The 2023 Bullpen Thread

[sportsfan8703]

Not off to a great start. We’re really missing Givens and Tate. Wells making the rotation hurts too. Gillaspie did look good. As did Perez. 
 

It seems like we’re short a RH set up man. 

[Bahama O's Fan]

Givens and Tate will be back. Grayson, Hall coming up this season and Means coming back will shore it up later on. Thankfully this is the soft part of the schedule 

[Ripken]

It didn't look good but Squeezy McUmpire and some Little League defense didn't help.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Ripken

[glenn__davis]

3 minutes ago, Ripken said:

It didn't look good but Squeezy McUmpire and some Little League defense didn't help.

Neither did the weather I'm sure.

I think we all expected a step back from the bullpen.  I'm hoping they'll still be an above average unit.

[Frobby]

I think the defense contributed mightily to the runs the bullpen allowed.  To me, only Baker looked bad.  

There was one pitch call I didn’t like when Bautista entered the game and got ahead 1-2 on Tapia, all on fastballs.  Then Adley called for a splitter and Bautista missed badly.   Fine.  But then he called for another splitter, and Bautista missed badly again.   Tapia looked completely incapable of hitting Bautista’s fastball and that should have been the call on 2-2.   
 

[sevastras]

It looked as though the cold weather had an effect on the pitchers for both teams late in the game. This was the argument from pitchers to be able to use sticky stuff early in the year. We saw a ton of walks and more than your typical hit batters without it being a retaliatory thing. If it were 10 degrees warmer, I think the bullpen would have been just fine and we may have saw 5 more runs on the board. 

[Spy Fox]

The bullpen as a whole was bad in all three games this weekend. 

Last year, we had Lopez, Bautista, Perez, Akin, Baker, and Krehbiel ALL basically come out of nowhere to form a strong bullpen out of thin air. 

We're gonna need a couple guys to go from zero to hero again this year. 

[Billy F-Face3]

We are really missing Dylan Tate. He was the anchor of our bullpen last season. No one was more reliable to lock it down than Tate. To make things worst, the pitcher we signed to help while Tate was recovering has also gone on the IL. It's frustrating for them I'm sure, but the rest of the bullpen will have to battle through.

I thought Bryan Baker bounced back in game 3 to have a adequate performance and he should have gotten out of the inning if he had better defense behind him. 

I think playing in Fenway Park and having rusty defense has made the bullpen look weaker than they are. Last season we had outstanding defense and that was the deciding factor in the Bullpen having success.

And since we are talking about the Bullpen and returns, I can't wait until they bring Nick Vespi back up and he stays for good! I don't understand why they keep sending him down. He's done good everytime I've seen him pitch, and I did not miss a single game in the 2nd half of last season.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

We are really missing Dylan Tate. He was the anchor of our bullpen last season. No one was more reliable to lock it down than Tate. To make things worst, the pitcher we signed to help while Tate was recovering has also gone on the IL. It's frustrating for them I'm sure, but the rest of the bullpen will have to battle through.

I thought Bryan Baker bounced back in game 3 to have a adequate performance and he should have gotten out of the inning if he had better defense behind him. 

I think playing in Fenway Park and having rusty defense has made the bullpen look weaker than they are. Last season we had outstanding defense and that was the deciding factor in the Bullpen having success.

And since we are talking about the Bullpen and returns, I can't wait until they bring Nick Vespi back up and he stays for good! I don't understand why they keep sending him down. He's done good everytime I've seen him pitch, and I did not miss a single game in the 2nd half of last season.

It's Dillion.

He went 4-4 with an ERA of 3.05, pitched 74 innings.  He had a nice enough season but he's hardly a indispensable piece.

Not sure why you are blaming rust for the defense, lead doesn't rust.  They play defense in Spring Training, these guys aren't rusty.

[Billy F-Face3]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

It's Dillion.

He went 4-4 with an ERA of 3.05, pitched 74 innings.  He had a nice enough season but he's hardly a indispensable piece.

Not sure why you are blaming rust for the defense, lead doesn't rust.  They play defense in Spring Training, these guys aren't rusty.

Dillon. My bad.

They don't play Spring Training in a bathtub known as Fenway Park, and they don't play spring training in 38 degree temperatures with wind.  There's a big difference between flying from a sunny Sarasota Florida beachtown and flying to Boston when the winter season is still stubbornly resisting change.

Also, Mullins wasn't with the team most of Spring Training. Neither was Santander. Team Chemistry and communication matters.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Billy F-Face3

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Billy F-Face3 said:

Dillon. My bad.

They don't play Spring Training in a bathtub known as Fenway Park, and they don't play spring training in 38 degree temperatures with wind.  There's a big difference between flying from a sunny Sarasota Florida beachtown and flying to Boston when the winter season is still stubbornly resisting change.

The Red Sox played under the same conditions.

Why do people keep trying this excuse?  The Red Sox go to spring training in Florida, just like the O's.  They are no more acclimated to cold weather.

[waroriole]

Would think there’d be a move today. Send Baumann down and bring up Krehbiel? 

[glenn__davis]

11 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

The Red Sox played under the same conditions.

Why do people keep trying this excuse?  The Red Sox go to spring training in Florida, just like the O's.  They are no more acclimated to cold weather.

And their pitching sucked too lol.

Honestly I'm not sure there was 1 pitcher in the series that I thought looked particularly sharp, though I didn't get to see any of yesterday's game.  Cold, windy conditions are tough to pitch in.  Let's see if we see some better command the next 3 days in Texas.

[eddie83]

31 minutes ago, waroriole said:

Would think there’d be a move today. Send Baumann down and bring up Krehbiel? 

I think pen is in solid enough shape. Don’t think they need to make a move yet. Something to keep an eye on though. Baumann won’t pitch today. Probably no Baker and Akin as well. 

[waroriole]

4 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

I think pen is in solid enough shape. Don’t think they need to make a move yet. Something to keep an eye on though. Baumann won’t pitch today. Probably no Baker and Akin as well. 

10 innings the last two days. Plus Baumann isn’t a ML pitcher anyway.