This is the first installment of what I hope becomes a consistent series of opinion posts detailing how various athletes, or even entire teams, that have run into performance issues can attempt to make a fix. Some will be short term ideas, while others may be long term team philosophical changes on things like offensive or defensive schemes.

Tonight I start it off with a fresh wound that will hopefully heal quickly: Jonathan Papelbon, closer of the Boston Red Sox. Now it’s only Memorial Day, so I am not going to hit some panic button and say the Sox closer is on the path to impending doom. That would be ridiculous. However, Papelbon proved tonight against the Mets that he needs to mix his pitches much more effectively. It’s not a stretch after all as he has been a starter in the past and does not have the typical pitching make-up of closers who are one, or at best two trick (pitch) ponies. Paps needs only to rely less on his four-seam fastball going forward, which is easier said than done with a head strong closer of his make-up. In games, tonight is an example, where a majority of the time he deals the four-seamer, it either stays up(waist high) or the more it’s thrown and tracked by hitters, it rises up to letter high, where a hitter can turn on it & proceed to   drive it DEEP. He needs to mix in the two seamer just a bit more, a pitch that sinks down in the zone & in a game like tonight would have ended up having been a pop up to shallow left at best rather that off the top of the Monster. He also needs to commit to the slider, a pitch that breaks laterally and down, as more than just an out pitch. That pitch, when commanded, translates into hitters driving it into the dirt, not to the warning track. It boils down to where he simply does not command that four seamer well enough to rely on it solely as he did pre-2008, when hitters started figuring him out just enough to find success that translated into home runs rather than singles or doubles in clutch situations.

Lets make this happen Paps. The days of thinking you can outsmart AND overpower everyone are gone. You are not Mariano Rivera, with a pitch, his cutter, that comes around once in a generation. You can however regain your form to the days where backup catchers where not ruining your Saturday nights. If you commit to following a pitch mix of one similar to: 60% four-seam, 20% two-seam, & 20% slider. As long as you are not too wild out of the zone, then more often than not you will making a dozen pitch appearances. Not these all too common 20+ pitch innings. It will be pop-up, weak chopper, punch out, then fist pump & hand shakes. Again, it’s may only be Memorial Day but do not let old habits die hard and have the team give away anymore games that should have been locked down.