to get to Whitlock in this game. I will say the Twins went into this game, overall, with a very, very good approach against these Red Sox pitchers, specifically Garrett Crochet, who gave up a first pitch home run to Byron Buxton, and you could tell from that swing on, through the first, really, rotation of this lineup, in the sense of the first matchups against Crochet, from this Twins lineup, they were strictly sitting fastball, it was obvious. Every single guy was simply swinging at the first pitch, because they knew the scouting report. They knew Garrett Crochet was going to lean heavily on that four-seam fastball, and that's exactly what they were sitting on, outside of the home run to Byron Buxton, Crochet didn't give up a lot of, really, damage in the sense of hits or earned runs, but the bullpen was really where things got going, for the Twins, offensively, I should say, and going bad for the Red Sox. Outside of today's performance from Garrett Whitlock, if we look back just a few days ago when he pitched at Toronto in two innings worth, he gave up four hits, three earned runs, did not walk any, did not strike out any. Now, Garrett Whitlock, as we've known from last year, where he was simply phenomenal, at one of the best relievers in all of baseball, type of phenomenal last season, we have not seen that level of, really, production from Whitlock up to this point in the year, and I think it has a lot to do with this idea that he's going more than one inning, really, a lot of the time. It feels like 90% of the time that he makes an appearance, it's more than just a single inning of work. Now, if Whitlock can go out there and look like he did in the first inning in today's ballgame, where he went one, two, three, this wouldn't be a major conversation, but it seems like the second inning, the third inning into these appearances for Garrett Whitlock, things start to crumble. Teams start to jump all over him, and it results in, again, a lot of batted balls, and it results in just, in overall, a subpar performance and appearance after that first inning of work. Now, if you look at the baseball savant page, there's a lot of great from Garrett Whitlock, there's a lot of average, and then there's a few things that simply don't work. The one thing that simply doesn't work is the barrel percentage, ranking in the fourth percentile of the entirety of the league when it comes to the barrel percentage. And outside of that, it's a lot of league average, if not way above league average, the only other thing way below league average would be the ground ball percentage. It's just not, one inning, one inning, please leave it to one inning, and if it doesn't work in that one inning, we can reopen this conversation, but please stop trying to expand him into a multi-inning guy. Right now, the one inning stuff is simply working. There's no way to edge around the bush, there's no way to lie about it, but when he is in there for one inning, Garrett Whitlock is phenomenal. It's when you start to stack those innings in a single appearance where things start to unravel. Now, Whitlock wasn't the only guy who didn't have the greatest performance, as again today, two innings, two hits, two runs, both earned one walk, three Ks, giving him an ERA of 3.66 for the year. And then there's Slate, specifically Justin Slate. Now he hasn't had the greatest run as of late either, he has now moved to 0-3 on the year as he got the decision, as Whitlock went undecided, because again, he only pitched in those five innings. Slate went one inning, three hits, two runs, both of them earned, did not walk any, did not strike out any, and again, those three hits coming in the sense of base hits, he did not give up a long ball today, which is good to see, but the idea that he's getting hit around and it's resulting in runs is not great for the Boston Red Sox, and this is what Justin Slate's current game log looks like over the last three appearances. Today, again, one inning, three hits, two earned, again, no walks, no strikeouts, but again, at Toronto in his appearance before this one today, one inning, three hits, three earned, one walk against the Toronto Blue Jays, overall not the greatest performance over the last two appearances for someone in Justin Slate, and that Red Sox nation had a lot of faith going into this season with, because he is, he was gross not only last season, but he showed a lot of upside through this point in the year. Now, has he had some rough patches? Absolutely, but there has been a lot of good moments. The hard-to-hit percentage percentiles in the tops of the league, the fastball velo is way, way up there in the sense of percentiles, chase and whiff percentages both going hand in hand in the top percentiles of the entirety of the league, but again, if you look at the K based on ball percentage and the barrel percentage, both of those being way below league average, as well as the ground ball rate being actually in the first percentile of the entirety of the league, that is not great for Justin Slate. Two things I'm going to point out for Slate and Whitlock, if you look at the expected batting average, as well as the expected ERA, both of them sitting right around league average for both Whitlock and Slate. Something that isn't great, but again, something that you can hope to grow on, as again, we are only 30 games into this MLB season, there is a lot of time remaining in this season, so do not jump off board of these two very, very good relievers who have very credible stuff. The overall pitch mix and the filth of those pitches is very, very good. You can't argue against that. Whitlock has a frisbee of a slider with great fastball velocity, so when he pairs those two things together, as well as with his sinker, he's a very, very, very efficient and very good pitcher overall. It's just when you start to stack innings, it seems like there is a major problem for the Boston Red Sox. Now Slate isn't too much better himself, obviously the mix is a bit different, he relies on that cutter as well as a curveball, something that Slate, or excuse me, Whitlock doesn't very much rely on, but he also does have a very good fastball with great velocity, as well as a very good sweeper that breaks horizontally away from right-handed batters that we've seen him use over and over again. Will this end up panning out for the Red Sox? Absolutely. I'm not here to tell you to jump off ship yet, I'm here to tell you to remain on board and to have faith in these guys, because the arms are there for the Red Sox, and we're only focusing on two main guys that didn't have the greatest performances today against the Twins, but give them time, allow a little bit more, a few more reps and a few more exchanges in or on the mound and in that batter's box to really be able to fully judge them and what you're expecting to see for the rest of the year. The stuff is gross, the velocity is good on the fastball for both of these guys we've been focusing on, so there is a lot of potential, there is the optimism that these guys are going to round out and really shape up for this Red Sox bullpen, but as of now it is not working for this Red Sox bullpen as they rank 12th in the entirety of the league when it comes to reliever ERA in the sense that it is a 4.22 right now, overall not the greatest numbers for the Boston Red Sox and specifically the bullpen for this Boston Red Sox, but it is something they can subside and something they can surpass if they just continue to be consistent and allow these guys to gain more experience and really go out there and continue to battle. As well as the ERA, their average is about a 2.44 overall, not the best, they're right around the league, about league average in the 14th, 15th spot when it ranks amongst the rest of the league, so it's nothing that they're in the bottom percentiles of the league yet, but it is not really where you want to be as of now because the bullpen is going to be extremely important once October comes for this Red Sox team and really the entirety of the MLB, whether we're specifically looking at the Red Sox or just major teams in this league, whether it be the Phillies, the Padres, the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, bullpens are going to matter substantially. We watched it with the Cleveland Guardians last season, they made it all the way to the ALCS, it didn't work as they faced against the powerhouse of the Yankees in that offense, but again, their bullpen was a massive piece to the reason why they were able to get as far as they did last season. I hope the Red Sox continue to have faith in these guys, in Whitlock as well as Slayton and as well as a bunch of others and Wilson and Erobus Chapman to hopefully be able to pan this out and really it's not the closer in Chapman or even possibly Liam Hendricks, it's more of the setup in the relief guys in those middle innings, trying to stack innings and not use as many arms. I think that's been the major problem here and again, if the Red Sox don't fix this, this is going to be a major problem going forward. Let me know down below what you guys think about the current bullpen situation for the Boston Red Sox and I will see you guys on the next one.