Meet the Sox

Luis Vizcaino

Luis Vizcaino arrived on the scene a year too late.  

If we knew we’d be getting a reliever who could appear several days a week, throw multiple innings and keep his ERA under 4.00, I’m sure he’d be a sight for sore eyes considering the current state of the Sox bullpen.

Instead, he was the second-weakest link in a talented Sox bullpen (I’ve combined Damaso Marte and Kevin Walker), and a guy we never wanted to see in a game.  If he was on the mound, chances were the Sox were losing.  And if they weren’t losing when he entered, they were in grave danger of trailing by the time he departed.  

Granted, he could’ve been a lot worse.  He started the season on the wrong foot when he was hung out to dry in the third game.  Shingo Takatsu gave up three solo shots to the Cleveland Indians to blow the save, and since Viz was the last man in the bullpen, he had to take his lumps.  Six earned runs in 2 1/3 innings that game gave him a 17.18 ERA at the end of the first series, so to finish with a 3.73 ERA at season’s end was quite commendable.

Vizcaino was a victim of circumstance, though, in a lot of ways.  Along with his rough start and the consistent flow of baserunners he allowed, he only had two pitches, and both of them were mediocre – a hittable fastball and a slider he enjoyed hanging.  When surrounded by Cliff Politte throwing darts, Neal Cotts locating his fastball, Dustin Hermanson’s transformation into Mr. Automatic followed by Bobby Jenks’ flamethrowing, Viz just didn’t match up.

Even Marte had the intimidating arm slots going for him, and it took months of him not finding the plate before I was ready to admit I was more comfortable with Vizcaino in the ballgame.

And not only did Viz have those two underwhelming pitches, but he worked at a snail’s pace which foreboded a sense of doom.  Add it all together and you have why I called him “Hindenburg”: He was big, slow and it felt shocking when he didn’t go down in flames.

Despite an underwhelming strikeout-to-walk rate, Vizcaino actually posted a 2.60 ERA after the All-Star break.  And when the Sox needed him in the playoffs during the marathon Game 3, he pitched an inning and came out unscathed.  That being said, if Vizcaino could have in some way guaranteed a repeat performance, he’d be a perfectly acceptable piece in the 2006 bullpen.

Unfortunately, there’s no way he could do make any claim of that sort, and his statistical trends aren’t encouraging.  His strikeout rates have decreased the last four years while his walk rate spiked upwards last season.  Given that he’s on the wrong side of 30 and making almost $2 million this season, Kenny Williams was wise to pawn him off to Arizona.

If nobody emerges from the Boone Logan-Javier Lopez-Matt Thornton sludge, we may find ourselves thinking about Luis and wondering what might’ve been, even if his career looks ready to fall off the table soon.  Then again, with Viz, it seems it will always feel that way.