Luke-OH: Assessing the Bullpen Options

[weams]

http://www.orioleshangout.com/2018/03/24/orioles-2018-bullpen/

Quote

Relief pitchers are notoriously volatile and every year across the MLB, you see guys having strong seasons out of nowhere and established guys struggle badly. So what follows is a discussion of the Orioles 2018 bullpen depth options. The Alex Cobbsigning, the DFA of Jose Mesa Jr., and the optioning of Donnie Hart and Jimmy Yacabonis has brought some clarity to the situation. I’ll be excluding the obvious locks (Brad Brach, Mychal Givens, Darren O’Day, Richard Bleier) and will be looking at contenders for the last 3 bullpen spots and minor league pieces the Orioles could turn to later in the season to deal with injury or ineffectiveness. I’m also leaving Gabriel Ynoa and Chris Lee off since they are currently injured...

 

 

[backwardsk]

Do you expect Crichton to be released when they add Rasmus, Valencia, etc?

[REDMAN]

Been thinking about the makeup of the orioles bullpen and have come to the decision that for the last 2 spots they should go with LH pitchers, with 5 RH starters, its the logical move because teams are going to stack their LH hitters against them. A bullpen of 3 LH RP would be a defense against this. What do you think?

[Il BuonO]

Cortes was varying his tempo and now he’s not? Gee, the Orioles sure are good at making these changes with young pitchers.

*sigh

[VaBird1]

11 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

Cortes was varying his tempo and now he’s not? Gee, the Orioles sure are good at making these changes with young pitchers.

*sigh

Exactly what I was thinking.  

[Aristotelian]

13 minutes ago, REDMAN said:

Been thinking about the makeup of the orioles bullpen and have come to the decision that for the last 2 spots they should go with LH pitchers, with 5 RH starters, its the logical move because teams are going to stack their LH hitters against them. A bullpen of 3 LH RP would be a defense against this. What do you think?

That makes sense. They announced Araujo making the club so that leaves two spots for lefties. I think they will try to keep Cortes. 

That leaves Scott, Edgin, and Joely for the last spot. Edgin and Joely can both go to the minors and then get called up. If they are the first option, then we would risk losing them. It might be Scott's time as much as Joely as looked real good.

[mdbdotcom]

24 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

That makes sense. They announced Araujo making the club so that leaves two spots for lefties. I think they will try to keep Cortes. 

That leaves Scott, Edgin, and Joely for the last spot. Edgin and Joely can both go to the minors and then get called up. If they are the first option, then we would risk losing them. It might be Scott's time as much as Joely as looked real good.

Scott was optioned on Thursday.

[Frobby]

Quote

[Joely Rodriguez] reportedly touched 100 on a stadium gun this spring (although it probably was a bit hot).

I’m the source of that report, and I don’t think the gun was hot.    In the same game, Wright topped out at 93, Mesa 92, Scott 95.

The odd thing was, Rodriguez came out of the pen, his first pitch was 100 mph (and pretty high), and Sisco immediately went out to the mound for a conference.    Maybe he felt Rodriguez was overthrowing?   It seemed a strange time to visit the mound.

As to your list of players who may help this season, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to add James Teague to the list.    He has been used 8 times this spring, 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K’s.   He’s been clocked at 98 mph.   He’s certainly a long shot, having not pitched above Delmarva (and he struggled there and was demoted to Aberdeen).    But there has to be a reason the O’s kept bringing him back over to major league games to pitch.  

[Frobby]

56 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

Cortes was varying his tempo and now he’s not? Gee, the Orioles sure are good at making these changes with young pitchers.

*sigh

Or, maybe Cortes is saving some of his timing disruption tactics for the regular season?   I know, it’s dangerous trying to hold things back when you’re trying to make the team.    But maybe it’s Cortes’ choice, not coaching input.  

[weams]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m the source of that report, and I don’t think the gun was hot.    In the same game, Wright topped out at 93, Mesa 92, Scott 95.

The odd thing was, Rodriguez came out of the pen, his first pitch was 100 mph (and pretty high), and Sisco immediately went out to the mound for a conference.    Maybe he felt Rodriguez was overthrowing?   It seemed a strange time to visit the mound.

As to your list of players who may help this season, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to add James Teague to the list.    He has been used 8 times this spring, 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K’s.   He’s been clocked at 98 mph.   He’s certainly a long shot, having not pitched above Delmarva (and he struggled there and was demoted to Aberdeen).    But there has to be a reason the O’s kept bringing him back over to major league games to pitch.  

Teague is pretty darn stable. 

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, weams said:

Teague is pretty darn stable. 

Of course, when you pitch the 9th inning of spring games, you aren’t facing major league hitters.  

[weams]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Of course, when you pitch the 9th inning of spring games, you aren’t facing major league hitters.  

You are very correct. He's still nails. 

[Il BuonO]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Or, maybe Cortes is saving some of his timing disruption tactics for the regular season?   I know, it’s dangerous trying to hold things back when you’re trying to make the team.    But maybe it’s Cortes’ choice, not coaching input.  

So, it’s dangerous to hold back something with which he’s had success, but he’s doing it anyway?Or, the coaches thought it was too much movement and decided he didn’t need it even though he’s been successful with it?

Yeah, ok, but the onus is on the Orioles development team to show they aren’t screwing up the future.

[weams]

 

 

[Luke-OH]

4 hours ago, backwardsk said:

Do you expect Crichton to be released when they add Rasmus, Valencia, etc?

Yeah, big DFA candidate for me, velocity was way down this spring, like 5-6 mph, slider was poor as well. He was already a fringe guy and he looks much worse this spring for whatever reason.

4 hours ago, REDMAN said:

Been thinking about the makeup of the orioles bullpen and have come to the decision that for the last 2 spots they should go with LH pitchers, with 5 RH starters, its the logical move because teams are going to stack their LH hitters against them. A bullpen of 3 LH RP would be a defense against this. What do you think?

I agree, I think we’ll see Cortes, and one of Rodriguez/Edgin make the squad. 

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’m the source of that report, and I don’t think the gun was hot.    In the same game, Wright topped out at 93, Mesa 92, Scott 95.

The odd thing was, Rodriguez came out of the pen, his first pitch was 100 mph (and pretty high), and Sisco immediately went out to the mound for a conference.    Maybe he felt Rodriguez was overthrowing?   It seemed a strange time to visit the mound.

As to your list of players who may help this season, I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to add James Teague to the list.    He has been used 8 times this spring, 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K’s.   He’s been clocked at 98 mph.   He’s certainly a long shot, having not pitched above Delmarva (and he struggled there and was demoted to Aberdeen).    But there has to be a reason the O’s kept bringing him back over to major league games to pitch.  

My bad, is misremembered your report when writing this, I’ll edit that part out. I remember now thinking with the other #s you reported, that doesn’t sound like a hot gun, just slipped my mind.