Don’t expect Hideki Okajima to repeat his 2007 season. He’ll be solid, but last year he came out of nowhere to be lights out. Hitters will adjust this season and how Okie adjusts will determine his success this year. I expect him be a solid contributor and setup man to Papelbon, but not duplicating his dominance of last year. One thing that isn’t going away this year - slow motion close ups of Okajima looking at the ground during his delivery.

Thus, the bullpen key for 2008 is another young pitcher who needs to make a leap to being a top-flight major league setup man - Manny Delcarmen. He’s had stretches the last two years where you can just see him evolving into that role right in front of your eyes. This is the year he becomes all-star caliber material.

As for Papelbon, I do think he’s one of the best closers in baseball. But for whatever reason, he still makes me nervous at the end. Perhaps I expect too much. I always expect he’ll come in and blow the ball by people, but then hitters foul off pitch after pitch. Why not more swing-and-misses?

Crundy has been talking a bit about having Bucholz in the pen at some point this year. I disagree. I think we’ll see him in the starting rotation sometime this summer. The Bartolo Colon experiment reminds me too much of David Cone and Bret Saberhagen in a Red Sox uniform. Serviceable starting pitchers, but just too past their prime. I think that Colon will have some solid starts, but will find it hard to go past 5 or 6 innings per start on a consistent part. Plus, I just don’t think he’ll hold up past a dozen starts (a la Wade Miller). Don’t get me wrong…I’m glad the Sox signed him, as he’ll help with managing the innings of the young starters, but I think he’s just a bridge to the real beginning of the Clay Bucholz era. An era that is starting this summer.

One final note on the bullpen - will we ever get anything from Craig Hansen?