Bullshit Pen

Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images North America

A friend of mine from high school had a favorite saying: "The sun shines on a dog's ass every once in a while." Apparently, during the stretch between April 30th and May 8th the clouds broke and the sun shown for Mike Gonzalez. Unfortunately, as always, the weather changes, the clouds return and the sun disappears. And when the sun goes down for Mike, you wonder whether it'll ever come up again. The reasons I don't like Mike have been documented (see current 1.89 WHIP among others) and I won't rehash. However, I can say the bullpen's problems, as demonstrated by last night's performance, don't start or end with Mike.

Really, if you think about it, is there anyone in that bullpen that you trust with a lead? Most of them have been getting shelled lately and throughout the season. This bullpen that was supposed to be strength not one of the biggest worries. This bullpen with all the closer experience. Preseason, people were wondering who should be in the closer role. People are still wondering who should be the closer but for a very different reason.

Gregg's blown three saves, two of which resulted in a loss. Additionally, both the losses were to AL East opponents, compounding the problem. With a WHIP of 1.63, he's among the worst closers in the league in terms of putting people on base. Clean sheet is not in his vocabulary. He's a heart attack waiting to happen and I don't think that's changing.

Accardo's given up a run in his past five appearances and has only one clean sheet in the past 10. His ERA's a deflating 4.76 to go along with a 1.71 WHIP. Even those times when he does come in and gets a 1-2-3 inning, he'll come back out for the next inning and give up a couple hits and a walk leading to a run. He and Gregg look like carbon copies of each other. And that's not a good thing. They can both go back to Jays for all I care. (Sidenote: Both these guys were allowed to walk by the Bluejays. Shouldn't that have told us something? It's not like the Jays have a bullpen/minor league system that's bursting with pitching/closer talent.)

Then you've got Berken, who didn't pitch last night, but can you imagine if he had? Statistically, he's the worst out of all of them. He's the top of the WHIP ladder at 1.96. That's worse than the much maligned Gonzalez. In 6 out of his thirteen appearances this years he's given up at least one run. That's right, he's almost batting .500. Which is only slightly lower than his opponents batting average against him (I didn't really look that up).

Rapada's a left handed specialist who can't get lefties out and he's given up more earned runs than he's pitched (6 IP, 7 ER). That sweeping, bathtub flat whatever it is pitch at 77 mph must be pretty hard to catch up with.

Jimmy's been the only bright spot and even he's started to succumb to his brethren's disease, giving up a run in two of his last three games. But at least he hasn't gotten the walkitis like the rest of them. Koji's been reasonable too, but I think the stigma of that Arod homerun has stuck with him. Giving up a couple bombs this year hasn't helped to lay that to rest.

So what's the answer? Who knows. Matusz will be back soon, which will push someone out of the rotation. If it's Bergesen, they'll put him in the pen and send someone else down like Berken or Rapada - a course of action that I'm fine with. Originally, I would have been apprehensive about Bergy in the pen, since he's a sinker baller without overpowering stuff. But really, this year he hasn't been relying on the sinker, since it hasn't really been there for him, which makes him a better candidate. Tillman could also move to the pen but would you really trust him any more than the other guys we've got right now? Featuring a new 89 mph fastball, he's not the power pitcher he was and the control issues make him unreliable. However, at this point, I'd rather he stay up and go to the pen as opposed to being sent down to AAA. Let him sit in the pen and learn how to pitch to major league hitters. So few teams do this anymore and I have no idea why. That used to be the way. Most of the Oriole's greats pitched a season or two in the pen before moving to rotation. If we're going to bring back tradition, let's bring back that one. Duke coming back could bring about the same moves as Matusz. And then there's Simon, who will now go to trial in the homeland, making him a complete crapshoot. If he comes back (to the US of A) relatively soon, he might even be in the running to close depending on how he looked, but at this point it may not be in the cards.

Overall, I'm just really disappointed in this 'pen.  I drank the kool-aid and thought they'd more than get the job done. Unfortunately, they're not and there's not a lot of hope banging down the door.