Daniel Bard Provides No Relief for Boston Red Sox Fans

This is becoming troubling. 

The Boston Red Sox have not been playing good baseball as of late. That's not a secret. The Red Sox have seen a nine-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays on September 1st shrink to a 3.5-game lead as of now, and have been losing games at an alarming pace. 

Losses, as all losses are in team sports, are not the fault of one individual. Yet the loss the Red Sox absorbed earlier today was one that featured a storyline common in a number of losses since the month of September began. 

It featured an abysmal performance by Daniel Bard. Bard has lost three game this month. That's a lot for a starter, but it's a bright red flag for a guy whose only assignment is to pitch the eighth inning. Bard isn't just experiencing a slight slump, he's having a downright terrible time with his control. He's not in Rick Ankiel territory yet, but I'd think that Red Sox brass are privately very concerned with Bard's plight. 

They have good reason to be, as well. If Bard can't pitch the eighth inning, then the Red Sox have discovered an enormous gap in their bullpen at the worst of times. The Red Sox are well past the point in the season where Theo Epstein can pick up the phone and casually ask another general manager who he's got in the bullpen that he's willing to deal. In fact, even if the Sox could acquire a player via trade now, he'd be ineligible to pitch in the postseason. 

Basically, it's Bard or bust, and right now it's bust. Who could step into that eighth inning void if the Sox were to decide that Bard was no longer viable? Clay Buchholz and Alfredo Aceves would probably be the two best candidates. Aceves has been pretty good in whatever role the Sox have assigned him this season. When they needed him to start he gave them a bunch of solid starts. He's been good in both long and short relief as well. 

Buchholz, who is trying to come back from a back injury that has had him on the shelf since mid-June, would be the most talented option, but his bullpen experience is very limited at the big league level. In an ideal situation, Buchholz comes back healthy enough to actually start, which could place either Tim Wakefield or Andrew Miller in contention for the eighth inning slot. 

Miller seems unlikely since he's been plagued by similar, if not worse, control issues than the ones that Bard is currently experiencing. The one thing you can't do when you enter a game in the late innings with a lead, is put men on base. Bard's critical error today was not so much the two-run single that he gave up to Adam Loewen, as it was the two walks he issued before recording an out to start the inning. That's just inexcusable, and once that happened the likelihood of Bard's eventual implosion skyrocketed. 

Wakefield is a possibility. If his knuckleball is lively, then he's tough to hit at anytime, regardless of the score and circumstances. The problem is that Wakefield hasn't really been in a groove since the summer began. 

Terry Francona has always been a manager who believes in weathering the storms of individual slumps. It's probably too early to proclaim that Bard has even lost his role as eighth-inning setup man. Nonetheless, there has to be concern because the Red Sox employ one of the more rigid pitch-count philosophies in the majors. They're not going to just let other guys throw more innings and pitches. Someone is going to have that eighth inning role, and for now it's probably going to remain Bard. 

There is another issue Bard's slump has an impact on. Jonathan Papelbon has reestablished himself as one of baseball's premier closers this season. He's got 29 saves and only one blown save. His ERA is 2.65 and his WHIP ratio is 0.90. He's also a free agent at the conclusion of this season. 

When the season began it was almost a foregone conclusion that Papelbon was playing his final season in Boston. Not only did the Red Sox have Bard, the young pitcher who could hit 100 miles per hour and locate his pitches, but they also had gone out and signed former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks to a two-year $12 million contract on the off chance that Bard was either involved in a trade or that he couldn't assume the closer role in April of 2012. Jenks has been injured for nearly the entire season, and when he was healthy he offered little evidence to suggest that he would ever pitch effectively enough to close in the near future. 

Entering September there already were rumblings regarding Papelbon's future in Boston. Bard had been so good in the eighth inning role and Papelbon had been so good closing, that there was chatter that the Red Sox would possibly re-sign Papelbon and just keep the back end of the bullpen intact.

With Bard imploding, re-signing Papelbon seems to have gone from a potential priority to possibly a top priority and that change will have a dramatic impact on every signing the Red Sox make or don't make in the upcoming offseason. Does spending big bucks on Papelbon mean that David Ortiz is playing his final games in Boston? Would spending money to retain both players prevent the Red Sox from bidding aggressively on starting pitchers such as C.J. Wilson or even CC Sabathia?

Daniel Bard is going to have a major impact on the Boston Red Sox for not just the remainder of this season but for the next several ones as well. Will that impact be positive or negative? Red Sox fans are watching and they are concerned.