Red Sox should take out Tavarez for good

I should have known that Wednesday night's debacle in Detroit was coming just by listening to Terry Francona's weekly radio appearance on WEEI.
This Manager happened to let it slip to Dale and Holley that he needed to get Julian Tavarez into a game sometime soon. Apparently, running long relievers out to get some work is a high priority. I know that any manager wants to keep all of his players sharp and fresh, but God forbid that starting pitchers get deep into games and keep the long man, generally a pitcher not good enough to crack the rotation, comfortably in the bullpen.
Tavarez barely fits this description. He might not be worthy of the No. 8 spot in Boston's rotation, not if Bartolo Colon and Justin Masterson have anything to say about it. Tavarez's 7.15 ERA and 2.12 WHIP this season would suggest that he's more ready to retire than appear in another major league game. His 5.15 ERA and 1.50 WHIP last year suggest that Tavarez's struggles aren't a recent trend. His 4.47 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 2005 makes it perfectly clear that Tavarez's time in Boston has been nothing short of an opportunity for opponents to fatten up their batting averages. Is there anything keeping him on this team other than the fact that Manny Ramirez loves him? Is the Red Sox organization so afraid of moving Tavarez with Manny's two option years still up for grabs? Boston was certainly careful enough with Manny's last comic foil, Kevin Millar, to the point where the front office allowed Millar's backstage grumbling about playing time with his contract ready to expire and his power numbers swirling down the drain.  
I thought This Manager was a numbers guy. I thought he made his decisions based on the data available to him. It would take him less than 30 seconds to read the above paragraph and see just how poor Tavarez has been during his time in Boston. I guess This Manager's trusty binder got lost on this 10-day road trip, because Tavarez was certainly one of the greasiest pigs in Boston's atrocious 10-9 meltdown on Wednesday.
The final box score will say that Jonathan Papelbon blew his first save of the season and picked up the loss when Placido Polanco's shattered-bat looper landed softly in short left field. It's shocking that the shards from Polanco's bat didn't ignite when they hit the area around the pitcher's mound, an area still off limits to any flammable liquids or devices after Tavarez was cuffed around for four hits and three runs in his one inning of work.
Tavarez has allowed at least one run in four of his eight appearances this season and three or more runs in three of those. One of those shaky outings came against the Tigers on April 10, apparently in a game that This Manager was quick to forget after Tavarez was hammered for three runs on three hits in 0.2 innings of work. Boston won the game, 12-6, so who cares? Who remembers when everyone's running joke comes in and gets crushed in a blowout? Those who are paid to make the decisions for the Red Sox should have known better than to serve up Tavarez to Detroit again, because the next four relievers who followed didn't allow an earned run in 3.2 innings of work. Certainly This Manager's Binky, Mike Timlin, would have been available -- he's ready to work every night. But Timlin was rested Wednesday after coming on for one inning on Tuesday, an inning that denied Tim Wakefield a chance at a shutout despite having thrown just 96 pitches in eight brilliant innings of work. 
And never mind trying to showcase Tavarez for a potential trade down the road, a roster move that would allow a healthy Colon to move into the rotation and Clay Buchholz to go to the bullpen for the time being. Colon's trade value would be much higher after a couple of quality starts thanks to his paltry contract figure (only $1 million this year, chump change for a starting pitcher) and the Red Sox would be able to limit Buchholz's innings total after a 2007 season in which he was shut down in September due to a tired shoulder. Trading Colon would put Buchholz, still stretched out for starting duty, back into the rotation and likely grab Boston an extra bat or a capable infielder to replace the utter disaster that is Julio Lugo. Tavarez shouldn't have any part in this club's future plans, especially when This Manager is so inclined to stick with players who have proven time and again that they no longer can get the job done.