He looks to have solidified himself as one of the absolute best closers in baseball.
All that in 7 excellent innings.
I know I am about to venture into heresy rivaling Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, but why is a middle reliever who struck out 6 batters in 7 innings getting all this incredibly positive press?
Of the 23 batters faced, 2 have hits. Is that type of contact rate sustainable? Seems Paplebon has been incredibly lucky.
This does not mean he won't be a solid closer or major league starter (which is what the Red Sox want), but he did walk 17 in 34 innings last year. Did that all magically go away?
And all it would take is one 1/3 of an inning with 4 earned runs and five runners to make his season numbers much uglier and to tarnish the aura that seems to be rivalling that of Derek Jeter's in NY.
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