The bullpen will be the death of this team

[Three Run Homer]

Tonight's game had a playoff feel to it.  Both starters were excellent, runs were hard to come by, and the game came down to whose bullpen executed better.  The Red Sox don't have a great bullpen, but it's better than ours.  We are not going to win games in the postseason unless we win innings 1-5, because we are going to lose the battle of the bullpens every time.  

I do think it's fair to criticize Elias for how he built this bullpen.  Last season the bullpen numbers overall were excellent, but that was mostly because of outstanding performances by Bautista and Cano. Elias knew that Bautista was out for the season, and he knew that aside from Cano and Coulombe the other returning options (Baker, Webb, Akin, Baumann, Perez) were nothing special.  Yet his only moves were to sign an over the hill Craig Kimbrell, and to trade away DL Hall.  It should not surprise anyone that the bullpen has been mediocre.   

My only hope is that Elias was hamstrung this past offseason by cheap ownership, and that he will have the budget to get 2-3 quality bullpen arms for next season to go with Bautista, Cano, Dominguez, Coulombe and maybe Webb.  

[bpilktree67]

11 minutes ago, Three Run Homer said:

Tonight's game had a playoff feel to it.  Both starters were excellent, runs were hard to come by, and the game came down to whose bullpen executed better.  The Red Sox don't have a great bullpen, but it's better than ours.  We are not going to win games in the postseason unless we win innings 1-5, because we are going to lose the battle of the bullpens every time.  

I do think it's fair to criticize Elias for how he built this bullpen.  Last season the bullpen numbers overall were excellent, but that was mostly because of outstanding performances by Bautista and Cano. Elias knew that Bautista was out for the season, and he knew that aside from Cano and Coulombe the other returning options (Baker, Webb, Akin, Baumann, Perez) were nothing special.  Yet his only moves were to sign an over the hill Craig Kimbrell, and to trade away DL Hall.  It should not surprise anyone that the bullpen has been mediocre.   

My only hope is that Elias was hamstrung this past offseason by cheap ownership, and that he will have the budget to get 2-3 quality bullpen arms for next season to go with Bautista, Cano, Dominguez, Coulombe and maybe Webb.  

The Red Sox bullpen is not better then ours it isn’t even better then anyone’s.  They are giving up 7.5 runs a game since mid July it is by far worse in the league even worse than the white Sox.  Since All Star break their eras, Jansen 4.66, Kelly 6.17, Berndinni 11., Wincowski 5.40, Horn  10.57, Garcia 14.09, Simms 6.43, Martin 2.08.  Martin has been good and Jansen has been average the rest have been dumpster fire bad.  

[Yossarian]

One offense got it done, the other did not. 

[Chavez Ravine]

The blink by the bullpen was unfortunately not unexpected, but our hitters coming up small was the bigger issue for me tonight. Heck, last night as well—if that makes sense in a game in which we scored 10 runs. 

[Prodigyx]

It's crazy how much losing Bautista has hurt this bullpen, because it forced us to bring in Kimbrell, who was good in the first half but now can't get anyone out forcing Cano and Perez into to have to pitch in save situations which I don't think they handle that pressure as well as there previous roles. 

[OrioleintheATL]

sad.  Next year, next year, next year.

[ScGO's]

I was at the game where Bautista blew his arm out last year. First O's game in 9 years, and I knew at that moment it was going to be tough for the O's to win a WS w/o him.

The bullpen hasn't been the same since.  Bautista pushed everyone into comfortable roles. Cano always started a clean 7th or 8th inning. Everything fell into place after those two as far as defined roles. Kimbrell's shaky 9ths have caused a trickle down of uncertainty about roles and usage. Harder to prepare for your work day; guys being put into situations they aren't built for. Hats off to Birch Smith's efforts, but is that the guy you want facing Devers in an inter-divisional playoff race?

Perhaps they should throw GrayRod in closer roll for rest of season/playoffs to manage his innings? He's the only person on the roster that can probably get to Bautista type performances in the 9th. Burnes, Eflin, and Kremer w/ Gray Rod at closer could work?

[Sports Guy]

It was the biggest and most obvious need heading into the offseason, outside of a TOR starter, and it was failure by Elias to not address it more than he did.

I was in favor of adding Kimbrel and I still feel it was the right move but he should have never been expected to be some lockdown guy. He was going to have his struggles. To not add another key guy was wrong. Now, to be fair, one of those guys was Robert Stephenson and he got hurt, so you never know but still, whether it be by trade or signing, more should have been done.

And then, when it was the obvious need at the deadline, he still didn’t do enough. He did some but not enough.

With that being said, as I have been saying, we only need 4 relievers to be pitching well at the right time. Texas didn’t have a good BP last year and they ended up being good enough in October. 
 

7 pitchers..find 7 pitchers that can perform well for a few weeks. That’s all you need.

 

The defense is also a major issue with this team btw.

[eddie83]

Suarez to pen in playoffs. Get Coloumbe back. Dominguez, Perez and Cano. There’s 5. 

[Too Tall]

It isn't just the bull pen or defense. Read Tony's latest TT. Sums it up pretty well.