Gloomy day for a bunch of bullpens yesterday. The Brewers (all the talk about Gagne needing to be a closer to be effective is nonsense), Tigers, Indians, Nationals, Rangers, Braves, and Pirates couldn’t hold onto post-6th inning leads.
I’d imagine that sitting in a cold bullpen all game and then coming in for your first action of the season isn’t the easiest thing to do. Free pass for all of the above teams, except the Tigers, who suck in all weather.
Categories: post by johnstevens
Tagged: bullpen woes, Detroit Tigers, Opening Day
There are always surprises over the court of 162 games, but heading into 2008, there appear to be two playoff-caliber teams in each American League division. I’ve ranked the bullpens of those teams below. While rankings are generally useless, particularly for bullpens, it’s fun to look back on them months later and realize how wrong you were.
(1) Cleveland Indians - Joe Borowski is still the closer, but I think Eric Wedge realizes that the Rafaels are so much more valuable as a righty/lefty relief tandem; there isn’t a better bullpen duo in all of baseball. The Tribe added a hot-dog-eating champion cum relief pitcher in the off-season, and I’m a fan of young Vanderbilt alumnus, Jensen Lewis.
(2) New York Yankees - Playing favorites, are we? Well, kind of, but I really do like the Yankees’ bullpen this year more than I have in several years. When Joba moves out in June, as reportedly planned, this ranking might not hold, but as we stand right now, the Yanks have Joba, Mariano, Hawkins, Farnsworth, and the winners of the Bruney/Dejo/Ramirez/Ohlendorf/Veras/Britton battle for innings. The Yankees ascribed to the relief-pitcher free-agent method I’ve generally espoused on this site. In some respects, their success or lack thereof this year will be a reflection on me.
(3) Boston Red Sox - to quote Mr. Kesuke Miyagi, “Daniel-San! OK to lose to opponent. Never OK to lose to FEAR.”
I think the Okajimer Steamer is going to get hit early this year, lose confidence, and be a shell of his 2007 self. And that’ll be the thing that separates the Yanks’ bullpen and Red Sox’s bullpen; Joba will be better than Okajima. Boston’s supporting cast — Delcarmen, Timlin, Tavarez, Lopez, Snyder, Aardsma — shows promise similar to the Yankees’ bullpen.
(4) Los Angeles Angels - the once-dominant Angels bullpen comes into the 2008 season with more question marks than in recent years. K-Rod should be fine, but Scot Shields showed signs of wear-and-tear last season. That’s what happens when a reliever goes close to one-hundred innings per season for several years. Justin Speier is pretty solid, but let’s hope his recent hard-core spat with semi-competent lefty-reliever Darren Oliver doesn’t carry into the season. The rest of the bullpen consists of Chris Bootcheck, who is hurt and not very good anyway, and several rookies. Look out for Darren O’Day to emerge from this group and play an important role in the Angels’ bullpen this year.
(5) Seattle Mariners - After J.J. Putz, who emerged last season as the best closer in baseball, this bullpen is not too hot. It lost George Sherrill to the Orioles in the off-season, leaving Brandon Morrow and Sean Green to pick up the slack. In 2007, Morrow walked 50 batters in 63 IP and opponents hit .298 against Green. Those numbers are scary. There is some promise, however, for the Mariners. Eric O’Flaherty is a decent lefty specialist, and several young guys could be in line for the job left open by Sherrill. I expect Ryan Rowland-Smith to be in the mix at some point this season, if not right away. Oh, the Mariners also have a knuckle-balling reliever with no ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. So they’ve got that going for them.
(6) Detroit Tigers - We’ve gone over the Tigers bullpen before with our friend, Michael Rosenberg. While I disagreed that the bullpen was the Tigers’ biggest problem — the starting pitching sucks after Verlander — it certainly is a problem. And it’s even more of a problem now that Fernando Rodney is out to begin the season. The Tigers are going to need a breakthrough performance from someone, because Tim Byrdak, Denny Bautista, Jason Grilli, Zach Miner, and Bobby Seay is not going to hack it all season. At least the city of Detroit has hope for the bullpen…
Categories: post by johnstevens
Tagged: 2008 Preview, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, predictions, Seattle Mariners
Leyland rationally believes, as do I, that his team’s starting pitching will be more important than his team’s relief pitching in 2008:
“I’m not as concerned with bullpen as much as everybody else is,” Leyland said during TigerFest. “I think it’s going to be fine.
“Assuming that Todd Jones is going to do another good job for us and Fernando Rodney continues to be a quality major-league pitcher, not a great pitcher, but a quality pitcher, I think those looking at the bullpen are probably looking at the wrong area.”
Then what’s the right area?
“We need to extend our starting pitchers more,” Leyland said. “I think the big keys will be (Jeremy) Bonderman, (Nate) Robertson and (Dontrelle) Willis. If those guys can take you an extra out or an extra 2/3 of an inning, that’s going to be the key to this team.”
Thanks for the support, Jim. I also enjoyed your labeling of Fernando Rodney as a “quality pitcher,” but not a “great pitcher.”
Categories: post by johnstevens
Tagged: Detroit Tigers, Fernando Rodney, Jim Leyland
Now let’s have a little friendly disagreement. While I’m hesitant to criticize a writer who extols the virtues of relief pitching, Rosenberg’s article today goes a little overboard on the importance of relief pitching in the regular season.
Rosenberg believes that, despite improvements in the off-season, the Tigers are still missing one “crucial piece of the puzzle” — relief pitching. I tend to agree: the Tigers enter the season with Fernando Rodney (inconsistent), Jason Grilli (mediocre), Tim Byrdak (wild), Zach Miner (unproven), and Bobby Seay (one good, full year in six-year career).
Rosenberg goes on to write:
Relief pitching was the biggest reason the Indians won the AL Central over the Tigers. Tigers relievers had a 4.40 ERA; Indians relievers had a 3.75 ERA.
Sorry, Michael. As much as I’d like to agree, this just isn’t true. A .65 difference in bullpen ERA is not the biggest reason why the Indians finished eight games above the Tigers in 2007. The Yankees, as one of many counter-examples, finished 11 games ahead of the Blue Jays despite the Blue Jays’ bullpen ERA being nearly a run less.
In 2007, the Indians had two ace pitchers (Carmona, 151 ERA+; Sabathia, 143 ERA+) and some decent complementary pitchers. The Tigers, on the other hand, had one ace (Verlander, 125 ERA+) and a lot of crap after him. This was the reason that Cleveland finished 8 games ahead of Detroit. And, by the way, this remains as another “piece of the puzzle” missing from the 2008 Tigers, unless you’re counting on the D-Train to regain his 2005 form.
Categories: post by johnstevens
Tagged: Bobby Seay, Detroit Tigers, Fernando Rodney, Jason Grilli, Michael Rosenberg, Tim Byrdak, Zach Miner
