Bullpen 2024

[LGOrioles]

9 minutes ago, Malike said:

The lack of swing and miss in the pen if they keep it as is will likely keep this team behind the Yankees. Sure, guys throw groundballs or whatever, but when players can put everything into play, bad things are oft bound to happen. Kimbrel is the only real strikeout pitcher out of the pen.

Surprisingly, the Orioles are actually 12th in K% out of team bullpens. The only AL playoff caliber teams above them are CLE and MIN. Of the top 5 teams in the MLB, PHI is 6th, NYY is 24th, LAD is 18th, and ATL is 19th. 

Kind of surprised the Orioles are that high. Kimbrel is 7th among all qualified relievers in K% which certainly helps, but you also never know what you’re gonna get with him. Coulombe is 59th, Webb is 74th, and Akin is 55th. 

I agree they still need more swing and miss though and feel good about Elias adding at least one backend piece.

[Malike]

6 minutes ago, LGOrioles said:

Surprisingly, the Orioles are actually 12th in K% out of team bullpens. The only AL playoff caliber teams above them are CLE and MIN. Of the top 5 teams in the MLB, PHI is 6th, NYY is 24th, LAD is 18th, and ATL is 19th. 

Kind of surprised the Orioles are that high. Kimbrel is 7th among all qualified relievers in K% which certainly helps, but you also never know what you’re gonna get with him. Coulombe is 59th, Webb is 74th, and Akin is 55th. 

I agree they still need more swing and miss though and feel good about Elias adding at least one backend piece.

I suspect you can get away with it a little more in middle relief but our high-leverage guys, Cano (7.6), Coulombe (9.0), and Webb (9.6) all have K-Rates below 9 for their careers. If you can't get strikeouts in the later innings in close games, you'll likely not end up on the right side of things as much as you should.

[doccat]

If the game gets into the 6th inning with the Yankees in the lead, that game is over.  Even the Oakland A's if the game gets through the 7th with them in the lead they will win.  Remember the 2014 Orioles?  If the game got to the 7th with the O's leading it was over.  (I really miss having that.)

 

The current bullpen has me thinking "which guy's turn is it to blow it tonight?"  We can't go into the playoffs like that and expect to succeed...   On the other hand, I'm not a fan of trading away top prospects either....   Could be tough to fix up this pen.  I'm a fan of Kade Strowd and I think he'll be a piece.  

 

One thing that amazes me when you watch our relievers pitch is that their pure raw stuff is pretty good.  Cionel threw 97 MPH the other night, Baumann and Webb frequently hit 96, same with Cano, and yet they call get hit pretty good.  I guess command and location are problematic..

[LGOrioles]

4 minutes ago, Malike said:

I suspect you can get away with it a little more in middle relief but our high-leverage guys, Cano (7.6), Coulombe (9.0), and Webb (9.6) all have K-Rates below 9 for their careers. If you can't get strikeouts in the later innings in close games, you'll likely not end up on the right side of things as much as you should.

Agree. Coulombe’s K/BB rates are actually better against righties but he’s vulnerable to HR’s against them. 

I don’t really trust Webb as a set up guy and would rather see him in the 5th-7th innings. Cano’s whiff % is up almost 5% from last year as is his chase rate, but his K% is down 3%. He isn’t going to rack up a ton of K’s but it should still improve based off those metrics. I do still think they need another RHP in the pen who can strike guys out at a high clip.

[Frobby]

Our terrible horrible unacceptable bullpen currently has the fourth best ERA in MLB (3.32), and has an 0.62 ERA in June.  

Offense: 5.17 runs/gane (1st in MLB)

Starting pitching: 3.12 ERA (3rd)

Bullpen: 3.32 ERA (4th)

In that world, the bullpen is the weakness.  

[DirtyBird]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

Our terrible horrible unacceptable bullpen currently has the fourth best ERA in MLB (3.32), and has an 0.62 ERA in June.  

 

I think the June schedule gets tougher on the pen after today.

[Sports Guy]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

Our terrible horrible unacceptable bullpen currently has the fourth best ERA in MLB (3.32), and has an 0.62 ERA in June.  

Offense: 5.17 runs/gane (1st in MLB)

Starting pitching: 3.12 ERA (3rd)

Bullpen: 3.32 ERA (4th)

In that world, the bullpen is the weakness.  

How many members of the pen do you feel good about when they come into the game?

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

How many members of the pen do you feel good about when they come into the game?

I am just complimenting them on performance to date, and enjoying their June success, not saying that I’m confident every time a member of the pen steps on the mound.  

But to turn your question around, for how many members of the current pen do you think “oh crap, here comes a disaster” whenever they take the mound?

Overall, I think the 6th/7th inning guys in our pen are significantly better than most teams’ and our 8th/9th inning guys are not elite compared to some teams’.   

[AlbNYfan]

39 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

How many members of the pen do you feel good about when they come into the game?

How many teams (or fans) feel good when their team has to go to their bullpen?? It may happen with closers, but guys that go in the 5-8 innings are often vulnerable. Generally speaking, an opponent goal every game is to get the starter out as early as possible, let's get to the pen.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, AlbNYfan said:

How many teams (or fans) feel good when their team has to go to their bullpen?? It may happen with closers, but guys that go in the 5-8 innings are often vulnerable. Generally speaking, an opponent goal every game is to get the starter out as early as possible, let's get to the pen.

I don't agree with that.  TTTOP is a thing.

I think most teams would rather face a Starter for a third time over getting into the pen. 

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I am just complimenting them on performance to date, and enjoying their June success, not saying that I’m confident every time a member of the pen steps on the mound.  

But to turn your question around, for how many members of the current pen do you think “oh crap, here comes a disaster” whenever they take the mound?

Overall, I think the 6th/7th inning guys in our pen are significantly better than most teams’ and our 8th/9th inning guys are not elite compared to some teams’.   

I have confidence in Coulombe and Kimbrel and generally feel good about Cano and Perez but would look to upgrade on them.

Webb is pitching great for the moment but overall, he’s not a guy I trust.

Still feel like we need to add at least one high leverage guy and another guy…maybe 2 high leverage relievers.

[DirtyBird]

We are T-5 in most blown saves at 12. With the Yankees at 9, it is basically the difference in the division lead at this point.

[Too Tall]

I haven't seen anyone saying we don't need to add to the pen and the rest of June will surely be a test. But so far, what we have, has performed pretty darn well. 

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Too Tall said:

I haven't seen anyone saying we don't need to add to the pen and the rest of June will surely be a test. But so far, what we have, has performed pretty darn well. 

 But a lot of the advanced stats say their numbers are better than they are pitching and a decline is likely.

I’m glad they are performing well in June but my focus is on October.

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

How many members of the pen do you feel good about when they come into the game?

SG, there’s a large portion of our fans that don’t feel good when Cano comes into games.

The bullpen is something that the casual fan can just latch onto and blame. Especially on a team that doesn’t sign FA and we gave out 13 million to Kimbrel.

Hopefully, we will get to see our pen with Suarez in it before the deadline. This has been a great regular season pen so far.