The Bullpen Quandry Revisited

By Joseph Slowik

 

One of the major concerns on this White Sox squad entering Spring Training was the state of the bullpen. After the team jettisoned Luis Vizcaino and Damaso Marte, depth became an issue for a team with expectations of a World Series repeat. Now the situation is even worse with the return of Dustin Hermanson’s back pain, which places his potential contributions to the club this season in serious doubt.MORE

Boone Logan, your table is ready.

Boone Logan, your table is ready.

Its amazing. He makes one change to his arm angle and has a shot of going from pretty much rookie ball (where he wasn't anything special) to the majors. I think that says just how bad our pen situation really is (at least the back of the pen).

Its amazing.  He makes one change to his arm angle and has a shot of going from pretty much rookie ball (where he wasn't anything special) to the majors.  I think that says just how bad our pen situation really is (at least the back of the pen).

Last year El Duque told Contreras to pitch like a Cuban and encouraged Jose to change his arm angle and the results are forever history. Logan is now forever better.

Last year El Duque told Contreras to pitch like a Cuban and encouraged Jose to change his arm angle and the results are forever history. Logan is now forever better.

One major difference. Contreras throws in the mid 90's with the best splitter in the game.

Last year El Duque told Contreras to pitch like a Cuban and encouraged Jose to change his arm angle and the results are forever history. Logan is now forever better.

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I hope this post was full of sarcasm. The highest level this Logan guy has pitched at was 5.1 innings at Winston-Salem (Single A) last season.

I hope this post was full of sarcasm.  The highest level this Logan guy has pitched at was 5.1 innings at Winston-Salem (Single A) last season.

 

Agreed. That was a bit on the presumptuous side.

Its amazing.  He makes one change to his arm angle and has a shot of going from pretty much rookie ball (where he wasn't anything special) to the majors.  I think that says just how bad our pen situation really is (at least the back of the pen).

I agree. At least it is not our top one or two guys out of the pen. We are looking at our last two out of the pen, and like Viz, would be put in when the Sox were already losing.

 

Vizcaino pitched in 35 of the team's 63 losses, Marte in 20, and Shingo in 13. Now some performances obviously overlap, but 68 is still a lot of garbage time.

 

I think the bigger issue will be with Pods.

Good article. I'd be A LOT more worried about our current bullpen situation if we didn't have such a deep, dominant starting rotation.

I hope this post was full of sarcasm.  The highest level this Logan guy has pitched at was 5.1 innings at Winston-Salem (Single A) last season.

I'm confused. Someone posted an item here recently saying Logan actually pitched a few years AAA in another team's system, before going single-A here. Are we saying that writer was wrong?

One major difference.  Contreras throws in the mid 90's with the best forkball in the game.

edited for accuracy

another great read

I dont think it will be a huge problem and if it is by all-star break, make a trade.

I'm confused.  Someone posted an item here recently saying Logan actually pitched a few years AAA in another team's system, before going single-A here.  Are we saying that writer was wrong?

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I think that writer was wrong.

I think that writer was wrong.

Certainly possible.

 

But the Trib posted that info as well, today. And if he was signed in early 2003, and didn't show up in Pioneer League until 2005... where was he in 2003 and 2004?

Certainly possible.

 

But the Trib posted that info as well, today.  And if he was signed in early 2003, and didn't show up in Pioneer League until 2005... where was he in 2003 and 2004?

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http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/L/boone-logan.shtml

I'm confused.  Someone posted an item here recently saying Logan actually pitched a few years AAA in another team's system, before going single-A here.  Are we saying that writer was wrong?

 

It's highly unlikely that a guy that is only 21 played even one year at AAA much less a couple. Even most of the top prospects don't do that.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/L/boone-logan.shtml

Looks like he suddenly figured something out in 2005. His WHIP and KK/B numbers improved dramatically.

 

So the Trib was wrong too. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Probably another Gonzalez excerpt.

Whoever the writer is WRONG. Logan was drafted by this originization and he's spent his entire career (sans 4 games) in Great Falls.

 

Had a career ERA of 6.10 before he made adjustments last season and posted a 3.31 ERA in 21 games at Great Falls (no point in showing his Warthog numbers since it was such a small sample).

Looks like he suddenly figured something out in 2005.  His WHIP and KK/B numbers improved dramatically.

 

So the Trib was wrong too.  Guess I shouldn't be too surprised.  Probably another Gonzalez excerpt.

He made a change to his arm angle last season. His velocity didn't increase, but he was able to improve his command as well as movement. He opened up the Sox eyes late in the season, that said, he's only pitched 4 games in A ball.

 

But if you look at his 05 numbers he only walked 4 guys in Great Falls (35.1 innings). That is a big improvement to his past numbers.

He made a change to his arm angle last season. His velocity didn't increase, but he was able to improve his command as well as movement.  He opened up the Sox eyes late in the season, that said, he's only pitched 4 games in A ball. 

 

But if you look at his 05 numbers he only walked 4 guys in Great Falls (35.1 innings).  That is a big improvement to his past numbers.

 

As I said earlier, if this guy shows he's got what it takes to OG, DC and KW he'll get every opportunity to show what he can do. What he's done in the past has little, if any, bearing. The saying "What have you done for me lately?" comes to mind here.

As I said earlier, if this guy shows he's got what it takes to OG, DC and KW he'll get every opportunity to show what he can do.  What he's done in the past has little, if any, bearing.  The saying "What have you done for me lately?" comes to mind here.

 

I agree. If the Sox always worried about what the player did last year or how much experience he had, then Jenks, Count, Vazquez, Politte, Cotts, and Garland would have never gotten a shot at proving themselves.

 

If Logan can throw strikes, and keep batters off balance, he is going to get a shot. From all the reports, he has very good movement on all his pitches. So if he has good control, it looks like the Sox found another gem.

 

I also think Lopez still has a shot. In 8 1/3IP, he has 10 Ks and only 1 BB. That is very promising. Besides one bad outing, he has looked pretty good.

I agree.  If the Sox always worried about what the player did last year or how much experience he had, then Jenks, Count, Vazquez, Politte, Cotts, and Garland would have never gotten a shot at proving themselves.

 

If Logan can throw strikes, and keep batters off balance, he is going to get a shot.  From all the reports, he has very good movement on all his pitches.  So if he has good control, it looks like the Sox found another gem.

 

I also think Lopez still has a shot.  In 8 1/3IP, he has 10 Ks and only 1 BB.  That is very promising.  Besides one bad outing, he has looked pretty good.

 

According to Joey Cora, that one outing wasn't even all that bad.

According to Joey Cora,  that one outing wasn't even all that bad.

Yeah, I saw that too. Now if Lopez and Logan both look good, do the Sox take 2 Lefties and go with:

 

R: McCarthy, Politte, Jenks

L: Cotts, Lopez, Logan

Yeah, I saw that too.  Now if Lopez and Logan both look good, do the Sox take 2 Lefties and go with:

 

R: McCarthy, Politte, Jenks

L: Cotts, Lopez, Logan

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It's bad enough that we have to choose from one of these lefties. We definately don't need two LOOGY's in our bullpen along with Cotts. KW will get another righty to replace Hermanson.