Battle for the Bullpen

[sportsfan8703]

Now that we have the rotation figured out, who makes the bullpen?

Locks("A" squad)-

1.  Brad Brach - Closer

2.  Mychal Givens- Set up

3.  Darren O'day- Swiss army knife

4.  Richard Bleier- Lefty. A 1.98 ERA in 86.1 IP last season makes him a lock.  

Likely("B" squad)-

5.  Miguel Castro - MR/LR.  The only way he doesn't make it is if we keep him stretched out in AAA until Cobb is ready for the rotation. 

6.  Mike Wright- MR/LR.  Like it or not, I think he gets a shot.  Sink or swim time.  

7.  Nestor Cortes- LR, Spot LH SP.  Can we really afford to give up SP depth to keep another short reliever?

Top candidates to unseat the bottom three:

Pedro Arajuo-  Do we carry an 8 man pen to start the season?  We could steal an extended look at him if so.  This spring, 7IP, 2.57 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 7 K's, 2 BB

Joely Rodriguez- Lefty. This spring, 7.2 iP, 1.17 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 6 K's, 1 BB

Josh Edgin- Lefty.  This spring, 6 IP, 0.67 WHIP, 1.50 ERA, 3 K's,  2BB

Thoughts?

 

[Sanfran327]

I really don't see why Mike Wright should make this team now. Castro is a better long man, and we shouldn't need to use him nearly as often in a 2-3 inning role again this year. The biggest part of why I'm so excited about the combination of Cashner and Cobb is that we shouldn't burn out the bullpen by June this year. I think we have a good shot at the 2nd WC with this group, but that's a different conversation.

We need the best guys to get outs, and that probably means Joely Rodriguez over Mike Wright. Buck will want a 2nd lefty anyway.

[Aristotelian]

Big strike on Castro is he has an option. If Araujo can be decent, I think they would rather try him out and keep Castro for depth at AAA.

Joely has had an excellent spring and another lefty would be an asset as well. I think he somehow makes the team, possibly at the expense of Wright.

[interloper]

If we figure 7 bullpen guys, I'm doing this:

Brach, O'Day, Givens, Bleier, Castro, Cortes, Araujo

Wright DFA

 

[interloper]

7 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Big strike on Castro is he has an option. If Araujo can be decent, I think they would rather try him out and keep Castro for depth at AAA.

Joely has had an excellent spring and another lefty would be an asset as well. I think he somehow makes the team, possibly at the expense of Wright.

Remember that Joely can go to the minors despite his lack of options.

[bpilktree]

I think they go with those 8 guys to start the season in the pen and one of the Wright Castro, or Cortes gets the opening start on the 4th.  Then Cobb comes up on the 13th and we make a move with with Castro or if Tilman struggles skip a start for him the time around when Cobb is in rotation.

[bpilktree]

Just now, bpilktree said:

I think they go with those 8 guys to start the season in the pen and one of the Wright Castro, or Cortes gets the opening start on the 4th.  Then Cobb comes up on the 13th and we make a move with with Castro or if Tilman struggles skip a start for him the time around when Cobb is in rotation.

Arujo being the 8th guy from your list with the first 7.

[sportsfan8703]

48 minutes ago, interloper said:

Remember that Joely can go to the minors despite his lack of options.

We would know if Joely would accept a AAA assignment or not before a decision was made. People love a guy like Joely because he is new and they don’t remember his bad performances, but a guy like Wright has more value right now. 

The best value would probably be to just rotate through optionable arms and to keep the rest of the pen fresh over 162. 

[Aristotelian]

54 minutes ago, interloper said:

Remember that Joely can go to the minors despite his lack of options.

Strong spring and reports of hitting 100 on the gun. I'd like him on the team.

[VaBird1]

I wouldn’ be surprised to see Castro starting in AAA and Rodriquez also in Norfolk in an attempt to keep the rule V guys and Wright as long as possible.  It has been the way they have operated over the last five years.  Keep as many assets as possible until forced to lose one.

[weams]

17 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Now that we have the rotation figured out, who makes the bullpen?

Locks("A" squad)-

1.  Brad Brach - Closer

2.  Mychal Givens- Set up

3.  Darren O'day- Swiss army knife

4.  Richard Bleier- Lefty. A 1.98 ERA in 86.1 IP last season makes him a lock.  

Likely("B" squad)-

5.  Miguel Castro - MR/LR.  The only way he doesn't make it is if we keep him stretched out in AAA until Cobb is ready for the rotation. 

6.  Mike Wright- MR/LR.  Like it or not, I think he gets a shot.  Sink or swim time.  

7.  Nestor Cortes- LR, Spot LH SP.  Can we really afford to give up SP depth to keep another short reliever?

Top candidates to unseat the bottom three:

Pedro Arajuo-  Do we carry an 8 man pen to start the season?  We could steal an extended look at him if so.  This spring, 7IP, 2.57 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 7 K's, 2 BB

Joely Rodriguez- Lefty. This spring, 7.2 iP, 1.17 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 6 K's, 1 BB

Josh Edgin- Lefty.  This spring, 6 IP, 0.67 WHIP, 1.50 ERA, 3 K's,  2BB

Thoughts?

 

The Orioles stated that they intend to open with 12 pitchers.

[backwardsk]

1 minute ago, weams said:

The Orioles stated that they intend to open with 12 pitchers.

So, with Cobb down, that means eight relievers, right?

 

[weams]

9 minutes ago, backwardsk said:

So, with Cobb down, that means eight relievers, right?

 

I think they intend to go north with five starters as well. From what I read. 

[weams]

And that fifth starter could easily be Wright or Cortes

[Luke-OH]

15 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

We would know if Joely would accept a AAA assignment or not before a decision was made. People love a guy like Joely because he is new and they don’t remember his bad performances, but a guy like Wright has more value right now. 

The best value would probably be to just rotate through optionable arms and to keep the rest of the pen fresh over 162. 

His issue was never related to his stuff. It's been command/control. From what I've seen this spring, he's showing average (50) command. That combined with a fastball that sits 95-97 from the left side, and at least an average slider is a pretty good reliever. 

With 5 RHP in the rotation, I'd want more than two LH relievers. Right now there is Bleier, even assuming Cortes is the second guy, I think they'd want a third.