Felger & Mazz on: Jonathan Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon blew his sixth save in 35 chances Thursday against the Blue Jays, and for the first time in his Red Sox career was pulled in the ninth inning in favor of another reliever. Felger and guest host Adam Jones had differing opinions on Papelbon's status among closers in Major League Baseball this season.

Felger: "I do feel that the Red Sox and Jonathan Papelbon yesterday is a bigger story [than the Patriots]. It's frankly a much bigger story. In Papelbon we're talking about one of the major figures in this town for the last half-decade, a guy who's won you a championship. One of the biggest names, one of the biggest stars, one of the most prominent performers in this town, on the most important team in this town- arguably- on the verge of losing his job. Or people want him to lose his job or something. So to me that is a major story, and what we saw yesterday was a major event. Jonathan Papelbon got pulled from a game...Jonathan Papelbon, people have started to be down on him for over a year but he's still Jonathan Papelbon. For the first time- I didn't even know that- first time, pulled out in that kind of situation. That's a momentous event...So this is how I'd like to start the conversation and we'd like your thoughts throughout. Before we get started on the debate about what to do about it, we first have to establish something because oddly enough it's not established. Arguing with the guys on TV last night- and it's really just in the media, I don't hear very many fans arguing this, maybe its just the media who's still sort of hanging on or is afraid to really get on Papelbon for one reason or another, maybe they just don't recognize it- but before we debate what to do about it, we have to acknowledge this fact...That this year, in 2010, Jonathan Papelbon SUCKS! He's not just 'not elite,' he's not 'good not great,' he's not even mediocre when you look at it. This year he has blown. That's not to say he's sucked his whole career, he's been brilliant his whole career, Adam. And this isn't to say he won't bounce right back next year and be one of those guys. He absolutely could bounce back and be one of those guys next year, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying to this point, before we debate what to do about, it we have to acknowledge what the fact of the matter is. And that is Jonathan Papelbon has been well below average, not just for him but across Major League Baseball, he has sucked, and if you don't acknowledge that you're not acknowledging the facts."

Jones: "You just looked at the American League, I looked at all of baseball. What do you think of names like, I don't know, Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathan Broxton, Billy Wagner...I mean, these guys have all blown- I mean before yesterday Broxton, K-Rod, they'd both blown five saves and they still have five blown saves, at this point Papelbon just passed them by- I mean those are guys I at least think of as elite. Now their peripherals are much better than Papelbon's- ERA, WHIP, strikeout numbers, all of those are much better than Papelbon's- but if you're just looking at strictly blown saves, those guys haven't been elite this season. Billy Wagner has an ERA below 2.00, WHIP below 1.00, 28 saves, 7 blown saves...Out of [Papelbon's] six blown saves, the Red Sox have only actually lost three of those games. So he has five losses and that's coming in tied games and whatnot and fine. But out of the six blown saves, Red Sox have lost three...Leading after eight innings, Yankees have not lost this season, Tampa Bay has lost once and the Red Sox have lost three times. So it's the worst out of the three in the AL East, but it's not atrocious. When you're talking about leading after eight innings, for the most part Papelbon has done the job."