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Odds and Ends: Building A Bullpen, GM Gossip

By Sarah Green [October 25, 2008 at 2:34pm CST]

It's a bit of a slow day for rumors, what with Game 3 of the World Series and all. Nonetheless, here are a few tangential tidbits for the afternoon:

Sean McAdam of the Boston Herald notes that the Tampa Bay Rays don't save their best relievers for the 9th inning; Dave Pinto says it's "a feather in his cap" that manager Joe Maddon can get his pitchers to excel in such undefined roles. If you can get players to buy into it, it's a cheap and effective way to build a bullpen -- witness the 2007 Indians. If not, it's a wreck -- witness the 2003 Red Sox.
John Romano of the St. Petersburg Times asks: does former GM Chuck LaMar or current GM Andrew Friedman deserve the credit for Tampa Bay's success this year?
Canadian teams are feeling the pinch as the Loonie falls in value, writes Don McGowan. As if the Blue Jays didn't have enough to worry about!

Sarah Green writes for the Boston Metro and UmpBump.com.

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Comments

See. This is how you build a bullpen. Your best pitcher is available any time.

It's a VERY effective way to build a bullpen, although it will take a while to catch on.

The A's did something similar, although it could have been taken further. Street was demoted from his closer's role because he was in a slump. Ziegler has gotten the call to do multiple innings in close games. I've seen Devine closing out the 9th before. Since Ziegler and Devine have such different skill sets (Ziegler is a groundballer in the Chad Bradford mold, Devine opts for the strikeout), I would love to see them used as co-"aces".

I think Friedman gets more credit than Lamar does. Lamar deserves credit for drafting some of the studs, and the Kazmir trade.

However, Friedman has pulled some great trades and signings, which have helped. Garza and Bartlett, Aybar, picking up Pena and Floyd, signing Iwamura, picking up Gross, and building that bullpen are all Friedman.

Posted by: melonis rex | October 25, 2008 at 02:54 PM

Andrew Friedman deserves virtually all of the credit for the Rays. LaMar's only accomplishment was building a team that sucked every year and reaping the benefits of high picks and selling off players. Sure there is the occasional Shields, Sonnanstine and Crawford, but considering how long he had that is not a great post-1st round draft haul. Obviously Friedman could not have built this type of a team without LaMar having built a brutal team, but that in no way makes LaMar a good GM.

Posted by: Jays2010 | October 25, 2008 at 03:09 PM

Exactly Melonis. This is a perfect example of why the Mets do NOT need to sign K-Rod. Or Fuentes for that matter. The Rays had the worst bullpen in major league history last year, and now that is a strength of theirs, and they didn't go out and spend 100 mil to fix it.

Posted by: nrmax88 | October 25, 2008 at 04:29 PM

See what I really think this shows, is that there needs to be more unconventional thinking in baseball.

For so long everyone has said, best guy pitches the 9th, second best guy pitches the 8th, and so on. And nobody ever even considers mixing it up.

It seems like everyone in baseball is too scared of trying to be different and failing, that nobody tries to do anything different. And so you see the same strategies over and over, even though if they executed a more creative or unexpected strategy, they would likely have equal or superior results.

Posted by: scribbletone | October 25, 2008 at 04:37 PM

Im in love with Sarah.

Posted by: Redbirdfan | October 25, 2008 at 04:40 PM

I don't think unconventional bullpen thinking catches on until one of the teams with an established, top of the line closer, does it. If you see K-Rod, Lidge, or Fuentes coming in during the 7th inning to get a critical out on a regular basis, trust me, it will begin catching on.

Posted by: melonis rex | October 25, 2008 at 07:05 PM

Best move Joe Madden ever did was finally dumping Al Reyes from the closer job last off season when the got Troy Percival. Reyes had 20+ saves, but the guy was brutal and many were of the 3+ run lead variety a-la Todd Jones and Joe Borowski.

When Jason Varitek takes you deep 2 times for a loss, you do not need to be closing.

Posted by: johns | October 25, 2008 at 07:43 PM

"When Jason Varitek takes you deep 2 times for a loss, you do not need to be closing."

How about Russ Adams? I guess Papelbon is out of a job in your world.

Posted by: Grant77 | October 26, 2008 at 01:01 AM

I don't think its unconventional thinking....Managers used to always put their best reliever in at the most crucial point of the game. Its only recently that everyone fell in love with stats and started saving their best reliever for the 9th inning which has inflated their egos. How do you think K-Rod would feel if he wasn't getting that "S" at the end of every ballgame even though he had a more important role in his team winning. Baseball is becoming more of a ME ME game than a team sport. That is why A-rod has the best stats in the game but does very little to actually help the team win. Its nice to see the world series consist of 2 rosters made up of guys that can honestly say what they care about most is winning....not who puts up the big numbers.

Posted by: yanks09 | October 26, 2008 at 01:34 AM

""When Jason Varitek takes you deep 2 times for a loss, you do not need to be closing."

How about Russ Adams? I guess Papelbon is out of a job in your world."

You sure left yourself wide open on this one Grant 77...

1st of all..

Al Reyes was a closer by default.. That is, the Rays had no one else that could because the bullpen they had was the worst in baseball. His ERA was nearly 5, not counting the inherited runners he allowed to score (which was nearly as bad.

Please do not hammer Papelbon for that, he (as all closers) have "A" bad game now and then, just not on a every other game basis like Reyes did. Maybe that is why Reyes was released for getting into bar fights this year and being a drunk?

Posted by: johns | October 26, 2008 at 10:19 AM

Al Reyes is a ROOGY who was relied upon to get outs from both sides because the bullpen sucked so badly. And, he can't pitch outside of the Trop.

And yeah, he was released and picked up by the Mets.

Posted by: melonis rex | October 26, 2008 at 11:15 AM

"That is why A-rod has the best stats in the game but does very little to actually help the team win. Its nice to see the world series consist of 2 rosters made up of guys that can honestly say what they care about most is winning....not who puts up the big numbers."

There should be a new rule (not just on this site, like, in the real world), that anybody who says A-Rod doesn't help his team win gets tied to a big tree and beaten with bamboo sticks. People call A-Rod a "selfish" player, somebodu, please tell me what that means in terms of a baseball player? You can't be a ball hog. How can a baseball player play selfish? He can be a selfish person, but somebody explain to me, A) what makes the way a baseball player plays the game selfish, and B)How A-Rod "doesn't help his team win".

Posted by: nrmax88 | October 26, 2008 at 01:18 PM

He is an obtuse tool as a person, so people look for reasons to rag on him as a player. It doesn't work, ever, for any reason.

Posted by: ArodSucksAtLife | October 26, 2008 at 02:45 PM

Odds and Ends: Building A Bullpen, GM Gossip

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