September 26, 200916 yr Thornton Hudson Carrasco Pena Linebrink Find me a cheap left-hander then we'd have about $15M to fix the offense I'm guessing.
September 26, 200916 yr We'd have to score 900+ runs to win with that bullpen. In other words, if we have that bullpen next season we are going to lose a lot of games.
September 26, 200916 yr If you can turn Pena around...it could be shockingly good. Alternatively, it could be really bad too. That's kind of how bullpens go.
September 26, 200916 yr Author QUOTE (jphat007 @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 10:24 PM) We'd have to score 900+ runs to win with that bullpen. In other words, if we have that bullpen next season we are going to lose a lot of games. Not much middle relief on the market.
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:29 PM) Not much middle relief on the market. That's because almost no quality reliever is ever considered "Middle relief".
September 26, 200916 yr Yeah, a Linebrink comeback and Pena making strides and all of a sudden you've got a pretty good pen. Still need another lefty though. Not sure where they're gonna get one of those! (RRRAAAAAANNDY doesn't count)
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 09:29 PM) Not much middle relief on the market. Scary isn't it.
September 26, 200916 yr Thornton Hudson Carrasco Pena Linebrink There's no way you can trust Linebrink and Pena to be solid. Hudson should be kept a starter, but could be good in the pen I guess. Carrasco should fill this year's role again, not any expanded role. He's good in the role he had this year. Thornton should be a good closer.
September 26, 200916 yr We can afford to gamble on Pena as a closer. Why? Because he has the stuff, and taking Thornton out of his current role would be a tragic mistake. LR: Garcia LR: Linebrink MR; Nunez MR: Second Lefty SU: Thornton SU: Carrasco CL: Pena
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 10:49 PM) We can afford to gamble on Pena as a closer. Why? Because he has the stuff, and taking Thornton out of his current role would be a tragic mistake. LR: Garcia LR: Linebrink MR; Nunez MR: Second Lefty SU: Thornton SU: Carrasco CL: Pena Garcia will be starting with someone else before he's a long reliever. Not gonna happen. Linebrink doesn't have the stuff for long relief either. Carrasco is perfect for that role and should be considered a swingman reliever.
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:49 PM) We can afford to gamble on Pena as a closer. Why? Because he has the stuff, and taking Thornton out of his current role would be a tragic mistake. LR: Garcia LR: Linebrink MR; Nunez MR: Second Lefty SU: Thornton SU: Carrasco CL: Pena I'll argue til I'm blue in the face that the bullpen is a giant crapshoot and the best laid plans of mice and men will be destroyed by middle relievers...but the one thing I'm not going to believe is that TPain belongs in the closer role until I'm convinced he's worked things out as a setup man.
September 26, 200916 yr I may be the only one, but I say look for a nice year from Linebrink next season.
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 12:03 AM) Garcia will be starting with someone else before he's a long reliever. Not gonna happen. Linebrink doesn't have the stuff for long relief either. Carrasco is perfect for that role and should be considered a swingman reliever. We clearly need to find something for Linebrink to do. Garbage relief might be exactly what we can expect from him. Carrasco has been one of the more reliable arms in the pen, and has earned enough trust to carry the game into the 9th alongside Thornton.
September 26, 200916 yr Unless something like 05 happens, that's not a very good bullpen. You're going to need career years out of Pena, Carrasco, Thornton, and Linebrink to have a solid bullpen. I honestly don't see that happening.
September 26, 200916 yr If it was my decision to make, I'd rather have Torres in the bullpen next year over Hudson. Hudson should stay a starter and start in AAA until Freddy shows that he can't start effectively in the majors anymore.
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 02:14 AM) Unless something like 05 happens, that's not a very good bullpen. You're going to need career years out of Pena, Carrasco, Thornton, and Linebrink to have a solid bullpen. I honestly don't see that happening. I think it would be a decent bullpen, but I pretty much agree with you. The premise of the thread was a cheap bullpen; I simply showed what my arrangement of what our in-house options would be.
September 26, 200916 yr Author QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 11:53 AM) I think it would be a decent bullpen, but I pretty much agree with you. The premise of the thread was a cheap bullpen; I simply showed what my arrangement of what our in-house options would be. I think it'd would be decent too. I'd like to see them use their money to rebuild the offense. The point of a cheap pen is to cobble together a group that can keep you in contention until you can shake loose a reliever at the trade deadline.
September 26, 200916 yr We had to rely on that pen so much this year. I honestly think we can win the division with purely offense upgrades. Be good enough to where you dont have to rely on your pen as much. Our offense was so bad this year that the pen got tested tons. Therefore it seems worse than it is. Our pen is kind of like a lot of teams' The above may sound naive. But i just really believe that great pens get cobbled together and that to be a good team, you have to rely on some good luck with a reliever having a career year. Edited September 26, 200916 yr by Princess Dye
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 02:49 PM) DJ is overrated. He's a mop up man for criss' sake. Nothing more. Prior to this year, i would have agreed with you, bit he's really shown me something this year. He still leaves to many floating breaking balls up in the zone
September 26, 200916 yr QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 11:07 PM) I'll argue til I'm blue in the face that the bullpen is a giant crapshoot and the best laid plans of mice and men will be destroyed by middle relievers...but the one thing I'm not going to believe is that TPain belongs in the closer role until I'm convinced he's worked things out as a setup man. I couldn't agree more. That's why innings are an important stat for a starting pitcher. I still don't get this fascination with Pena either.
September 27, 200916 yr Prior to this year, i would have agreed with you, bit he's really shown me something this year. He still leaves to many floating breaking balls up in the zone Last year he was better. His WHIP has gone up much more and his K/9 dropped. Not sure why people think that equates to a solid late inning reliever.
September 27, 200916 yr DJ is overrated. He's a mop up man for criss' sake. Nothing more. I think he's perfect in the role he had this year. His stuff is very hittable at times, but I don't necessarily think he deserves to be called a mop up man.
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