FIX THE DANG BULLPEN

[Aristotelian]

 

 

3 minutes ago, dystopia said:

Looks to me like the bullpen was fine yesterday aside from Heasley who is just not a major league pitcher. 

Also the bullpen was not the reason we lost the Cards series. And the only game where the bullpen did lose the game, it was Akin who gave up a crushing HR. Is there another reality I am not aware of? 

[Bemorewins]

5 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Vespi, Tate, and McGough look to be the top relief candidates to call up for the bullpen right now. Unless you want to change Zimmerman from starter to reliever, then his name enters the conversation, based on his previous experience with the major league roster.

It is not very probable that the answer to what ails this bullpen is in trying more AAAA type guys. The problem is that this pen lacks type end talent (guys with filthy/strikeout stuff).

[Sports Guy]

Lots of talk about Tanner Scott but I would target Andrew Nardi.

He misses bats and throws a lot of strikes.

His K rate is over 11 this year and was last year as well.  Walk rate just over 3.  He gets a lot of chase.

His ERA is closer to 6 than it is to 5 but his FIP is 2.5 and his xERA is 3.3.

His ERA was 2.67 last year.  Righties are hitting him hard so far this year and they were decent against him last year.  He dominates lefties.

He doesn’t have the saves and name of Tanner Scott but he has good upside and his numbers are better than they look.

 

[oriole]

Definitely need someone added sooner than later, but it’s not detrimental. This blowup was on Heasley. And to be fair, he had been pitching pretty well at Norfolk so there was reason to think he had figured it out. 
 

Id love to see Povich or McDermott get their feet wet in the bullpen before moving to the rotation.

[Frobby]

35 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

That may be the season aggregate. But that is not where they are now. They are so bad right now that they are making some of the worst, most struggling hitters/offenses in MLB look good. This is not the bullpen that it was back in the Yankees series. As the season has gone on, the bullpen has gotten progressively worse.

False.  The bullpen had a 3.81 ERA in March/April, and it’s 3.31 in May.   It’s had a tough few days, is all.  

Edited May 24 by Frobby

[Safelykept]

43 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

The question is - If you and I and just about anyone watching can see that the guys on the roster in the pen aren’t good enough as a whole, why couldn’t those responsible for the decisions see this?

Like who thought Kimbrel would be an adequate replacement for Bautista? Who thought that Cano would be as good as he was last season? Who thought that Perez was better than Baumann? Who thought that Jacob Webb was a legit 7th inning guy on a pennant contender?

It appears that we have a flaw somewhere in terms of understanding the importance that a pen plays on a championship contending team. You can’t just throw anybody out there off the trash heap/waiver wire and be arrogant enough that you believe we can fix “whoever” all the team and be good enough to be the best. It looks like our decision makers are going to have to let go of a little ego and obsession with having to always be the smartest guys in the room and do what they have been resisting so long which is add substantive talent through trades.

an adequate replacement for Bautista? Who might that be?, Mason Miller? Problem there is 10 teams will be looking at him. Who thought Perez was going to be better than Baumann, give it a week or two and you will. Give Coloumbe a couple of bad outings and I guess he does not fit either. Unless there is an answer at Norfolk there are no pen upgrades. Its May, no trades until July. Maybe Wells can get right soon. Relax its a long season for a reason.

[Bemorewins]

2 hours ago, orioles119 said:

This gets a down vote?  How about a little perspective?  It wasn't pretty, but they won.  That's what truly matters. 

While you are correct in that a win is a win and that’s always a good thing. I’m afraid a bit more than that “truly matters” when assessing our teams chances in the postseason. Right now the difference between the Orioles and Yankees is that the Yankees have a superior bullpen. With the talent being what it is, that is not going to be in our favor if we were to face them in October. Frankly, if we get into a “bullpen battle” with any of the contenders, we are likely to be at a significant disadvantage.

[sportsfan8703]

Heasley isn’t a part of our bullpen.  He was just a fresh arm call up because of the Means IL. 

Here’s a situation where options are so valuable. We lose a guy like Baumann because he’s out of options and rotate a guy like Heasley in. 

Overall though, our bullpen doesn’t scare anyone. Other teams got out guys throwing 98 plus. Like the Phillies. It’s demoralizing. 

We could really use a shot in the arm by making an early trade for Tanner Scott or Michael Kopech. 

But we will option Heasley today. Bryan Baker has had some success. Tate could be that guy. McDermott is intriguing too. 

My prediction is that we evaluate our in house options before making a trade. But we need a “scary” arm. These arms are regular season arms. 

[Bemorewins]

3 minutes ago, Safelykept said:

an adequate replacement for Bautista? Who might that be?, Mason Miller? Problem there is 10 teams will be looking at him. Who thought Perez was going to be better than Baumann, give it a week or two and you will. Give Coloumbe a couple of bad outings and I guess he does not fit either. Unless there is an answer at Norfolk there are no pen upgrades. Its May, no trades until July. Maybe Wells can get right soon. Relax its a long season for a reason.

I don’t think it was ever reasonable to believe that any singular (non-elite reliever) could replace Bautista. IMO he almost served the role of really TWO effective relievers because of how many times he pitched more than one inning. Thus we needed two very good relievers added to make up for his singular spot because he’s that good.

I don’t want to get into a Miller discussion as the topic has been well covered previously. 

No I have not been much of a believer in Perez since 2022. Coloumbe however has been excellent other than a recent rough patch, so no issues there.

Kimbrel is extremely unreliable IMO (despite a few recent outings of success). I shudder to think of trying to close out a deciding road postseason game in the Bronx with him on the mound. I get the creeps just thinking about that notion.

I don’t have much faith in a healthy effective Wells pitching consistently out of the pen at this point.

You may be correct in that we may be stuck for now as trade options may not be available. With that being the case (barring some Yankee injuries) we are likely to continue to lose ground to them in the standings. Now it’s not the end of the world if we end up a wild card. However, the front office is going to have to deviate from its long held approach of holding/hedging/hoarding mostly all organizational talent. We are going to have to pull the trigger on a true talent adding trade or two this season. Because IMO as good as we are, we are not good enough to win it all as is. The bullpen is just too bereft of top end talent.

[Bemorewins]

21 minutes ago, Frobby said:

False.  The bullpen had a 3.81 ERA in March/April, and it’s 3.31 in May.   It’s had a tough few days, is all.  

Do you strongly believe that we can succeed in the postseason for multiple rounds with this bullpen “as is”?

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Do you strongly believe that we can succeed in the postseason for multiple rounds with this bullpen “as is”?

I would hope no one would believe that.

[dystopia]

The bullpen was supposed to be Texas’ weak spot last year. Anyone who says we “can’t” win the WS with this bullpen is wrong, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make the bullpen (and the team in general) better. 
 

I’m more concerned about the offense right now honestly. 

[interloper]

I tried to tell y'all the Baumann move was a mistake. 

[Frobby]

10 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Do you strongly believe that we can succeed in the postseason for multiple rounds with this bullpen “as is”?

I’ve already said I think we need to add a strong back end guy before the postseason.  

[Aristotelian]

5 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Do you strongly believe that we can succeed in the postseason for multiple rounds with this bullpen “as is”?

I trust Elias (mostly) to make a move when appropriate while evaluating which of our veterans to keep and which to replace. We should also be scouting which guys we like from HOU, TEX, NYM etc. 

Succeeding for multiple rounds is an extremely high bar. We could have Bautista and I wouldn't give us more than a 50% shot. There are many ways to lose baseball games in the playoffs. The Braves were one and done last year and by the way Kimbrel helped beat them.