Joe Kelly will stay in rotation

[Yelling At Clouds]

I don't see any reason to move him to the bullpen now. Let him work on stuff in the rotation, the team isn't making the playoffs anyway. His value if he can put it together as a starter is much higher. If nothing changes the rest of the year you can always make him a reliever starting fresh in Spring Training. It isn't like he's blocking anyone else we want to get MLB starts.

 
I'd rather see Owens and Johnson both in there, personally.

 

[moondog80]

I don't see any reason to move him to the bullpen now. Let him work on stuff in the rotation, the team isn't making the playoffs anyway. His value if he can put it together as a starter is much higher. If nothing changes the rest of the year you can always make him a reliever starting fresh in Spring Training. It isn't like he's blocking anyone else we want to get MLB starts.

To give Johnson/Owens experience for next year?

Also, if he has a successful two months as a reliever, he can go into the offseason knowing his role and hit the ground running in the spring.

 

[Rasputin]

It isn't like he's blocking anyone else we want to get MLB starts.

Yes it is. It's exactly that.

 

[Cellar-Door]

To give Johnson/Owens experience for next year?

Also, if he has a successful two months as a reliever, he can go into the offseason knowing his role and hit the ground running in the spring.

Steven Wright is in the rotation right now. He has zero upside, if you want to get one of those guys experience he's the guy to go.
I thought Owens was considered probably not ready yet?

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Kelly's 4-seamer has been getting hammered this season. Fangraphs has it at -7.6, which is the worst I've ever seen. His 2-seamer, which used to be a plus pitch, is at 0.5. He's also throwing both pitches harder than he's ever thrown them.

Maybe he and Porcello are just overthrowing. Wouldn't it be nice for it to be as simple as that?

 

[MikeM]

I don't see any reason to move him to the bullpen now. Let him work on stuff in the rotation, the team isn't making the playoffs anyway. His value if he can put it together as a starter is much higher. If nothing changes the rest of the year you can always make him a reliever starting fresh in Spring Training. It isn't like he's blocking anyone else we want to get MLB starts.

 
Assuming you were to subscribe to the theory that Sox are going to walk out of one of the most pitching rich markets in recent memory having signed one starter, what odds would you then go on to give Joe Kelly on breaking camp next spring as a member of our rotation? 

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Steven Wright is in the rotation right now. He has zero upside, if you want to get one of those guys experience he's the guy to go.
I thought Owens was considered probably not ready yet?

 
Swap out both for both. Done.

 

[Plympton91]

 
Assuming you were to subscribe to the theory that Sox are going to walk out of one of the most pitching rich markets in recent memory having signed one starter, what odds would you then go on to give Joe Kelly on breaking camp next spring as a member of our rotation? 

Well one of the excuses for Kelly is that he hasn't been pitching all that long. So what you really want is for him to get the most innings he can this year. He'll do that as a starter more likely. So, just leave him there for now. I guess that makes as much sense as anything right now.

 

[MikeM]

Well one of the excuses for Kelly is that he hasn't been pitching all that long. So what you really want is for him to get the most innings he can this year. He'll do that as a starter more likely. So, just leave him there for now. I guess that makes as much sense as anything right now.

 
Yeah, i'm aware of that excuse. Different approach factor thrown aside and all. But that didn't really answer the question.
 
Point being that beyond attempting to speculate this stuff in a vacuum, there is a surrounding reality where the Sox are trying to field the most competitive team we can. In that process we have actual needs. Some obviously being a higher priority then others. Adding lower slotted warm'ish body types to fill out an adequate rotation was last winter's need and apparent plan, which right now left us sitting on a surplus of those types. As far as this winter's needs go, at minimum we should be aiming at adding one starter better then everybody we already have (or at least as good as a stay healthy Buchholz i guess). After that, we need to improve the bullpen.
 
Those 2 acts need to take priority over stubbornly playing out a wishful thinking scenario where you attempt to squeeze the most potential paper value you can out of a guy. Where even with better results...we accomplish what exactly?  Kelly is still likely to be a long shot to be in our 2016 rotation to begin with, and has certainly showed that he isn't going to help you fill that former need.
 
If he *might* be able to help us on the latter, where a potential need and use for him would actually exist, you might as well get that ball rolling now imo.  

 

[threecy]

 
I'd rather see Owens and Johnson both in there, personally.

Why bring up Owens now, when he's not even on the 40 man?  If they wait until September, they could give him a cup of coffee while keeping his service time to a minimum and not burning an option year.

As painful as it is to watch Kelly, we might as well since this season is a bust.

 

[jscola85]

One thing where there should be some level of concern is the SP depth in the minors after Johnson and Owens.  Looking at the Soxprospects depth chart, there's basically nothing whatsoever behind those two guys until you get to A+ with Ball/Stankiewicz.
 
As the Sox look to offload players in the next couple days, AA/AAA starting pitching depth would be at the top of the list for me.

 

[ivanvamp]

One thing where there should be some level of concern is the SP depth in the minors after Johnson and Owens.  Looking at the Soxprospects depth chart, there's basically nothing whatsoever behind those two guys until you get to A+ with Ball/Stankiewicz.
 
As the Sox look to offload players in the next couple days, AA/AAA starting pitching depth would be at the top of the list for me.

 
We went from this last season:  Webster, RDLR, Owens, Johnson, Wright, Barnes, Ranaudo, Rodriguez
 
to
 
Owens, Barnes
 
Webster, RDLR, and Ranaudo are gone.  Johnson, Wright, Rodriguez are up.  Owens and Barnes are currently in AAA.  
 
So yes, I'd love to see more AA/AAA arms in the system.

 

[grimshaw]

Farrell mentioned Owens by name a week or two ago when talking about the rotation.  I don't remember the context exactly, but the impression I got was that he would be up soon.  I don't think his name would have been mentioned to the press otherwise about getting a possible look.
 
He has really moved forward this year after his struggles.  Gotta give the front office props here for not rushing him, even with the disastrous starts from the others.  They mentioned that as an area of focus in spring training to not bring up the youngsters before they were ready (Swihart not withstanding).

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Why bring up Owens now, when he's not even on the 40 man?  If they wait until September, they could give him a cup of coffee while keeping his service time to a minimum and not burning an option year.

As painful as it is to watch Kelly, we might as well since this season is a bust.

 
Don't you only burn the option if you then send him back down?

 

[threecy]

 
Don't you only burn the option if you then send him back down?

Let's say they add him to the 40 man roster and call him up in July and he gets shellacked.  He's either stuck in a bad developmental situation in the bigs, or they burn an option year while the service time clock ticks.

It's probably in their best interest to wait until he's at a point in which there's no scenario in which his development would be hampered with a call up (ie, the PawSox season is over on September 7; rosters expand September 1).

 

[Rasputin]

Why bring up Owens now, when he's not even on the 40 man?  

 
Because we want to see what he can do against major league competition before 2016.
 
I want Owens, Johnson, Barnes, and Pat Light all up here after the deadline.

 

[jscola85]

Pat Light needs to prove he can avoid being a giant tire fire in AAA before getting an MLB audition.  He's got a 7.63 ERA and a 14/12 K/BB in 15 IP for Pawtucket.  Jon Aro and Heath Hembree should probably get some extended looks in the pen though.

 

[Rasputin]

Pat Light needs to prove he can avoid being a giant tire fire in AAA before getting an MLB audition.  He's got a 7.63 ERA and a 14/12 K/BB in 15 IP for Pawtucket.  Jon Aro and Heath Hembree should probably get some extended looks in the pen though.

 
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150728/SPORTS/150729300/14009
 
Give him another month of good performance, and I want him up in September.

 

[jscola85]

Sure, if he reverts back to dominating for a month.  Until then though, Hembree and Aro have proven they at least can get out AAA hitters, which seems like a prerequisite for success in the majors.

 

[threecy]

 
Because we want to see what he can do against major league competition before 2016.
 
I want Owens, Johnson, Barnes, and Pat Light all up here after the deadline.

Uh huh, and there's a month of baseball left when rosters expand...what's the rush?

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

for posterity, Kelly and EdRod were given a pitching lesson from Pedro the other night, particularly in terms of changing speeds with the change-up. http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2015/08/boston_red_sox_righthander_joe.html.

Interesting that in the third Kelly threw 11 non-fastballs and got a 1-2-3 inning.

Kelly reminds me of Buchholz circa 2008. Great stuff but no fastball command = getting rocked. Given the fact that he lacks fastball command, I wish he (and Porcello) would stop throwing both the 4-seam and the 2-seam and concentrate more on location and the secondary pitches.


At any rate, hopefully Kelly will figure something out.

 

[The Tax Man]

Today on SoSH.com, Snod analyzes Joe Kelly's underlying peripherals and pitch usage to see if moving him to the bullpen will allow his stuff to "play up".
 

There is just no way to sugar coat it, Joe Kelly has not had a good season. At best, he’s been bad. At worst, he’s been abysmal. You can spin it in a number of ways, but at the end of the day, the results are ugly, even if his peripherals are just sort of ugly. His 6.11 ERA hovers well above his 4.28 FIP and 4.02 xFIP so he has not been quite as bad as that first number indicates, but even if his ERA matched his peripherals, he’d still only be a solid back of the rotation starter. For someone with his stuff, that is more than a little disappointing. His troubles have been well documented but no one seems to be able to pin down exactly what is wrong with him. In the midst of all this struggling, some have suggested that Kelly should be moved to the bullpen where he would be more likely to succeed. However, that he would be more likely to succeed in the bullpen is an assumption that might not be safe to make.
 

 

[absintheofmalaise]

iayork digs deep into Kelly's fastball usage and talks about what he could do to improve.
 

 
 
Watching Joe Kelly pitch, it’s hard to understand why he isn’t more effective than he has been this year. As well as a decent curve and a solid changeup, Kelly throws a set of very, very fast fastballs, often with dramatic movement. In fact, Kelly ranks third in the league this year (for starting pitchers with 80 or more innings) for fastball velocity, averaging 95.6 mph on his four-seam fastball, and fourth in the league for his two-seam, averaging 95.4 mph.

 

[iayork]

iayork digs deep into Kelly's fastball usage and talks about what he could do to improve.

 
Long story short, this year Kelly seems to be walking a fine line with his fastballs.  If he throws them very fast (96 mph +) they're very hard to hit, but they also seem to be hard for him to locate.  If he throws them slower (less than 94-95 mph) then he can throw strikes, but they're easier to hit.  
 
There may be a small window for his two-seam, where if he throws it relatively slowly it's both hard to hit and easier to throw for strikes.  His four-seam doesn't have a similar window, but it wouldn't take much to get one -- that is, even a small improvement in his ability to locate would open up a window around 96 mph where the pitch would suddenly become a very good one.  
 
There are lots of charts (Let’s Talk About Joe Kelly Fastballs), so I won't try to copy them all here, but I thought this one was particularly telling:

 

[kieckeredinthehead]

Cool analysis, thanks. I'm curious what the contact data looks like in relation to velocity - are there fewer balls in those narrow windows because he's locating better, or are there fewer balls because he's more likely to induce swings and misses (or swings and foul balls or swings and hits)?

 

[Rovin Romine]

iayork digs deep into Kelly's fastball usage and talks about what he could do to improve.
 

 
Maybe this is an Andrew Miller-ish case of Less is More.  Miller became a strictly FB/Slider pitcher and was the better for it.  
 
Kelly is entering his arb years and is a FA in 2019.  While I get that a decent starter is more valuable than a decent reliever, Kelly may be one of those guys we just want to get good value out of, instead of training him to eventually be a good starter at the cost of some crappy seasons.  

 

[iayork]

Cool analysis, thanks. I'm curious what the contact data looks like in relation to velocity - are there fewer balls in those narrow windows because he's locating better, or are there fewer balls because he's more likely to induce swings and misses (or swings and foul balls or swings and hits)?

Yeah, great point.  I just ran a quick and dirty check on called and swinging strikes and fouls:
 

More swinging strikes and fouls, fewer called strikes as the speed goes up.  Not a surprise, I guess.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

 
Maybe this is an Andrew Miller-ish case of Less is More.  Miller became a strictly FB/Slider pitcher and was the better for it.  
 
Kelly is entering his arb years and is a FA in 2019.  While I get that a decent starter is more valuable than a decent reliever, Kelly may be one of those guys we just want to get good value out of, instead of training him to eventually be a good starter at the cost of some crappy seasons.  

Miller also became an out of the stretch pitcher only. His problem was he could never get control of his own mechanics out of the wind-up. Miller was thrown onto the mound the first year he signed with Detroit and then by the Marlins. Even Boston had him starting in 2011. It wsn't until Valentine had him pitch only out of the stretch in 2012 that he was able to become an effective reliever.
 
I'd rather see him as an effective starter, but if he could be effective out of the pen he would certainly give the Sox one of the power arms that they need in the pen. I don't know if you had a chance to read snod's article on Kelly, but he makes a pretty copmpelling case for him staying a starter. 

 

[kieckeredinthehead]

That's cool, thanks. I think people have been surprised at how few swings and misses Kelly gets given his stuff - he does seem to have a noticeable bump over 96 or so. I wonder how a guy like Verlander would compare. It seems like the strategy is throw slower early in the at bay to get in a pitcher's count and then ramp up to try to generate a strikeout. But you have to be cognizant of facing an aggressive team (e.g. CWS) who will crush 94 mph fastballs of either kind down the pipe. In that start he probably would have been better served pumping in four seamers as hard as he could and letting batters try to catch up

Edit: then again, three of the hits he gave up in the first were on pitches over 96.5, so what do I know?

 

[Rovin Romine]

Miller also became an out of the stretch pitcher only. His problem was he could never get control of his own mechanics out of the wind-up. Miller was thrown onto the mound the first year he signed with Detroit and then by the Marlins. Even Boston had him starting in 2011. It wsn't until Valentine had him pitch only out of the stretch in 2012 that he was able to become an effective reliever.
 
I'd rather see him as an effective starter, but if he could be effective out of the pen he would certainly give the Sox one of the power arms that they need in the pen. I don't know if you had a chance to read snod's article on Kelly, but he makes a pretty copmpelling case for him staying a starter. 

 
It is an excellent article, but the long and short of Kelly's career is that he hasn't had replicable success as a starter.   Sure, he's got the physical ability to throw a fastball over and over at a high speed for more innings than your average bear - trouble it, it's not *useful.*  The question becomes, if it can be made useful, what's the cost of doing so?   Do we keep running Kelly out there in 2015 and 16, hoping for a good 17 and 18?  Or do we change what he does, in hopes he'll thrive in a new role?  
 
I really don't have the answer to any of that.  Given that Kelly is all over the map in his results per pitch, per year, I have the impression that he or his pitching coach, or his catcher are trying to be too clever by half.  He keeps getting beat different ways, so he may benefit from something simpler.  Say a bullpen/AAA stint with just fastball (focusing on his location) and his change.  That's all I got - just speculation. 

 

[absintheofmalaise]

Speculation is pretty much any of us have t this point I think. Like you, I'm for whatever makes him the most effective pitcher he can be.

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

I didn't see the start last night, but it seems so crazy to me that a guy can have 7 K's in 5.1 innings, but also 7 hits allowed.  Those numbers from him this season seem like just another game (except 5 of those hits in 7 innings would have been bunched together in 1 inning for 3 HR's and 2 doubles for 5 runs....)- he's like the Wily Mo Pena of the Mound- a HR or a painful K.
I do hope they keep sending him out every 5th day for the remainder to see if he can harness some consistency and to keep working on it throughout the season.  He seems like a smart guy and one who knows what's happening and is willing to work on it (unlike Bard who I couldn't understand why he insisted he was fine when he couldn't find the strike zone to save his life!).  When I've had the chance to watch him pitch, he seems like he's one small click away from turning into a serious top notch starter.  So frustrating!

 

[jscola85]

Kelly's .337 BABIP would rank tied for 6th-worst in the majors.  Clay Buchholz and Rick Porcello also check in to the top 10, with .329 and .332 respectively.  Some of that BABIP is the pitchers giving up a fair bit of hard contact, some of that is a defense that is nowhere near the top-5 unit of the last few years, but some of it may just be pure dumb luck.

 

[Green Monster]

Kelly's .337 BABIP would rank tied for 6th-worst in the majors.  Clay Buchholz and Rick Porcello also check in to the top 10, with .329 and .332 respectively.  Some of that BABIP is the pitchers giving up a fair bit of hard contact, some of that is a defense that is nowhere near the top-5 unit of the last few years, but some of it may just be pure dumb luck.

When your talking about 60% of your starting rotation it has to be something more than bad luck.  Defensive positioning or just overall poor defense perhaps?

 

[jscola85]

Well, for both Kelly and Porcello, over 32% of their contact in play has been hard hit, which generally results in guys getting on base regardless of defense.  Defense matters but Kelly and Porcello has been allowing a lot of line drives.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

EdRo's BABIP .267, Wright's .248 with that same defense behind them.

 

[jscola85]

I believe knuckleball pitchers tend to have abnormally low BABIPs.  Wakefield's was .274 over his career, Dickey is at .281 but in the low .270's once he converted to a full time knuckleballer.  Phil Niekro's career BABIP was .270.  Still, Rodriguez posting a better-than-average rate suggests it's not all the defense.

 

[shaggydog2000]

When your talking about 60% of your starting rotation it has to be something more than bad luck.  Defensive positioning or just overall poor defense perhaps?

 
The BABIP for the entire Sox pitching staff is .307.  The league average this year is .295.  Once you factor in how terrible the Sox overall pitching has been by ERA, and even considerably below average when normalizing for BABIP, it's hard to blame defense for the entirety of that not enormous gap.  Once you get to sample sizes that include every single ball in play for an entire staff for 2/3 of a season, luck should be pretty well evened out.  I'm definitely willing to admit the Sox defense is not good, especially in certain positions, but it doesn't rate out as terrible overall in any of the rating systems.  It comes out more like below average.  It looks to me like most of the BABIP difference is just from the pitchers being bad.  

 

[Buzzkill Pauley]

I believe knuckleball pitchers tend to have abnormally low BABIPs.  Wakefield's was .274 over his career, Dickey is at .281 but in the low .270's once he converted to a full time knuckleballer.  Phil Niekro's career BABIP was .270.  Still, Rodriguez posting a better-than-average rate suggests it's not all the defense.

Right, BABIP for knuckleballs gets depressed by ignoring home runs and strikeouts. A knuckleball that moves should more often go for a popup, weak groundout, or swinging strike three, in theory. But when it isn't working, conventional wisdom says it's going yard at a higher than average rate.

There's a 2012 Fangraphs study that disputes that wisdom, and which shows the pitch historically generates HR rates at the top end of "normal" but It always seemed to me that the author doesn't correct for the selection bias where only the absolute best knuckleballers ever make a career in MLB. That is to say, there's a lot more data points for Tim Wakefield or Phil Niekro than Charlie Zink or Charlie Hough.

Selection bias suggests that a knuckleball pitcher who can't control the pitch and limit his mistakes to about a league average HR rate over time just isn't going to get more than a few chances, because thete's usually nothing else in his bag of tricks to fool MLB hitters.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

For all of us wondering why the Red Sox haven't moved Kelly to the bullpen, according to Bradford, Kelly suggesting that relieving might have caused arm issues on the past. http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2015/08/12/reluctant-reliever-red-sox-bullpen-fix-might-
 

"I don't know if it was because I just started pitching, but closing bothered my arm a lot," he said. "When I was in college I was shut down every year for a few weeks for arm problems, and I don't know if it was because I was just new to pitching or the amount of repetition I got outings-wise. So I don't know what the correlation was. I really enjoyed it, but I ran into a few arm problems.

"I would be shut down for two-week or three-week increments. I didn't have a full healthy year except for maybe my first year."

Would these past demons be lingering when making such a move?

"Yeah, as soon as I started to feel something I would start to think about it," Kelly explained. "I went through a lot of tendinitis and inflammation and a lot of aches always."

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

I'm sure the Sox also understand the value of a starting pitcher over a relief pitcher too and know that if they can harness Kelly's raw stuff then they have a legit top of a rotation guy on their hands.  It feels like he's made strides his last two times out but he needs to get a 100 pitch, 7 inning (2 runs or less) sort of outing a few times in his remaining 6 starts for me to feel like it's worth it to keep him as a starter next season

 

[alwyn96]

For all of us wondering why the Red Sox haven't moved Kelly to the bullpen, according to Bradford, Kelly suggesting that relieving might have caused arm issues on the past. http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2015/08/12/reluctant-reliever-red-sox-bullpen-fix-might-
 

 
That's interesting - I'm not sure I've ever heard of a guy having more arm problems in the bullpen than starting. Although like Kelly says - he was new to pitching at the time. Plus I'm not sure he's had a fully healthy year as a starter, either. 
 
Kelly has to figure out how not to throw meatballs over the middle of the plate. Seems like pitching out of the bullpen for a month or so at the end of the season might be a nice way to see if that helps any while giving the kids a taste of the show. If not, he can always start next season in AAA as depth.  

 

[Snoop Soxy Dogg]

Somebody at Soxprospects went down and took a look at Kelly's game logs as a college closer (gotta love the detail-oriented approach) - http://forum.soxprospects.com/thread/2913/roster-construction-2016?page=3
 
Suffice to say, there weren't a lot of breaks after throwing a lot of pitches. Back-to-back-(to back potentially) were customary - no wonder he remembers his arm hurting. Presumably he'd be more protected in the majors and get more recovery time, should they go that way. There are some valid reasons for keeping him in the rotation, as detailed in this thread - how he felt in college doesn't look like it should be one of them.

 

[iayork]

Presumably he'd be more protected in the majors and get more recovery time, should they go that way.

The way the Sox bullpen is used is to find someone effective, pitch him every night until his arm turns to mush and flies off, hitting the umpire; then run through the remaining schlubbs in the pen until you find another effective one, GOTO 1.
 
Either Kelly will be ineffective as a reliever, or they'll make him pitch til he drops.  Like Taz.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Somebody at Soxprospects went down and took a look at Kelly's game logs as a college closer (gotta love the detail-oriented approach) - http://forum.soxprospects.com/thread/2913/roster-construction-2016?page=3
 
Suffice to say, there weren't a lot of breaks after throwing a lot of pitches. Back-to-back-(to back potentially) were customary - no wonder he remembers his arm hurting. Presumably he'd be more protected in the majors and get more recovery time, should they go that way. There are some valid reasons for keeping him in the rotation, as detailed in this thread - how he felt in college doesn't look like it should be one of them.

 
I see in 2007 twice he went back to back days
2008 he did it once
2009 three times, but all with time in between

 

[Super Nomario]

The way the Sox bullpen is used is to find someone effective, pitch him every night until his arm turns to mush and flies off, hitting the umpire; then run through the remaining schlubbs in the pen until you find another effective one, GOTO 1.
 
Either Kelly will be ineffective as a reliever, or they'll make him pitch til he drops.  Like Taz.

Are the Red Sox unusual in this regard? Tazawa has 50 relief appearances this year, but there are 46 pitchers with that many, and 116 with at least 40. If you're a reliever, and you're good, and you're healthy, you're going to pitch every other night, basically. That might not be optimal for continued pitcher health (I'm sure it isn't), but the Sox aren't the only team that runs their bullpen that way. The Cardinals have four relievers with more than 50 appearances on the season.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Yes, only 50 this year, but last week they said he was in the top 3 over the past 3 years total.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Yes, only 50 this year, but last week they said he was in the top 3 over the past 3 years total.

 
Since the start of the 2013 season, Tazawa is T-10th in relief appearances (192), 14th in total innings thrown (181.1), T-13th in total batters faced (744), and T-90th in pitches thrown (1063).
 
Just for 2015, Tazawa is T-37th in appearances (50), T-32nd in innings (49.0), T-37th in batters faced (199), and T-45th in pitches thrown (759).
 
While he leads all Red Sox relievers in those categories (except pitches thrown this season...that's Robbie Ross), he's hardly been used more than most teams' top relievers either this year or over the past three seasons.

 

[iayork]

I admit I haven't compared to all relievers, but it feels like Taz gets a lot of usage in short bursts, followed by moderate rests.  For example, and I'm just eyeballing his bbref page, he pitched 8 innings May 10-16 (May 10, 11, 13, 15, 16); he pitched June 3, 4, 5; July 21, 23, 24; and so on.  Maybe this year is a bad one to look at for usage, because on the one hand there aren't many leads to try to preserve and on the other, the starters often don't go deep into the game.

 

[alwyn96]

 
Since the start of the 2013 season, Tazawa is T-10th in relief appearances (192), 14th in total innings thrown (181.1), T-13th in total batters faced (744), and T-90th in pitches thrown (1063).
 
Just for 2015, Tazawa is T-37th in appearances (50), T-32nd in innings (49.0), T-37th in batters faced (199), and T-45th in pitches thrown (759).
 
While he leads all Red Sox relievers in those categories (except pitches thrown this season...that's Robbie Ross), he's hardly been used more than most teams' top relievers either this year or over the past three seasons.

 
I'd imagine part of why Tazawa has had so many appearances is that he's been quite healthy and effective for the past 3 years. 
 

I admit I haven't compared to all relievers, but it feels like Taz gets a lot of usage in short bursts, followed by moderate rests.  For example, and I'm just eyeballing his bbref page, he pitched 8 innings May 10-16 (May 10, 11, 13, 15, 16); he pitched June 3, 4, 5; July 21, 23, 24; and so on.  Maybe this year is a bad one to look at for usage, because on the one hand there aren't many leads to try to preserve and on the other, the starters often don't go deep into the game.

 
How are you getting Tazawa pitching 8 innings May 10-16? I see him pitching 4 innings. In each of the last two appearances he only faced one batter.