Bullpen positives and negatives

Look on the bright side. When it comes to the Sox best relief pitchers, all are home grown. Yet, outside of Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard and Manny Delcarmen there has not been a lot to like about the Sox bullpen this year. You probably had the feeling, as I did, heading into the season that the relief corps would be somewhat of a problem when the big decision heading out of Fort Myers was whether to carry Scott Schoeneweis or Scott Atchison. Into the second week of June, the Sox bullpen has an ERA of 4.24. Compare that to the strong relief that a team like the Padres are getting (2.70 ERA) or or the Rays (3.23) and you see just how far off the pace Boston has fallen in an area that presumably was a strength coming into the season and was a relative strength last year (3.80 ERA). The questions are simple: what has gone wrong and how can it be fixed? This, as it always is with bullpen analysis, is easy to define. The Sox expected a semblance of the strong performances that Hideki Ok...