Friday Random YouTube: He's Coming For You

This YouTube conglomeration of Jonathan Papelbon moments is a little bit cheesy, but -- hey -- you'll be rocking out to it too.

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"If you want to give me the ball in the ninth, I want it"

After being "offline" and therefore "disconnected" for most of the day, it was quite a treat to power up the laptop and find out that Jonathan Papelbon will be the 2007 Red Sox closer. Wow!

I'm not surprised that Papelbon is back in the bullpen, but I expected the transition two or three weeks into the season after a test of the "closer by committee" situation. Papelbon's words from Boston.com:

"I haven't been sleeping well because there's been that feeling deep down in my heart that I wanted to close...This is something I want to do for the rest of my career...It has nothing to do with Timlin's health or us not having a closer or my shoulder. I broke into the league as a closer. They drafted me as a closer. In college, I learned to pitch in the bullpen. It's where my heart is."

The bullpen is where his heart is...Sigh.

Three big questions to sleep on: Are the Red Sox a better team with Papelbon in the bullpen? Who will take his place in the starting rotation? When and why did Papelbon pose for a picture with four boxes of frozen chicken?

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Translation Required: Papelbon Closing?

Extra Bases has the transcript of a "lighthearted" exchange today between Sox brass regarding the 2007 closer role:

Tom Werner: "Well, we don’t have one today, but hopefully we’ll have one soon."

John Henry: "I thought we had one today."

Tom Werner: "Well, you said we did."

John Henry: "We do have one, I guess we just can’t tell you who that is. It hasn’t been announced? No closer has been announced? ... You can’t always believe what you hear."

Separately, in an interview with the Globe’s Gordon Edes that will air on NESN tomorrow night, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said that Jonathan Papelbon remained among the team's many options at closer.

With some deductive thinking we can conclude the following from these cryptic comments:

• The Sox may or may not have made an in-house decision regarding the closer role.

• If a resolution has been made, it is probably not one of the "unprovens" - Joel Pineiro, Craig Hansen, Manny Delcarmen, Devern Hansack etc.

• If Jonathan Papelbon is indeed "among the team's many options at closer," the team is convinced that his shoulder would be able to remain healthy as a reliever.
  

• Therefore: Papelbon may or may not return to the bullpen in 2007 or the Sox have may or may not have made a trade for a closer. Chad Cordero?
  

In other words, we don't know anything new regarding who the Sox closer will be in 2007, but it's always fun to speculate, right?

"Papelbon!" photo by Flickr user libdespot
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Rocket II

Pitchers and catchers report for spring training one week from today!

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