Red Sox Finally Send Manny Delcarmen Packing, Trade Him To Rockies

I will put this in the “What the heck took so long?” category.

After declining four seasons in a row, the Boston Red Sox have finally shipped RHP Manny Delcarmen out of town. The Red Sox traded Delcarmen to the Colorado Rockies for minor league prospect Chris Balcom-Miller.

This trade ends a disappointing career for Delcarmen in a Red Sox uniform. The West Roxbury, MA native got off to a great start in a Boston uniform in 2007 posting a 2.05 in 44 innings.

"Fuel" is gonna try to light up Colorado.

However since then, Delcarmen’s ERA has gone from 2.05 in 07′, to 3.27 in 08′, to 4.53 in 09, and to 4.70 in 2010. His K/9 has gone down three years in a row and his BB/9 have gone up three years in a row.

That is not a good pattern to have, which is why I nicknamed Delcarmen “Fuel.”

Delcarmen would often come into a game with runners on first and second and instead of taking care of business, he would just add fuel to the fire. He would give up either a double or a single and then the game would turn into a mess.

Terry Francona and the rest of the Red Sox organization lost all faith in Delcarmen. He really became an afterthought in the Boston bullpen.

The Rockies are hoping that Delcarmen can turn his fortunes around in Colorado. They are hoping he can take the place of the injured Rafael Betancourt in their bullpen.

I am not sure how much of a positive impact Delcarmen can have in Colorado considering he isn’t much of a groundball pitcher.

Maybe he will benefit from going to the very tough American League East to the average at best National League, but it’s highly unlikely.

In Balcom-Miller, the Red Sox get a 21-year-old right-handed pitcher, who was the Rockies’ sixth round pick in last year’s June Draft.

In two minor league seasons in Rookie ball and Single-A, Balcom-Miller has a 2.72 ERA and an impressive 6:1 BB to K ratio.

If Balcom-Miller continues to impress, this could be a steal of a trade for the Red Sox.

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