While they weren't tremendous for the entire series, the Yankees bullpen has, for the most part, performed very well. So when in his latest article, Bill Simmons said mentioned the Yankees pen somewhat disparagingly, I couldn't just let it go at that.

Mike Myers, Scott Erickson, Ron Villone, Colter Bean, Scott Proctor and Kyle Farnsworth.

(I don't even have a joke to add. Just thought I'd list the set-up guys for Mariano Rivera right now.)

Oh, you mean Mike Myers of the 0.93 ERA who struck out David Ortiz last night (.200 BAA), Scott Erickson & Colter Bean - pass - Bean's gone and Erickson soon will be, Ron Villone - 2.04 ERA (.206 BAA), Scott Proctor - 3.16 ERA (.211 BAA), Kyle Farnsworth - 3.66 ERA (.224 BAA). The Yankees relievers have done a better job than most of the pens in the league (3.83 ERA and .711 OPS allowed) and this is with Farnsworth rounding into form and without Octavio Dotel.

Surely you can't be chuckling at the state of the Yankees pen when the current Red Sox bridge to Papelbon reads like this; Keith Foulke (4.62 ERA and .253 BAA), Julian Tavarez (4.26 ERA and .301 BAA), Rudy Seanez (5.82 ERA and .269 BAA) and Mike Timlin (0.96 ERA and .221 BAA). Oh and by the way, every one of those guys outside of Timlin has a SLG allowed of .500 and over. The Red Sox reliever corps has an 3.84 ERA and .762 OPS allowed and that's only due to Papelbon's 23 innings of 0.39 ERA and .345 OPS allowed.