Joe Girardi makes call to the bullpen |
The theory seemed to
be that it was always much harder to buy good pitching than good hitting. However,
baseball is now in a bit of an unfamiliar place as that theory has sort of
flipped as teams are just not scoring as many runs on a consistent basis as they
had in recent years.
Nobody really knows
why there has been such a major shift and going switching from a hitter’s era
to a pitcher’s era in a blink of an eye. Maybe it is just the current talent
pool of this generation, maybe it is the flame throwers and speciality pitchers
coming out of the pen that the game hadn’t seen before the last five or ten
years, maybe it is all the shifts taking away hits and RBI’s, maybe it is all
these advanced scouting metrics where fielders are placed so perfectly that
they seemingly don’t even move half of the time in order to make plays anymore,
maybe it is that steroids are less prevalent in the game (although I don’t
believe that to be true) or maybe you can chalk it up to being a current fluke
in the game today that will eventually fix itself, but one way or another, we
are living in a new era of baseball and that is an era dominated by pitching.
I know I seem to contradict myself saying there is much greater bullpen depth yet teams need to focus on relievers. By all means, if you have a budding superstar on your hands who has the poise, the stuff and the ability to be a starter, then go for it. But don’t take a guy that is tailor made for the pen and try to make him a starter. The most obvious name that comes to mind in recent memory is undoubtedly Joba Chamberlain.
Joba Chamberlain |
Joba wasn’t the first
and surly wasn’t the last to be mishandled in his career but may be the most
infamous for losing his potential at legendary status. With that said, players
are also often discarded on the other side of the coin if they can’t make it as
a starter. One of the most notable in my mind is Tyler Clippard who ironically
enough is another former Yankee.
Clippard’s story is
not quite as well known and maybe that is because he went from being the
afterthought to the star where Joba sort of went in the other direction. Clippard
was a pretty good Yankees prospect. Throughout his minor league career he played
in 164 games, starting 131 of those games. In 2007 he made six appearances, all
as a starting pitcher, for the Yanks. He was rather unimpressive with a 3-1
record and 6.33 ERA and averaging less than five innings per start. He was
traded in December of that year to the Nationals for Jonathan Albaladejo.
Albaladejo tossed 59.1
innings in 49 relief appearances accumulating a 4.70 ERA over the course of
three years out of the pen for the Yanks. He missed all of 2011, pitched three
innings in 2012 with the D-Backs and hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since.
Tyler Clippard |
I’m not going to hate
too much on the Yanks here as baseball is by far the hardest sport to scout and
find the next big superstar. However, the Nats did what the Yanks should have
done and that was take a kid with the stuff and character of a reliever and
turn him into one instead of basically saying he is a starter or bust.
Look, I can’t prove
that the Yanks trying to force those extra innings caused Joba to need Tommy
John Surgery and cause setbacks in his career and I can’t prove that by Clippard
not taxing his arm with extra innings he’d pitch as a starter has kept him from
needing the surgery or that he wouldn’t have blossomed into a fine starter but
it just seems that these guys were both destined for the pen, not starting. And
as far as Tommy John Surgery, it just seems that these athletes today are so
big and muscular that their bodies, and arms in particularly, are not able to
take the consistent force and tork that their massive frames are helping
provide them with when throwing the ball.
While that doesn’t go
for everyone, one way to potentially lessen the chance of your starters taxing
their arm and preventing Tommy John Surgery could be pitching less innings. The
way you do that is by having more quality arms out of the pen. Besides, even if
the extra innings aren’t contributing to the injuries we see, the pen is where
you get your wins and losses and by the end of the year probably pitches nearly
as many innings as your starters do. Think about it, if a starter gives you six
strong, you are happy but that still leaves a third of the game for relievers.
And who pitches when they starter gets KO’d early or if there are extra
innings? Yes, relievers. So, instead of investing so much money into your
starters, plug that money into having a seemingly endless supply of solid
relievers that can come out of your pen every night.
Not that you want it
to happen, but God forbid one of your guys goes down with an injury, you have
someone to step right on in without the chaos of needing to find another
starter to take on five or so innings. Instead you are looking for a guy to
give you one or two innings. And because they are less expensive (typically),
you can afford to pay seven solid relievers for the price of one superstar
pitcher.
CC Sabathia |
The Bombers front
line has first time all-star Dellin Betances in the eighth and 2011 all-star and
great late inning reliever, David Robertson as their closer. Their second tier
guys are Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley who have each had a chance to save some
games as well but see more time in the sixth and seventh. However, with four
pitchers able to pitch the sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth inning, manager Joe Girardi
can keep guys fresh and when one of these guys gets a little worn or injured,
as long as it doesn’t happen all at once, the team has players who can step up
for that one guy. The Yankees recently added Esmil Rogers and has shown flashes
of being unhittable and with a little more work, very well could be thrown into
that “second tier” with Warren and Kelley very soon.
David Robertson |
So, all teams, whether
small, mid or big market teams, building an “unhittable” bullpen from top to bottom is the
cheapest and most effective way to better your team in the long haul of 162 games.
And who knows, maybe it saves some Tommy John Surgeries. Even if that is not the case it will save the starters from being forced to throw that extra inning or two in order to “save
the pen” and stops that fatigued pitcher from tossing those few extra pitches,
including that cookie you see so often from tiring pitchers that costs your team
a game.
It is simple, build a strong pen that runs seven strong and the team will flourish. A
great bullpen makes a poor team into a decent team, a decent team into a contender
and a contender into a World Series favorite. Just ask the Yanks.