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red sox - Jonathan Papelbon won't hesitate to say it: He's eyeing Cooperstown - WEEI | Rob Bradford
JONATHAN PAPELBON WON'T HESITATE TO SAY IT: HE'S EYEING COOPERSTOWN
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:38am
0
Jonathan Papelbon has his sights set on both Mariano Rivera and Coopertown. (Getty Images)
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Remember Jonathan Papelbon? Well, he's got a message in case you forgot.
"I'm 100 percent better pitcher now than I was then, for the whole time I was in Boston," said the Phillies closer prior to making a one-inning spring training appearance against his old team, Sunday.
For Red Sox followers, Papelbon has slowly faded from their radar since leaving town for Philadelphia following the 2011 season. The Sox ultimately found his replacement, Koji Uehara, who was the one standing on the mound for the final out for the team's most recent championship.
Since the Koji Era, there have been just passing references to Papelbon, usually involving some sort of rumors suggesting the Phillies are trying to pass on the player and his contract.
Papelbon, however, is here to remind everyone that he's not going anywhere any time soon.
"I view it like this: the day I decided to be in this closers role, I decided to chase Mariano [Rivera], the best one," he said. "I feel like I'm on that path, and it's a tough path. Obviously, to get to that level is unheard of, but I strive to get there still. A lot of times a closer's role is dependent on if he has a team that scores a lot of run, etc. You don't always get the opportunity to be on the team that scores the most runs every year. So, staying healthy and being able to be out there to produce is always going to be key for me."
So, if the goal is to emulate Rivera's career that must mean …
"My sights are on the Hall of Fame, and my sights are being the best I can be in every opportunity that I get to be in," Papelbon explained. "Now if you're on a team that can't get to postseason you can't do anything about that. Mariano just happened to be extremely blessed to be on so many winning clubs. It makes a difference.
"I thought about that when I was in the minor leagues. They made me fill out these pieces of paper in instructional league, and I wrote all this stuff about being an eight-time All-Star and being in the Hall of Fame. They actually brought the paper to me and said, 'This is serious. Stop messing around.' I told them I wasn't messing around. I was dead serious."
Papelbon understands how daunting such a goal is. Just Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage and Hoyt Wilhelm are the closers who have reached Cooperstown, with Rivera sliding in a few years from now. That isn't altering the mindset the 34-year-old hatched when filling out those forms for the Red Sox.
To this point, he actually has presented a fairly solid foundation to continue the discussion. Compare his 593 regular season games to the same stretch for Rivera (which would take the former Yankees closer through April 30, 2005), and the two are remarkably similar.
Rivera: 49-32, 339 saves, 389 save opportunities (87.1 percent), 1.07 WHIP, .216 batting average against, 2.44 ERA.
Papelbon: 35-29, 325 saves, 369 opportunities (88 percent), 1.02 WHIP, .208 batting average against, 2.37 ERA.
The caveat is that Rivera had pitched in 70 postseason games at that point, compared to Papelbon's 18, with the Yankees stopper having also weathered baseball's era of enhanced offense. On the other hand, Papelbon is almost exactly a year younger than Rivera was at that stage of his career, having also thrown 1,525 fewer regular season pitches.
All of it -- the production and the goals -- are well and good, but the reality is that Rivera continued to perform at a high level in eight of the nine years after his 593rd regular season appearance. That's the task that now faces the Phillies closer. The man who closed for more years than any Red Sox pitcher (6) says he's up for the challenge.
The good news for Papelbon is that he is clear from a hip injury that he battled for the last two years, reaching 95 mph on the radar gun Sunday afternoon. And even with the ailment, the righty is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, converting 39 of 43 saves to go with a 2.04 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. Oh, and by the way, he also just seven saves away from becoming the all-time save leader for both the Phillies and Red Sox. ("That's a neat thing for me," he said. "That's saying something.")
And if getting stuck on a bad Phillies team is a concern, Philadelphia can only control Papelbon for one more year after this one, with the closer's $13 million option for 2016 vesting if he finishes 48 games in the coming season.
"I've matured a little bit. I know how to push the gas pedal when I need to, push the break when I need to and save myself with pitch counts," Papelbon said. "I'm not trying to go out there and punch everybody out anymore. I don't throw 97 mph anymore, but I'm throwing 94 mph and hopefully this year I'll get up to 95 mph with sink and split and sliders. I've become more of a pitcher since I've been over here."
One thing that hasn't changed is Papelbon's mindset when it comes to finding potential landing spots going forward. He makes it perfectly clear that the career philosophy that was born during those final years with the Red Sox haven't been altered.
"You know my motto has always been you pay, I'll play. That's the way I took it into the offseason (after 2011)," he said. "I feel like I've earned that right. I'm not trying to be cocky, but you work so hard to get to that point in your career, and you go year to year, like I did, and you know it's a business and you have to treat it that way. That's always been my standing point, this is a business. You pay, I'll play. And nothing has changed."
For now, he is the closer for what appears to be a rebuilding Phillies team.
But, for the kid who set his sights on the Hall of Fame as a newly-drafted pitcher out of Mississippi State back in 2004, the tug of the Red Sox will never leave.
"Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied," said Papelbon of how things have worked out since signing with Philadelphia. "You can't sit here and map out your career. There are going to be things that come up along the way. If it was up to me, I would have loved to stay in Boston my whole career and it would have all been great. I don't know how I would have done in the [Bobby] Valentine Era, but … You know me, I kind of fly by the seat of my pants. I go out there and love to compete no matter where I'm at."
And when asked if he would he ever welcome a return Papelbon responded, "Of course, yeah. Of course I would. But you know that's a lot easier said than done."
He does like his challenges.
JONATHAN PAPELBON WON'T HESITATE TO SAY IT: HE'S EYEING COOPERSTOWN
Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:38am
0
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Remember Jonathan Papelbon? Well, he's got a message in case you forgot.
"I'm 100 percent better pitcher now than I was then, for the whole time I was in Boston," said the Phillies closer prior to making a one-inning spring training appearance against his old team, Sunday.
For Red Sox followers, Papelbon has slowly faded from their radar since leaving town for Philadelphia following the 2011 season. The Sox ultimately found his replacement, Koji Uehara, who was the one standing on the mound for the final out for the team's most recent championship.
Since the Koji Era, there have been just passing references to Papelbon, usually involving some sort of rumors suggesting the Phillies are trying to pass on the player and his contract.
Papelbon, however, is here to remind everyone that he's not going anywhere any time soon.
"I view it like this: the day I decided to be in this closers role, I decided to chase Mariano [Rivera], the best one," he said. "I feel like I'm on that path, and it's a tough path. Obviously, to get to that level is unheard of, but I strive to get there still. A lot of times a closer's role is dependent on if he has a team that scores a lot of run, etc. You don't always get the opportunity to be on the team that scores the most runs every year. So, staying healthy and being able to be out there to produce is always going to be key for me."
So, if the goal is to emulate Rivera's career that must mean …
"My sights are on the Hall of Fame, and my sights are being the best I can be in every opportunity that I get to be in," Papelbon explained. "Now if you're on a team that can't get to postseason you can't do anything about that. Mariano just happened to be extremely blessed to be on so many winning clubs. It makes a difference.
"I thought about that when I was in the minor leagues. They made me fill out these pieces of paper in instructional league, and I wrote all this stuff about being an eight-time All-Star and being in the Hall of Fame. They actually brought the paper to me and said, 'This is serious. Stop messing around.' I told them I wasn't messing around. I was dead serious."
Papelbon understands how daunting such a goal is. Just Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage and Hoyt Wilhelm are the closers who have reached Cooperstown, with Rivera sliding in a few years from now. That isn't altering the mindset the 34-year-old hatched when filling out those forms for the Red Sox.
To this point, he actually has presented a fairly solid foundation to continue the discussion. Compare his 593 regular season games to the same stretch for Rivera (which would take the former Yankees closer through April 30, 2005), and the two are remarkably similar.
Rivera: 49-32, 339 saves, 389 save opportunities (87.1 percent), 1.07 WHIP, .216 batting average against, 2.44 ERA.
Papelbon: 35-29, 325 saves, 369 opportunities (88 percent), 1.02 WHIP, .208 batting average against, 2.37 ERA.
The caveat is that Rivera had pitched in 70 postseason games at that point, compared to Papelbon's 18, with the Yankees stopper having also weathered baseball's era of enhanced offense. On the other hand, Papelbon is almost exactly a year younger than Rivera was at that stage of his career, having also thrown 1,525 fewer regular season pitches.
All of it -- the production and the goals -- are well and good, but the reality is that Rivera continued to perform at a high level in eight of the nine years after his 593rd regular season appearance. That's the task that now faces the Phillies closer. The man who closed for more years than any Red Sox pitcher (6) says he's up for the challenge.
The good news for Papelbon is that he is clear from a hip injury that he battled for the last two years, reaching 95 mph on the radar gun Sunday afternoon. And even with the ailment, the righty is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, converting 39 of 43 saves to go with a 2.04 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. Oh, and by the way, he also just seven saves away from becoming the all-time save leader for both the Phillies and Red Sox. ("That's a neat thing for me," he said. "That's saying something.")
And if getting stuck on a bad Phillies team is a concern, Philadelphia can only control Papelbon for one more year after this one, with the closer's $13 million option for 2016 vesting if he finishes 48 games in the coming season.
"I've matured a little bit. I know how to push the gas pedal when I need to, push the break when I need to and save myself with pitch counts," Papelbon said. "I'm not trying to go out there and punch everybody out anymore. I don't throw 97 mph anymore, but I'm throwing 94 mph and hopefully this year I'll get up to 95 mph with sink and split and sliders. I've become more of a pitcher since I've been over here."
One thing that hasn't changed is Papelbon's mindset when it comes to finding potential landing spots going forward. He makes it perfectly clear that the career philosophy that was born during those final years with the Red Sox haven't been altered.
"You know my motto has always been you pay, I'll play. That's the way I took it into the offseason (after 2011)," he said. "I feel like I've earned that right. I'm not trying to be cocky, but you work so hard to get to that point in your career, and you go year to year, like I did, and you know it's a business and you have to treat it that way. That's always been my standing point, this is a business. You pay, I'll play. And nothing has changed."
For now, he is the closer for what appears to be a rebuilding Phillies team.
But, for the kid who set his sights on the Hall of Fame as a newly-drafted pitcher out of Mississippi State back in 2004, the tug of the Red Sox will never leave.
"Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied," said Papelbon of how things have worked out since signing with Philadelphia. "You can't sit here and map out your career. There are going to be things that come up along the way. If it was up to me, I would have loved to stay in Boston my whole career and it would have all been great. I don't know how I would have done in the [Bobby] Valentine Era, but … You know me, I kind of fly by the seat of my pants. I go out there and love to compete no matter where I'm at."
And when asked if he would he ever welcome a return Papelbon responded, "Of course, yeah. Of course I would. But you know that's a lot easier said than done."
He does like his challenges.
