A quick look at what others are saying about middle relief:
- ‘Anorexic’ Mets: Mets fans start sweating (and stop spell-checking) after they failed to sign Cordero or Linebrink. (Mets Fever)
- Yanks fans, on the other hand, are ecstatic that some other bonehead GM overpaid Linebrink before Cashman could. (The New York Yankees Baseball Blog)
- It may have been the going rate, but you don’t have to like the Linebrink and Cordero signings; why not try the “trial and error” method for constructing a bullpen? (Hardball Review)
- For his part, Keith Law sees a troubling trend this offseason: (ESPN Insider)
After Steve Karsay’s four-year deal, signed before the 2002 season, went bust, we saw just one three-year deal given to a reliever (Armando Benitez, who threw 118 innings with a 4.55 ERA during the deal) until B.J. Ryan’s five-year deal, signed in November of 2005. That month, we saw the destruction of the market’s reluctance to give long-term deals to relief pitchers, especially middle relievers, and the result has been a relative flood of three-, four-, and even five-year contracts for such free agents. After two winters of these contracts, however, the track record is already not good.
- Dbacks fans give out unsung hero awards to Edgar Gonzalez, Brandon Lyon, and their pitching coach, Bryan Price. (AZ Snakepit)
- Did you ever wonder who owns the “Most Consecutive Games with a Home Run Allowed by a Relief Pitcher” record? Yeah, me neither. (Recondite Baseball)
3 responses so far ↓
MJ // November 25, 2007 at 8:56 pm |
I was SURE that Farnsworth was on the consecutive appearances with a HR list. I was shocked, shocked, to see that he wasn’t.
John Stevens // November 25, 2007 at 9:03 pm |
Keith Law is ESPN’s best writer, in large part because he so often agrees with me:
“So while Kenny Williams is correct to identify the White Sox’s bullpen as a major flaw — their 5.47 relief ERA was third-worst in the AL — the odds are very good that he’s not getting the help he thinks with Scott Linebrink, who agreed to a four-year, $19 million deal. Linebrink had a good three-and-a-half-year run, pitching very well in a great pitchers’ park in the easier league, but that run ended in 2007. He posted his worst ERA in any full season in the majors, giving up twelve homers in 70 innings, a testament to the gradual decline in his stuff since that remarkable 2005 season. His fastball velocity is just average and is pretty straight, and he’s moving to one of the better home run parks in baseball. To expect him to still be performing well one or two or three years from now is unrealistic, and there’s a very good chance he won’t live up to expectations in year one.”
brentschwartz // November 27, 2007 at 12:58 am |
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