O's Need Bullpen Help in the Worst Way

[Jagwar]

Hyde somehow wriggles out of a loss. Thank the baseball gods for Felix Bautista. 

Who could Elias poach from the bottom dwellers in MLB? 

[Winter]

depends if Angelos fam wants to pay or not, Rockies have a few guys as do the royals but they cost $

[EdwinRip]

Rays are the best team in baseball with the best home record.  Did you think we were going to win 8-2?

[oriolefan1035]

Well it’s not an immediate help, but if the Orioles are trying to cap GrayRod’s innings, throwing out of the pen in the postseason didn’t seem to hurt David Price in 2008…

[Jagwar]

2 minutes ago, EdwinRip said:

Rays are the best team in baseball with the best home record.  Did you think we were going to win 8-2?

No... but I'm hoping that the O's can construct a bullpen that doesn't give up 3 runs in 4 innings. 

[Jagwar]

4 minutes ago, oriolefan1035 said:

Well it’s not an immediate help, but if the Orioles are trying to cap GrayRod’s innings, throwing out of the pen in the postseason didn’t seem to hurt David Price in 2008…

I love that idea. IF Grayson can throw strikes, show command, and get outs. 

[Brian88]

The Nats are out of it and have a hard throwing right handed reliever with 29.2 innings pitched, 3.34 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 10.6 K/9. He has given up a lot of hard contact however, and his name is Hunter Harvey.

[Brooks The Great]

DFA'ing Cionel Perez and giving Wandisson Charles a shot could be a good start. I just don't see Elias making any trades just yet, simply because there are too few teams that have decided to become sellers this early in the season.

[dedwretched]

Aroldis Chapman will probably be available.

[Roy Firestone]

33 minutes ago, dedwretched said:

Aroldis Chapman will probably be available.

bad guy, like K-Rod was, and he didn't really help us much.

[orioles119]

14 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

bad guy, like K-Rod was, and he didn't really help us much.

Nice guys don't win championships.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, orioles119 said:

Nice guys don't win championships.

What a ludicrous thing to say. No nice guy has ever won a championship?  Tell it to Brooks Robinson.  

I think Chapman is past his prime and I’d rather get someone younger and more consistent.  
 

[interloper]

The refusal to use Akin is just really weird to me. He has as good or better of a chance at succeeding in the middle innings than anyone used tonight. Baumann has thrown so much lately.

I think there's a 100% chance we pick up Nabil Crismatt on waivers. He's healthy now and has had a lot of bulk inning success in the past. 

[e16bball]

9 minutes ago, orioles119 said:

Nice guys don't win championships.

Plenty of nice guys win championships. I think the more accurate way to put it is that you don’t need 26 Boy Scouts to win championships — having one Chapman along with the 25 good dudes we’d have on the roster wouldn’t sink the team. 

1 hour ago, oriolefan1035 said:

Well it’s not an immediate help, but if the Orioles are trying to cap GrayRod’s innings, throwing out of the pen in the postseason didn’t seem to hurt David Price in 2008…

My only concern with this idea is that Grayson has been pretty terrible in the first inning of his starts this year (7.20 ERA, 1.028 OPSA). Obviously, it’s a little bit different for your first inning to be your only inning — as opposed to trying to keep something in the tank to pitch 5-6 innings over the course of a full outing. If he can just let it fly for an inning (or two), the stuff clearly would be dominant in short stints. Can he command the stuff in that role? No idea, but there’s probably only one way to find out…and they might be well served to use September to investigate that, if he hasn’t forced his way back into the rotation by then.

 

On the thread topic, I think it’s been clear for a while that the soft underbelly of the bullpen is actually the biggest weakness on the roster. Disappointing, to say the least, that we can’t put together a group of guys from Perez, Voth, Akin, Givens, Tate, etc., that can reliably get outs. But that’s where we are. 

I think if they’re serious about having a legitimately WS caliber bullpen — which is probably necessary with a middling rotation — they need two guys that can slot in between the Bautista/Cano connection at the end of games and the mostly decent group of Coulombe, Baker, Baumann, and maybe Akin/Vespi. That becomes a group that can genuinely shorten games. 

I think one high level addition is probably the most realistic hope, though. Which means they’ll pretty desperately need (a) everyone to stay healthy and (b) at least one of Baker or Baumann to figure it out and be a legit complement to Coulombe in the 6th/7th.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

The refusal to use Akin is just really weird to me. He has as good or better of a chance at succeeding in the middle innings than anyone used tonight. Baumann has thrown so much lately.

Bet we see him on Wednesday.  I like him and wish they were using him more.  At a minimum, he works fast and throws a lot of strikes.  It doesn’t drive you crazy to watch him, even when he gets hit around a bit.