http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/777 Recent articles about Octavio Dotel en-us The White Sox spent some serious money and mortgaged some of their future this winter, while the Tribe tried to get through this season with a pat hand and keep their future intact. This week's three-game series between the two is a good indicator of which team had the better approach., Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:08:03 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285371 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285371 I was at Yankee Stadium tonight, making my Yankee-fan daughter happy by taking her to a game, watching Joba the Great look pretty ordinary and (this was my main focus) watching the out-of-town scoreboard to see what was going on in ChiTown. Am I nuts or what? As I watched the updates being posted, I could tell without any details available at all that the game between the Tribe and the Sox was taking a familiar path. Lee and Danks matching each other inning after inning and the toothless Tribe offense being offensive, as it has been all year. When the Yanks loss to Texas ended, the auxiliary scoreboard at Yankee Stadium showed the Tribe and the Sox tied at 1 in the 9th. It seemed pretty clear to me at that point that after I battled with 50 thousand other New Yorkers to get out of the place, risked 18 fender benders trying to push my way out of the parking lot and drove home to the suburbs, that I would likely turn on my computer to find that one reliever or another had blown the game. I was not disappointed. Tonight it was Joe Borowski, who blew his fourth save in 10 chances this season. The Tribe took the lead in the tenth only to have JoBo give it up (again) in the bottom of the inning. Can the trade deadline get here fast enough? The sooner it does the sooner Borowski will be gone (if someone will take him). Whether gone through trade or simply banished, Borowski must go. There's no obvious choice to replace him, so maybe Wedge spends the last two months of the season holding open auditions. Maybe the closer of the future is on someone else's Triple-A team right now, about to change uniforms without knowing it just yet. Someone - at least one guy - has to be given the shot in the last two months of this year to try to fill the job for next season. If that guy proves not to be on the roster, even after the trading deadline, then some money has to be shelled out to get a real closer. Everyone laughed at the White Sox when they overspent for Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel this winter. But why is overpaying for a solid, shut-em-down bullpen considered to be foolish while paying huge bucks for a bat or a starter is seen as a great move by the front office. We've seen it time and time again. You don't win division titles without a solid bullpen and the Tribe's pen is a mess. The first thing to do to fix it so spend the last two months trying to find out if they have someone to close out games next year already on their roster. I don't see anybody, but you've got to try. Back to Joba the Great for a minute. This was my first chance to see him pitch in person, except possibly for one inning of relief late last season. He was anything but great tonight. He couldn't find home plate with a Garmin GPS - having to leave after four innings with his pitch count in the 90s. Joba walked four and gave up five hits and two runs in his four innings. Of his 91 pitches, 49 were strikes and 42 were balls. Not too good. Derek Jeter, my daughter's favorite, got the night off and the Yanks lost of course, so it wasn't the greatest of nights for my daughter. For me, it was a good - if painfully slow - game in which I had no rooting interest. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:40:45 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284912 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284912 Injuries have created new ninth inning situations in both Seattle and Atlanta. Brandon Morrow steps in for the Mariners while the Braves welcome back an old face who should step right into the closer role. Also, there is a shake-up at the top of the rankings in this week's Closer Report. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:42:29 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279463 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279463 Brandon Lyon hasn't given up a run since April 6. J.J. Putz suffered another injury, and Troy Percival is set to return. Find out where these three rank, and expanded middle reliever rankings in this week's Closer Report. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:59:39 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/277331 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/277331 Whatever IT is, the Tribe does not have it. Not this year. There will be no division title this season. No playoffs. Nothing but a "talent" dump about six or seven weeks from now. This is not a knee-jerk rant following what must have been one of the most gut-wrenching losses of the year. (I wouldn't know because when FOX monopolizes Saturday afternoons I don't get to see the Tribe on the dish - and let me thank Uncle Rupert for small favors today). The Tribe is 7 1/2 out of first and three weeks from tonight they will have played their 81st game - the half-way point of the season. This, my friends, is a trend. It is reality. It is no longer believable to spout all those things that sound good - and are often true - in April and maybe even into early May. "It's early, there's plenty of time." "They'll start hitting when the weather gets warmer." Blah Blah Blah. There were many times throughout this season that I felt like pulling the trigger on a posting just like this one. But I said all of those things to myself about the team getting things straightened out and how no one is running away with the division. Well, the Sox have won 20 of their last 30 and seem to be starting to build that head of steam - that quiet confidence - that allows you to pull away when everyone is is still trying to figure out how to get the train on the tracks. The Tribe's longest winning streak this season has been five games - April 22-26. Of course they followed that up by losing three straight. Their best stretch of the year was their 8-2 run from May 6-15, when the starters were on that incredible scoreless-inning run. You will probably remember that the Tribe followed that up with seven straight losses. Through all of that I checked all the various fan blogs, poured over stats, watched most of the rest of the division struggle - all in an effort to find a reason to believe that this season was going to mean something after the 4th of July. It is becoming pretty clear that the only thing that will matter after Independence Day is the July 31 trade deadline. The results of that day, or the days leading to it, unfortunately will be the measuring stick that will determine if anything at all was accomplished this season. The offense got a boost of confidence in the hot winds of Arlington earlier this week. After weeks of struggling to put up one or two runs in a game, it now seems to have reached its true potential - four runs in a typical game. There will be scoring outbursts again to be sure. But the most you can expect from this group day-in and day-out is four. Two starting pitchers are on the shelf. Yet I have few worries there. The starting pitching depth built by the organization seems to be showing itself to be capable of weathering the storm. But this team, because of its below-average offense and quality starting pitching, will play a lot of close games - or at least games that are close until the bullpen gets in on the action. Other than Joe Borowski since his return from injury, there is not one arm out there you can count on. (And truthfully, how long do you think Borowski will last on that list of one?) For Eric Wedge, getting through the last few innings is like playing Russian Roulette, only with three of the six chambers loaded instead of one. Masa Kobayashi hasn't been bad, but you never know when he'll come out and blow up. Ditto for Raffie Perez. Raffie Betancourt is a disaster. No sense going through the rest of the pen because the names change almost daily and Wedge never has the confidence to use any of them anyway. Very few noticed when the Sox picked up Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel over the winter. And those in the Cleveland blogosphere who did notice snickered at the pickups. But those two have helped to stabilize the Sox pen - a key difference between this year's team and last. The Indians pen has done a 180 as well. But in the wrong direction. There doesn't seem to be much chance of the Tribe becoming more than a 3-to-5-runs-a-game team. The starters can't throw shutouts every night. The bullpen needs to be consistent and consistently good. There are about four pieces missing out there and it looks like there's little chance of making enough moves to fill that many holes. For those of us who have been watching this team for the past 40 years or so we know the drill. Head on out to Berea for a practice or two and wish for better things for the Indians next year. Nothing would please me more than to turn on my printer on Sept 30, punch up this piece, print it out, pour a large glass of water and eat my words. But I don't think that is going to happen. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:04:54 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/275735 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/275735 In the second installment of our Bullpen Breakdowns series, we take a look at the AL Central teams focusing on who will be filling the roles of closer and setup man come opening day as well as sleeper middle relievers to keep an eye on. Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:34:16 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/196388 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/196388 After years of being a highly-touted reliever, and finally as a 36-save closer, Dotel's arm blew out. The Yankees took a chance on Dotel in 2006 while he was rehabbing his arm, but they only got 10 innings out of him (10.80 ERA, 2.90 WHIP, 7 K's, 10 BB's, and 18 Hits). They were a year too early. In 2007, the Royals decided to take a chance on Dotel. He was a bit more successful there, posting an overall 3.91 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 29 K's, 11 BB's, and 11 Saves in 23 IP. He fell to injuries quickly, and Joakim Soria proved he was a better, younger, and cheaper commodity. We'll also examine the Atlanta Braves trading infielders Willy Aybar and Chase Fontaine to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Jeff Ridgway. Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:58:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/85712 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/85712 Right handed closer Octovio Dotel has signed with the Chicago White Sox today for $11 million over 2 years. The White Sox had one of the worst bullpens in baseball last year and will look to improve with the signing of Dotel. Last year the White Sox blew 23 saves and posted a 19-25 record with a ERA of 5.49 - hardly numbers that will win you a games, let alone a World Series. Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:15:25 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80470 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80470 The White Sox need more weapons than just Dotel to compete this season with the Tigers and Indians. Dotel should be a solid closer, he proved last year he is not bothered by his injured arm. Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:07:48 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80210 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80210 The White Sox took another step toward revamping their shaky 2007 bullpen by adding Octavio Dotel to the mix. The two-year, $11 million deal probably won't be announced until Tuesday or Wednesday Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:10:17 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80178 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/80178 Dotel is rumored to eb close to signing with the White Sox, we break down what this means and the potential fantasy impact. Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:56:56 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/77509 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/77509 Adam Jones is supposedly back in action at Winter Ball; could the Orioles lose interest in Sherrill if they sign Dotel? Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:54:08 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/72791 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/72791 Mark Hale in the New York Post reports that the Mets are discussing the possibility of bringing over Octavio Dotel and Shawn Chacon to bolster their bullpen. Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:11:32 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/38972 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/38972 Jim Thome, according to manager Ozzie Guillen, is thinking about putting him in the leadoff spot. Gary Sheffield and Edgar Renteria are out again. That, and much, much more MLB info. Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:35:17 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/24715 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/24715 Blurbs and Links from around the blogosphere... Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:37:13 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/23146 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/23146