The Achilles heel for this team is the bullpen

[LGOrioles]

3 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Houston has a collective bullpen of more than a half a run better and a better SO/9.

And while Hader, Pressly, Abreu have taken a step back this year, they are still a better trio than Couloumbe+ (insert other names here). 

The Yankees have a solid trio of Kahnle, Weaver, and Holmes. And a myriad of other solid arms. 

I think my point is who are you pairing Coulombe with late/close and feeling good about on this O's club? 

I’d take the Houston trio over Coulombe/Cano/Dominguez. I don’t think that NYY trio is any better than the O’s trio though. 

[Roy Firestone]

4 hours ago, Frobby said:

You seem to pine for guys in AAA and then (with one notable exception) judge them very harshly if they don’t perform well instantly in the majors.  This is not the time to start experimenting with Young, and that’s no reflection on him at all IMO.

Yeah, but they could've brought him up a month ago and seen what they might have...And Im not "pining" for Brandon Young, just wondering if he's any better than some we have in the pen..

[LookitsPuck]

8 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

Yeah, but they could've brought him up a month ago and seen what they might have...And Im not "pining" for Brandon Young, just wondering if he's any better than some we have in the pen..

I’d have brought up Young immediately after DFAing Kimbrel. Baker has no place on this club this year. Would have been nice to see Young up here.

[atom_25]

I do not disagree with above posts.  Also I am pretty sure that this time last season, the Texas Rangers Hangout was saying the exact same things as the Rangers Pen.  Point being, you never know until you know.  The pen is shaky, but is capable of putting together a solid run from time to time.  

[Frobby]

The weird thing about our bullpen is that they rarely blow leads.   They have a 69% save rate, 4th highest in baseball.  They make it scary, but generally, when they have the lead, they get the job done.  

Where they are really bad is keeping games close when we’re down a run or two, last night being a classic example of that.   This year’s team has 32 comeback wins, compared to 48 last year.   Why is that?   Part of it is obviously on the offense, but part of it is that the bullpen doesn’t keep us in striking distance when we’re behind.  

One way you can tell this is by the W/L records of the starters and the bullpen.  Last year, the starters were 57-40, this year they’re 60-49.   The starter got the decision 12 more times this year than last year, including 9 more losses (with 3 games to play).   That tells you that when the team is losing when the starter is pulled, they keep losing.  Meanwhile, the relievers were 44-21 last year, 28-22 now. They’re not picking up wins because they don’t give the offense a chance to catch up and get the win for the bullpen guy.  

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Frobby