The 2023 Bullpen Thread

[eddie83]

9 minutes ago, waroriole said:

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

You may be right about him. That said I think it’s too early for a move. 
 

Clearly the pen won’t be able to keep up this pace. Off day Friday. Have to see how they do before that.  

[Moshagge3]

I was surprised by the way Austin Voth was used on Saturday. With Kremer only going three innings, I would have thought that Hyde would have gone right to Voth for some length. Instead Voth was not used until the sixth and pulled immediately after a leadoff HR in the seventh.

[Frobby]

13 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.

There are no excuses, but there are partial explanations for some (not all) of the bad plays.  And in a short series, the difficulty of plays may not be the same for both teams.  For example, both the Mullins fly ball miscues (neither scored an error, by the way) were on plays more difficult than any play I saw any Red Sox outfielder encounter during the series.  On the two Hays plays, I’m not sure what happened, but one or both may have been simple cases of getting the sun in his eyes at the wrong time.   

Anyway, I’m done with this topic.  Hopefully the O’s got it out of their system and will play better in Texas.  
 

[RZNJ]

13 minutes ago, Frobby said:

There are no excuses, but there are partial explanations for some (not all) of the bad plays.  And in a short series, the difficulty of plays may not be the same for both teams.  For example, both the Mullins fly ball miscues (neither scored an error, by the way) were on plays more difficult than any play I saw any Red Sox outfielder encounter during the series.  On the two Hays plays, I’m not sure what happened, but one or both may have been simple cases of getting the sun in his eyes at the wrong time.   

Anyway, I’m done with this topic.  Hopefully the O’s got it out of their system and will play better in Texas.  
 

The one Hays play was because he sense he was getting close to the short RF wall and took his eye off the ball to check to see how close he was.   With the wind and taking his eye off the ball, he totally lost track.

[interloper]

5 hours ago, Moshagge3 said:

I was surprised by the way Austin Voth was used on Saturday. With Kremer only going three innings, I would have thought that Hyde would have gone right to Voth for some length. Instead Voth was not used until the sixth and pulled immediately after a leadoff HR in the seventh.

There were a few weird bullpen things in this series, I thought. This was one. The other I can remember is pulling Akin after 1/3 of an inning. Sure he allowed 2 hits and gave up 2 runs, but at that point I would have just stuck with him rather than bringing in Baumann. Then they stuck with Baumann for 1.2 IP even though he was supposed to be a 1-inning flamethrower. 

Overall, the bullpen has a sloppy feel to it. Roles aren't really defined yet and guys aren't sharp. I think it'll smooth out over the next couple series. 

Edited April 3, 2023 by interloper

[sportsfan8703]

It’s amazing how good a bullpen can look when a SP goes 7 IP. Perez is just a weapon for us. 

[NCRaven]

6 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

It’s amazing how good a bullpen can look when a SP goes 7 IP. Perez is just a weapon for us. 

It's amazing that Perez has been able to be this good.  He puts lots of guys on base and then doesn't let them score.  A pitcher that puts as many guys on as he does usually stinks, but he doesn't.  

[RZNJ]

4 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

It's amazing that Perez has been able to be this good.  He puts lots of guys on base and then doesn't let them score.  A pitcher that puts as many guys on as he does usually stinks, but he doesn't.  

His WHIP was 1.162 last year and it’s 1.2 this year.   That’s not bad at all.

[Mooreisbetter27]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

His WHIP was 1.162 last year and it’s 1.2 this year.   That’s not bad at all.

Was just about to post the same thing.  

[sportsfan8703]

There haven’t been too many scoreless innings pitched by the pen this year when we either have the lead or are tied. This is a major concern. It’s probably not going to get better in the Yankees series. Hopefully, we can get our act together against a weaker schedule in April. 
 

What is Givens’ timetable?

What is Tate’s timetable?

When Bradish comes back, does he knock Wells to the pen or just GR to AAA?

Do we go with the Nuclear option and just have GR and Hall in MR/SU?

[Frobby]

Buried in yesterday’s loss was a pretty good job by the bullpen.  Voth came in and allowed a titanic home run to Stanton on the first pitch he threw.  After that, the pen threw 4.1 scoreless innings.   They kept us in the game, but the bats were silent.  

To date, the pen has a 3.93 ERA, 1.11 WHIP. 8.7 K/9.  The 3.93 ERA is exactly league average for AL relievers so far.  
 

[RZNJ]

Nice inning from Baumann today.   Dialed it down to 94-95 but threw strikes.    Other players misfortune is another’s opportunity.   It would be great if Gillaspie and Baumann can establish themselves while Givens and Tate are out.

[Frobby]

Our “hot mess” bullpen now has a 3.60 ERA, 0.25 runs/game lower than the league average.  

As RZNJ noted in another thread, Bryan Baker seems to be rounding into form after a terrible first outing.  In his last four games he’s thrown 4.2 IP scoreless and only allowed on baserunner, while striking out 6.   
 

[glenn__davis]

Bautista looks as dominant as last year, which was a concern for me.  I think Ben said last night his splitter has a swinging strike % of 92% or something absurd like that, and that number would have went up after last night.

Perez looks more hittable than last year, which was a concern but I think also to be a bit expected.

As others have mentioned Baker looks to be rounding into form, also a very good sign.

It's still not deep at all, just need to hold the fort here until Tate and Givens can get back and hopefully help out.  Don't have much confidence in Voth, Baumann or Gillaspie in a close game.

[Sports Guy]

Felix threw 16 pitches yesterday and got 8 swing and misses. Dominant stuff.