FIX THE DANG BULLPEN

[Safelykept]

10 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

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.

Agree with most of this except Wells, I think he could be a big BP add, if healthy. There are no trade options until July unless Elias finds another Coloumbe off the Heap. Kimbrel? More oy a may option vs October option (maybe first guy out of the pen) and hope im wrong. On a side note,  we did not lose to Texas because we did not have Buatista, and Texas did not win Because they had a lockdown BP, more than one way to win. Just saying

[Bemorewins]

7 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

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.

It is a high bar, but those are the stakes now. You don't do an extreme tank and amass this type of the talent throughout the org in order to set the bar at simply making the post season. We can trip over and still get over a bar set that low.

That same Kimbrel blew it for the Phillies in the next round against ARI.

What's with the HOU, TEX, NYM targeting? Why limit our scope to those few teams? Why not go after the best/most effective guys that we can find (regardless of where/what team they come from)?

[Bemorewins]

8 minutes ago, Safelykept said:

Agree with most of this except Wells, I think he could be a big BP add, if healthy. There are no trade options until July unless Elias finds another Coloumbe off the Heap. Kimbrel? More oy a may option vs October option (maybe first guy out of the pen) and hope im wrong. On a side note,  we did not lose to Texas because we did not have Buatista, and Texas did not win Because they had a lockdown BP, more than one way to win. Just saying

Last year our problem wasn't the bullpen it was the starting pitching. Things change from year to year. That's why IMO it does not continue to make sense to hedge/horde talent (sacrificing the opportunities in the present for the possibilities of the future). Because the future may never come the way we hoped. The White Sox and Blue Jays are prime examples of this.

[sportsfan8703]

We need to see what we have in McDermott. There’s two months until the deadline. Let him make 3-4 relief appearances over 10-12 days and call him up. If he fails, he can just go back to starting. 

[Roy Firestone]

9 hours ago, Malike said:

He's a starting pitcher.

so? So was Irvin, and so was DL Hall, and so is Suarez.Most of the bullpen were or are, starters.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Roy Firestone said:

so? So was Irvin, and so was DL Hall, and so is Suarez.Most of the bullpen were or are, starters.

Roy, they aren’t going to take a guy who is a starting pitcher prospect and one who needs to pitch a lot because of the command and control issues he has and make him a reliever right now.

Perhaps that occurs late in the season, especially as they start to restrict him innings but that’s a ways off and it should be.

Same with McDermott.

[Roy Firestone]

1 hour ago, dystopia said:

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

So, the question is, with an ERA over 12, why was he brought up in the first place?

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

38 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

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

This bullpen is missing what it had in Felix Bautista last year. The Orioles need to get a 100 MPH type reliever who doesn't necessarily have to be the new closer. Kimbrel could have been that pitcher in the past, but he's not that guy anymore even if he's still an effective reliever.

Let's put it this way it's the divisional round runners on 2B and 3B with one out in the seventh inning who would you bring in to get a couple strikeouts? The Orioles don't have that pitcher in their bullpen currently.

[sportsfan8703]

We probably shouldn’t leave town without Kopech. 

[sportsfan8703]

We need @Sports Guyto negotiate a trade for Kopech over on the dark side. 

Fabian and Norby?

[Aristotelian]

20 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

It is a high bar, but those are the stakes now. You don't do an extreme tank and amass this type of the talent throughout the org in order to set the bar at simply making the post season. We can trip over and still get over a bar set that low.

That same Kimbrel blew it for the Phillies in the next round against ARI.

What's with the HOU, TEX, NYM targeting? Why limit our scope to those few teams? Why not go after the best/most effective guys that we can find (regardless of where/what team they come from)?

What I am saying is we could have Atlanta '24 and it will never be good enough for more than say 25% or so chance of winning the WS. Right now the Dodgers are at 19%. We want to have the best chance possible to go deep, and I think we can do better, but we are going to need both talent and luck.

Agreed, there may be other teams to look at but those are ones that have veteran talent which is the most likely match for our needs and price point. But sure, all options are on the table. 

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

We need @Sports Guyto negotiate a trade for Kopech over on the dark side. 

Fabian and Norby?

Kopech is definitely high on my list.  
 

Kopech and Nardi would be nice additions that shouldn’t cost us a ton.

[Aristotelian]

7 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

This bullpen is missing what it had in Felix Bautista last year. The Orioles need to get a 100 MPH type reliever who doesn't necessarily have to be the new closer. Kimbrel could have been that pitcher in the past, but he's not that guy anymore even if he's still an effective reliever.

Let's put it this way it's the divisional round runners on 2B and 3B with one out in the seventh inning who would you bring in to get a couple strikeouts? The Orioles don't have that pitcher in their bullpen currently.

Bautista was the top reliever in the game with unicorn stats. Those guys don't grow on trees and teams who have them don't give them up easily, if at all. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

Bautista was the top reliever in the game with unicorn stats. Those guys don't grow on trees and teams who have them don't give them up easily, if at all. 

As @sportsfan8703mentioned the Orioles could get Kopech he fits the profile of what the Orioles need. Bautista is better than most, but it's not like he's the only reliever who can throw upper 90's these days in MLB.

I'm not saying it will be easy, but the Orioles have the prospects to pull off such a trade.

Kopech this year:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/michael-kopech-656629?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb

[Goober Noodles]

This belongs in this thread.