Bobby Valentine this morning named Felix Doubront as the fourth starter and Daniel Bard as the fifth starter—placing Alfredo Aceves in the bullpen. Aceves was not happy. But a more important concern was the growing rumor that new closer Andrew Bailey was hurt. The
Globe's Peter Abraham and Nick Cafardo reported that "sources" indicated that Bailey was suffering from a thumb injury—which has kept him from pitching since March 25th.
One would think that, if Bailey were hurt, it would be Bard who headed back to the 'pen, to potentially close out games—not Acecves. Are we going to be labeled as "negative" if we state the obvious—this team is a mess heading into the first week of the season? Probably, but all the pom-poms in the world cannot allow "homerism" to eclipse reality.
