It is the cold, dark place within a major league baseball game no manager wants to find himself - discovering that you are in position to close out a win in the ninth, but lack that certain pitcher who can nail down the final out.
Nobody came to know this state better last year than the managers of the two worst late-inning bullpens in the American League, Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon and Eric Wedge of Cleveland.
"It's not easy," Maddon said. "I believe the teams with the best bullpens have the best chance of playing the last game of the year, I really do."
"The bullpen," Wedge explained, "has a greater impact on a major league club than people want to give credit for."
For Red Sox manager Terry Francona, it was a chasm he found himself in on very few occasions last season. Jonathan Papelbon, before ending his season with a shoulder ailment on Sept. 4, was about as much of a sure thing as any team could ask for, converting 35 of 41 save chances while portraying the image of invincibility throughout.
This time around, that the lounge chair Francona eased back in during the late innings a season ago could turn into a bed of nails. Papelbon's role is undergoing a major change, which could also be said for a measure of his manager's peace of mind.
"What happens when you lose games late because you can't keep leads, it is one of the most demoralizing things to a team," Maddon said. "I don't think you can underestimate the importance of a bullpen in today's game."
Looking for answers
The Tampa Bay manager knows of what he speaks.
While Papelbon supplied the ultimate security blanket for the Red Sox last season, the Devil Rays joined Cleveland at the bottom of the American League for the fewest games saved. Tampa's closers finished with 33 saves in 52 opportunities, while the Indians hit the bottom of the bullpen barrel by notching just 24 of 45 chances.
The Red Sox's bullpen may never reach such depths, if, for no other reason, than the quantity of arms competing for jobs in Fort Myers. But even the mere thought of a season of uncertain endings can affect an entire team, which is why Cleveland brought in Joe Borowski and Keith Foulke (combined 270 career saves) to close out games this season.
"It's not about the manager anyway, but it's draining on a staff, and it's draining on a team," Wedge said. "You don't want a team looking over their shoulder, regardless what the score. The last thing you want to do is starting looking over your shoulder at your own bullpen. When you talk about bullpen, it's without a doubt the most unpredictable part of a team, and it's going to be that way year to year. It's going to evolve and change over the course of the season."
The position Francona finds himself in entering spring training is more along the lines of what Maddon faced last spring. The Devil Rays manager was entering his first season without any proven game-ender, having seen the team's '05 closer, Danys Baez (41 saves), be traded away in January.
Maddon had hoped somebody would step up, whether it was in spring training, before the All-Star break or even in the final months. Yet nobody did, as Seth McClung led the team with 12 saves. Maddon was left with a feeling far from the ninth-inning confidence he enjoyed while coaching with the Angels, watching the likes of Bryan Harvey, Troy Percival and Francisco Rodriguez over the years.
"You think you know what you have going into the season based on spring training, but it's really based on track records more than anything," Maddon explained. "Guys with good track records keep on going, and guys who don't, well, sometimes they hit and sometimes they don't hit. For me, when you are in such an ambiguous situation, you attempt to set roles, and that's hard. You really have to pay attention to data and just pay attention.
"The first part of the season is somewhat of a casting call. You're trying to attempt to find out exactly what you do have; from that you hope people will win the role. That's what happened last year where we came out of spring training thinking we had this or we had that, but called it an 'amorphic' bullpen even at that point. I even sat down before the season began and said, 'You should all be ready to pitch, period, but you have no specific inning.' We were really unsure what we were going to do with that bullpen."
Throwing out certainty
Francona is just on the starting blocks of the six-week tryout, hoping that a former starter (Joel Pineiro), wily veteran (Brendan Donnelly, Mike Timlin) or up-and-comer (Craig Hansen) might fill Papelbon's shoes. But the evaluation process already promises to be an imperfect one.
In terms of past performance, the Red Sox will be met with uncertainty no matter who's handed the ball.
Pineiro has relieved for just more than month, Donnelly and Timlin can't be counted on to re-enter their primes, Hansen's big league work thus far been smothered in doubts, and the rest - J.C. Romero, Devern Hansack, Julian Tavarez, et al. - appear to be anything but wunder closers.
Obviously, Francona's eyes will have to be a bit more wide open this spring.
During last year's stint in Fort Myers, only Manny Delcarmen was afforded as many as two save opportunities, while the team's inning-leader, Papelbon, exited the spring with a gaudy 5.48 ERA.
"When you're really trying to test somebody like that, they really have to pitch the fourth or fifth inning of a (spring training) game, when regulars are still in," Maddon said. "If you wait until the end, you pretty much are going to be pitching against Triple-A players for the most part. For me, spring training is always skewed, and you really shouldn't put too much stock in them at any time. It's the track record that really matters."
The uncertainty that awaits Francona won't be foreign to the Sox manager. While guiding the Phillies from 1997-2000, it wasn't as if he was blessed with lock-down closers, having to ride out the likes of Jeff Brantley (23 saves, 5.86 ERA), Wayne Gomes (19 saves, 4.26 ERA) and Mark Leiter (23 saves). The ups and downs that accompanied Keith Foulke's 2005 meltdown certainly did nothing to put his manager at ease.
Francona mustn't be fooled by last year's successful Pabelpon experiment. Only special players boast the mental makeup required for the closer's role, like the former Mississippi State fireballer possesses.
"It makes all the difference in the world, and when you don't have it, I'm telling you ... you just hate the idea of having it be like a flip of a coin," Maddon said. "It's nice to have people who are slotted for the sixth, seventh, eighth , and, of course, ninth. Then you build your games to certain points, and it's a much better feeling on the bench."
Rob Bradford is a sportswriter for the Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company. E-mail him at rbradford@eagletribune.com.
