After everyone said the Red Sox didn't want him back in the pen, Papelbon decides he wants to close.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/specials/spring_training/2007/03/22/papelbon.closer.ap/index.html

3/22/2007 7:30:20 PM

i thought it was papelbon who was saying he wanted to be a starter last year.

3/22/2007 7:36:56 PM

He wants to help the team out with Timlin starting out the season on the DL the Sox need a closer, plus he is having shoulder problems

3/22/2007 7:42:25 PM

I heard he changed his mind back cuz the motherfucker watches too much TNT

3/22/2007 7:43:11 PM

^ 1/10 =(

3/22/2007 7:43:34 PM

His shoulder concerns should be lessened if he starts though. It's the non-regular throwing that closers have to do that is the concern.

I guess he just likes being the man in the 9th.

I wonder if he isn't happy with his extended pitching arsenal though. But I haven't followed the Sox this spring, so I can't say for sure on that.

3/22/2007 8:01:50 PM

^^^

3/22/2007 9:10:32 PM

Damn I wish I had heard this early yesterday because I would have ranked him higher in one of my fantasy drafts last night.

I think this is a good move though for Boston because Joel Pineiro was not going to cut it.

3/23/2007 10:38:35 AM

i don't know why he wouldn't want to stay in the pen, he was a fucking baller last year.

[Edited on March 23, 2007 at 11:44 AM. Reason : confusing syntax]

3/23/2007 11:44:07 AM

Quote :

"Papelbon decides he wants to close"

more like the Red Sox decide he doesn't have the endurance to be a starter

3/23/2007 11:53:14 AM

^ No he actually went to Francona and asked to be put back in the pen. I think Sox management was ready to let him begin the season in the rotation.

3/23/2007 12:58:03 PM

i mean you maybe right but when Peter Gammonds was on Dan Patrick yesterday he made it sound like Papelbon's conditioning had a lot to do with it

3/23/2007 1:12:46 PM

^ Okay I hadn't heard that. The reports I read said that Papelbon took the idea to Francona, but Gammons is usually right so maybe it was made to seem that Papelbon suggested it when in reality it was the Red Sox doing.

3/23/2007 2:19:07 PM

man... i liked peter gammons a lot more before i found out he went to carolina

3/23/2007 2:51:13 PM

I'd probably hate Carolina a lot less if they had as many titles in the last 50 years as the Red Sox

3/23/2007 2:52:24 PM

nah, they'd still think they're the center of the academic universe.

3/23/2007 2:55:11 PM