Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fixing the bullpen

by Larry Koestler

While injuries have not been kind to the Yankees thus far in the 2010 season, they've still managed to score a lot of runs (5.76 per game) despite only having their Opening Day lineup intact for 20 of 38 games.

The real culprit behind the majority of the Yankees' losses this year has been the bullpen (unsurprisingly I'm not the only one focused on this component of the team today -- I randomly checked RAB right after completing this post to see they already beat me to the punch), which has basically been downright deplorable outside of Mariano Rivera and Joba Chamberlain, and the latter reminded everyone on Sunday that even He is not invincible.

Of the Yankees' 13 losses this season, 5 were games in which a reliever was handed a lead or a tie. And those numbers should be 14 and 6 (nearly 50%), were it not for an astonishing, wonderful comeback walkoff win against Jonathan Papelbon and the Red Sox last night.

Let's look at the individual numbers:













Outside of Joba and Mo (Sanchez and Nova haven't pitched enough to have meaningful stats yet) those are some scary bullpen FIPs. I'm not going to rip Chan Ho Park too badly for last night, only because he was on the shelf for a month, but an 8.10 ERA, 9.99 FIP, 5.40 HR/9 and .347 BAA are the definition of not getting the job done. I expect Park will improve, but the NL East this is not.

K/9 rate aside, D-Rob's also been pretty bad, featuring both the highest walk rate and worst Batting Average Against in the entire 'pen. Damaso Marte's been mostly brutal and even the currently unavailable Alfredo Aceves has some ugly peripherals. And don't even get me started on Boone Logan.

As you'll recall, the Yankee bullpen was an asset for much of the last two seasons, although the unit struggled in the early going of the 2009 campaign, and didn't truly stabilize into a lockdown force until Phil Hughes was sent to the 'pen and Jose Veras was finally DFA'd.

Hopefully Brian Cashman recognizes his team's shortcomings sooner rather than later a la last season and jettisons the dead weight. Logan in particular is screaming for a demotion, Marte -- outside of the 2009 postseason -- has seemingly never met a fire he couldn't dump more gasoline on, and as much as I love David Robertson he still hasn't looked 100% right.

I know they haven't exactly pitched high leverage frames, but at this point Mark Melancon, Ivan Nova or Romulo Sanchez has to be a better bet than Boone Logan at the very least.
at 12:14 PM
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3 comments:

  1. Larry,

    I know the Yankees are really high on Melancon, especially after spring training 09, but I feel like he hasn't been effective as a big leaguer, and 2 IP is not a worthwhile sample size, but when I saw him this year, I just thought, "More of the same" - last year, 10 walks and 13 hits in 16.1 IP

    any way to find out how Logan and Marte do in a '1 and done' scenario? i feel like Girardi uses them for an entire inning than for just a match up, but maybe that's been out of necessity rather than design.

    I haven't posted it yet, but i wrote that last night, i felt Girardi left all his relievers in for too long, but he did't have much of a choice given the score and the availability of his pen. I guess tonight (weather permitting) he's only got Mo, Joba and Robertson (who I also love, but just lacks command of his pitches this year, especially his fastball), but with Sabathia going, hopefully he wont need his pen much.

    no idea where Girardi goes to fix the pen; i'm not counting on Melancon, Nova or Sanchez to be difference makers - are you?

    ~jamie
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  2. Not necessarily difference makers, but the beauty of the way the Yankee bullpen has been constructed the last few seasons is that the team has been able to plug and play given the reliever depth they have in the minors.

    At this point I don't trust Boone Logan to escape any appearance unscathed, and I think any of the aforementioned trio should at least be given an extended look to see if they can help out.

    Most people didn't think D-Rob would end up being a vital component of the 2009 'pen and look what happened.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, I thought D-Rob was going to get time as the set up man this year, and look how that turned out...
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