Sox crisply shore up pen

"In Ramírez we believe we've acquired a young, controllable reliever that can really help our bullpen," general manager Theo Epstein said on a conference call. "He has a plus fastball, 92-95 miles per hour, and an outstanding power changeup. A lot of people think it's a split; it's actually a changeup, 87-88. That's a swing-and-miss pitch for him against lefthanded and righthanded hitters. And [he has] a pretty good slider.

"He's very quietly had a tremendous amount of success in the major leagues over the last two seasons. We were looking for that type of upgrade to add to our bullpen."

The 27-year-old Ramírez blossomed this past season, with a 3-2 record and 2.64 ERA. He had 70 strikeouts in 71 2/3 innings, with a 1.23 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched), and limited righthanders to a .198 average. From the Dominican Republic, Ramírez said he has spent the last three years working on that lauded changeup.

"It's become a better pitch as I've improved my fastball command," Ramírez said through interpreter Eddie Romero, the team's coordinator of Latin American operations. "That's what's allowed it to become a plus pitch."

Epstein called Ramírez "an extremely hard and diligent worker, fearless, and the manner in which he pitches reflects that."

Ramírez said, "As far as my demeanor, I like being aggressive. I like attacking the strike zone. It doesn't matter the count, I just want to be as aggressive as possible and go after hitters."

Crisp's agent, Steve Comte, said he and his client were happy the Sox were finally able to accommodate a trade request Crisp originally made in spring training. But the Sox stuck with Crisp through 2008, leading to a flexible center-field situation in which neither he nor Ellsbury was guaranteed a spot in the lineup.

"It was a learning experience, definitely, first and foremost, is how I'd classify it," Crisp said on a conference call. "It was a great experience for me, coming from a contending team like Cleveland, coming to a team that was already in the mix.