Bullpen Management

One thing that kills me about Bob Geren is that acts sometimes like the worst thing in the world would be if the bullpen gave up a lead...in April. I appreciate the fact that the offense isn't scoring runs, and that the starters are so incredibly good that it's a matter of respect to try, wherever possible, to get the best statistical match-ups, but it really seems like Geren shoots himself in the foot over a 162-game schedule.

See, the thing is, statistically, the best pitcher on your roster is your closer for one inning. So if you're playing the numbers, it doesn't make sense to do anything but pitch your closer for as many innings as you possibly can. Geren has then managed precisely what the numbers say: the more you pitch your best pitcher, the better the results. But look at the results over the last few years. The pattern has been to run their best pitcher into the ground and then find some other poor schmuck to take over the position. They've been really good at finding the guy to fill the hole left by the last guy's extended stay on the DL, but is that really any way to manage your bullpen?

Take a guy like Jerry Blevins. Geren always uses Blevins when there is a runner on, unless Blevins pitches so phenomenally in the previous inning that he's allowed to stay on for the next inning. On Tuesday against the Blue Jays that wasn't enough. Blevins cruised through the ninth, only to be lifted for Balfour in the tenth--which turned into a colossal disaster. I mean, the numbers don't lie. Blevins is considerably more hittable for left-handed batters, as attested by the Thome home run on Sunday.

But I think the home run on Sunday was directly attributable to being lifted the previous Tuesday--and then not pitching again until Sunday. Why not give Blevins the chance to close the game? If he had, he would have grown as a reliever, felt more confident in his ability to get guys out from both sides of the plate. He would have the opportunity to be more than he is now, rather than be locked into their expectation of him.

This is not to say that Jerry Blevins is the second coming of Christ or anything, just that April 5 is not a make or break time in the season. It is worth more to find out what you have in the guys you're not completely sure of, especially since the alternative is to run guys into the ground you will definitely need down the stretch. A healthy Balfour is September is infinitely preferable to a win on the road they had no right to in the first place, and who knows, Blevins may have gotten a tough save and felt more confident, and maybe that would have changed his approach to Thome. Maybe instead of think, I better get this guy out because I'm being put in just to get this guy out and if I don't I won't pitch again for a week, he would have thought, I get through this inning and maybe Fuentes will be setting me up in September.

Guys like Blevins and Cramer must feel like, no matter how good I am, I'm always going to come in with runners on or when the ballgame's out of reach and that's just the way it is. And guys like Balfour and Fuentes must feel like, I wonder what happens if God forbid this team makes it to the playoffs, because I'll have thrown a eighty innings already, and that's a damn lot for me. And when they feel a little bit off, you know what happens? They try too hard. And when they try too hard and they feel a little bit off, you know what happens? Lengthy stints on the disabled list.

So why not try this: leave the bringing in your closer with a 6-5 lead on the road for after the All-Star break--and find out in these first couple months while nothing really matters what a Jerry Blevins or Bobby Cramer looks like closing out a tight game. Who knows? You might even find that they don't do the worst job in the world, and you might have at least one guy in your bullpen you can count on come September that hasn't already thrown seventy innings. What a thought.