How many of these pitchers with one career Red Sox save do you remember

soxhop411

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View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1393031756815683586


after Garrett Whitlock got his first red sox save, RedSoxstats (@SoxScout) posted a list of pitchers who had one career save for the Red Sox in the 2000s.. How many of these names do you remember?




to be honest I only remember like 3 of these, and I think the rest were sent down the Memory hole
Edit:
List updated for 2022
View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1520224438947618817
Allen Ripley
Chris Howard
Hal Wiltse
Andrew Cashner
Chris Mahoney
Hank Fischer
Matt Andriese
Matt Strahm
Ted Lewis
Ted Wills
Andy Hassler
Chuck Hartenstein
Hipolito Pichardo
Mickey Harris
Andy Karl
Chuck Rainey
Ivy Andrews
Mike Maddux
Ben Taylor
Chuck Stobbs
J.C. Romero
Mike Meola
Biff Schlitzer
Craig Skok
Jack Kramer
Mike Stanton
Bill Butland
Dan Petry
Jakc Dickman
Mike Trujillo
Bill Fleming
Dean Stone
Jason Shiell
Monte Weaver
Bill Harris
Dennis Eckersley
Javier Lopez
Nick Altrock
Tim Lollar
Todd Frohwirth
Tom Bolton
Tom Sturdivant
Tommy Layne
Tony Welzer
Vicente Padilla
Bill Henry
Dick Littleficld
Jerry Stephenson
Nick Pivetta
Waite Hovt
Bill Monbouquette
Dick Pole
Jesse Tannehill
Paul Zahniser
Wayne Gomes
Bob Duliba
Dizzy Trout
Bob Ojeda
Doug Bird
Jim Burton
John Tudor
Phillips Valdez
Weldon Wyckoff
Ralph Brickner
Wes Ferrell
Bob Porterfield
Ed Durham
Josh A. Smith
Ramon Hernandez
Willie Banks
Bronson Arroyo
Ed Karger
Josh Taylor
Randy Gumpert
Woody Rich
Bruce Kison
Elmer Steele
Julian Tavarez
Ray Jarvis
Bryce Floric
Fernando Abad
Ken Holcombe
Robert Person
Burke Badenhop
Frank Baumann
Larry Andersen
Ron Kline
Buster Ross
Frank Castillo
Lew Krausse
Ron Mahay
Carson Smith
Franklin Morales
Lloyd Brown
Scott Atchison
Charlie Smith
Fritz Coumbe
Lore Bader
Scott Williamson
Chris Hammond
Galen Cisco
Mark Melancon
Steven Wright
Chris Haney
George Pipgras
Marty Pattin
Tanner Houck
[/QUOTE]
 
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BillMuellerFanClub

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Funny enough, most of these guys pitched at the height of my Sox fandom, 99-04 or so. Castillo was terribly underrated and still have that Bryce Florie line drive seared into my mind all these years later. Won’t miss Way Back Wasdin in the slightest. What a great trip down memory lane.
 

Diamond Don Aase

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I remember Chris Haney but not as a Red Sox, am not sure if Josh Smith is Dune Buggy or the other Josh Smith, and— if forced to choose— likely would have said Wayne Gomes played for the Celtics (doubtlessly conflating him with Ryan Gomes in my addled mind) but otherwise, like Bucky Barnes, I remember them all.

if you have forgotten Jason Shiell, you must be younger or have a better therapist than I.
 

CaptainLaddie

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I counted 25 of 28 that I remembered. Ben Taylor, Josh Smith and Robert Person -- I have no recollection of them. It helps that I played a literal fuckton of Baseball Mogul from 2003-2013 or so, so I learned way too many mediocre relievers names.
 

E5 Yaz

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I once worked with a guy who recorded this three-hole stretch during a round of golf: 8-1-13

He's who I thought of when I looked at Bref and saw that Mark Melancon pitched in 41 games for the 2012 Red Sox, finished 17 of them, and recorded 1 save ... which gave him this stretch during his career: 20-1-16-33-51-47-11 between 2011 and 2017
 

TapeAndPosts

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Wasdin was in the 2000s?? Weird.
Only barely, he was sent off to Colorado in the immortal Mike Lansing-Rolando Arrojo deal at the deadline in 2000. We had him three years before that and besides his one save in 2000, he had two more in 1999. So him being on this list is technically correct (the best kind of correct) but maybe feels a little like a cheat.

I'm genuinely surprised Scott Williamson only had one save. He pitched 52 innings for us in 2003-4. I mean, Chad Fox had 3 saves for us in 2003. I would have thought Scott would have gotten a couple more just for showing up.
 

brandonchristensen

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Only barely, he was sent off to Colorado in the immortal Mike Lansing-Rolando Arrojo deal at the deadline in 2000. We had him three years before that and besides his one save in 2000, he had two more in 1999. So him being on this list is technically correct (the best kind of correct) but maybe feels a little like a cheat.

I'm genuinely surprised Scott Williamson only had one save. He pitched 52 innings for us in 2003-4. I mean, Chad Fox had 3 saves for us in 2003. I would have thought Scott would have gotten a couple more just for showing up.
Did Williamson not get more postseason saves? I felt like he was so nails after a pretty subpar season.
 

TapeAndPosts

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Did Williamson not get more postseason saves? I felt like he was so nails after a pretty subpar season.
Ah, yeah, you've got it. He saved all three of our wins in the 2003 ALCS — a set of games I try not to spend a lot of time reliving. But he was nails, and I don't feel like he belongs on this list.
 

slamminsammya

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I looked up Jason Shiell because his name rang a bell. We got him off waivers from San Diego, who in turn had acquired him from Atlanta... along with Bret Boone and Ryan Klesko! I thought that was interesting. I also had never looked up Klesko's numbers, I just remember him and Brian Giles being the only players turning in highlights every night on Baseball Tonight for the Padres for a few years. He was pretty damned good.
 

mauf

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Robert Person was a rosterable pitcher in my early days of playing fantasy baseball, when he was on the Phillies. I had no idea he played in Boston, and when I saw his name I figured he played here on the tail end of the 2001 season or some other time when I wasn’t closely following the Sox. Can’t believe he pitched meaningful games in 2003.

Badenhop literally had “bad” in his name, so I never felt I could complain that he sucked. Truth in advertising. For some reason, I never made the same joke about Abad.

I always thought “Pichardo” sounded like what a redneck would think the word for “pitcher” was in Spanish. And I’m on team @Super Nomario — Pichardo was much better than John Wasdin, who I’m amazed to see spent parts of 12 seasons in The Show, most of them with the Sox. Duquette didn’t work the bargain bin nearly as well as his successors did.

Thank you for this thread, by the way.
 

JimD

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As much as I love Brock Holt, trading Mark Melancon to the Pirates for him and Joel Hanrahan ranks up there as one of Ben Cherington's worst moves.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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I'm surprised there aren't more screen names chosen from the list.

Javier Lopez and Javy Lopez were on the same team in 2006; that might have been one of the more interesting things about that season. I can't remember if Javier pitched to Javy.

Carson Smith was hyped as much as any other pitcher on that list but IIRC couldn't stay healthy.
 

Was (Not Wasdin)

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I'm surprised there aren't more screen names chosen from the list.

Javier Lopez and Javy Lopez were on the same team in 2006; that might have been one of the more interesting things about that season. I can't remember if Javier pitched to Javy.

Carson Smith was hyped as much as any other pitcher on that list but IIRC couldn't stay healthy.
Smith looked very promising with Seattle and had good stuff, but you are correct, he couldn't stay healthy. Had TJ surgery, came back during the 2018 season, then somehow injured his shoulder (to the point he needed another major surgery) by throwing his glove against the wall in the dugout after a bad outing.

And for all you John Wasdin haters out there...I got nuthin'. He was terrible.
 

Max Power

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As much as I love Brock Holt, trading Mark Melancon to the Pirates for him and Joel Hanrahan ranks up there as one of Ben Cherington's worst moves.
Getting Brock Holt and clearing the way for Koji to close was worth having to pay Hanrahan for nothing.
 

shaggydog2000

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Better question on SoSH is how many of them *don’t* you remember?
Only a few. Are we sure Robert Person isn't a fake name a 12 year old came up with under pressure? If you asked me if there was a player named Wayne Gomes who played for the Sox I would have said he was a hitter. No recollection of a pitcher by that name. I don't recall Willie Banks, Chris Haney, or Jason Shiell either. So 5 out of 28? I've watched way too many Red Sox games in the last 20 years.
 

Salem's Lot

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Is it bad that I remember every guy on that list? Most of them did pitch when I watched every game in college between 2000-2004, but that was also at my height of drinking and weed use, so you would think that I would’ve forgotten a couple of them.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Only a few. Are we sure Robert Person isn't a fake name a 12 year old came up with under pressure? If you asked me if there was a player named Wayne Gomes who played for the Sox I would have said he was a hitter. No recollection of a pitcher by that name. I don't recall Willie Banks, Chris Haney, or Jason Shiell either. So 5 out of 28? I've watched way too many Red Sox games in the last 20 years.
I'm surprised that people don't remember Person. He won 15 games for PHI one year. IIRC, I think people thought that his late career conversion to the bullpen would be good for him.

Willie Banks was best known (I think) for pitching for MIN. He won 11 games as a 24 year old (lost 12 though) in 1993. He then went 8-12 for CHC in the year after that and then didn't really do much after that and called it quits after 50 IPs for the Sox over 2 years.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Is it bad that I remember every guy on that list? Most of them did pitch when I watched every game in college between 2000-2004, but that was also at my height of drinking and weed use, so you would think that I would’ve forgotten a couple of them.
Not bad at all. I remember them all too. If quizzed, I couldn't tell you what year(s) they were around, but all the names ring a bell.
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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Wayne Gomes is the only one I can't even vaguely remember.

Shocked that Carson Smith ended up with more saves than Tyler Thornburg. You couldn't have swung and missed worse on a pair of relievers. Really thought both were going to be big cogs in the pen for awhile.
 

nattysez

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Is it bad that I remember every guy on that list? Most of them did pitch when I watched every game in college between 2000-2004, but that was also at my height of drinking and weed use, so you would think that I would’ve forgotten a couple of them.
I'm with you. I remember almost all of them.

Someone would write "HIS NAME IS ROBERT PERSON" in the game thread every time he came in, which is a meme that people have forgotten about just as they've forgotten about the pitcher.

I cannot believe Melancon had only one save for the Sox. What an awful trade.

The Sox gave up on Javier Lopez and he pitched well for 3 WS-winning Giants teams.

Lt. Frank Castillo.

The whole Julian Tavarez experience was wild.

"Way Back" Wasdin.

The Padilla Flotilla didn't make it to Boston - he was pretty washed by the time he got here.

Andrew Cashner was a big O's prospect who never worked out, if memory serves.

Pat Mahomes missed this list because he had 2 saves.
 
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Rwillh11

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Wayne Gomes is the one I have absolutely zero memory of - the rest I remember clearly because I had nothing better to do during college than obsessively follow the Red Sox. Whats kind of fun is going to look at some of these guys' fangraphs pages to see how much the game has changed in such a short time. Look at these strikeout and walk numbers: Wayne Gomes fangraphs

Imagine a middle reliever hanging around that long striking out 6 per 9 and walking over 4!
 

E5 Yaz

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Chris Haney is the one I had no memory of or name recognition
 

Captaincoop

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Robert Person is clearly made up.
Josh Smith is the only one I don't remember at all.

Robert Person is real, because I was at a Phillies game around 2002 or 2003 at which he homered twice as a pitcher, and had a third ball caught at the fence. If I saw a pitcher hit 3 home runs in a game, that would probably remain the weirdest thing I've ever seen in person, Baseball division.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Jason Shiell is the only name on that list I simply don't recognize, although I had to look Gomes up on b-ref to clear the cobwebs. Robert Person pitched during the heyday of my baseball discussion forum posting and my one lasting memory of him is that he was a lousy starter for the Blue Jays who had a hot wife.
 

ngruz25

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Like many posters above, that list happens to coincide with my most rabid (or pathetic, really) years of Sox fandom. Josh A. Smith is my only genuine "who?", though Chris Haney is also close in that regard. In fact, I'd say I could tell you way more about that list than half the 2020 pitching staff.

I would have bet money that Bob Howry picked up a save in one of those "our regular relievers are tired, let's give this former close a shot" situations. I remember him being one of those bullpen reinforcement deadline deals that did not pan out.

Hipolito Pichardo was fantastic in High Heat Baseball 2001.

Who was that reliever who chewed on a piece of straw on the mound? Hector Almonte? Anastacio Martinez?
 

BaseballJones

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As much as I love Brock Holt, trading Mark Melancon to the Pirates for him and Joel Hanrahan ranks up there as one of Ben Cherington's worst moves.
Melancon was weird. 2.78 era with Houston the year before Boston acquired him. Then he was HORRIFIC for Boston. In 41 games he had a 6.20 era. They trade him, and the next 4 seasons he does this:

1.39 era, 0.96 whip, 8.9 k/9, 16 sv
1.90 era, 0.87 whip, 9.0 k/9, 33 sv
2.23 era, 0.92 whip, 7.3 k/9, 51 sv
1.64 era, 0.90 whip, 8.2 k/9, 47 sv

In the 9 years since his 6.20 era with Boston, he's put up a 2.36 era, 1.07 whip, 8.2 k/9, and has 196 saves. This year, at age 36, he has a 0.54 era in 16.2 innings, 0.72 whip, and has saved 12 games so far with San Diego.

It's unbelievable that the ONE season he had with Boston was this absolutely horrendous statistical outlier, and then they moved on.