It's so frustrating hearing about what takes place in the 8th inning and beyond. I'm almost glad I can't witness it on TV. Our bullpen has almost giving up as many earned runs and more runs total than our starting rotation in less than half the innings pitched.

 

My stats could be wrong, probably are somewhere they are, and I'm sure it's possible to find these stats online. But I'm just so frustrated I decided to do it myself.

 

I have our starting rotation at 78.2 innings pitched with 3.08 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. 3.08 ERA for a starting rotation is very good. I would gladly take that all year even though I know it probably won't happen. The bullpen however, can only seem to get better. We'd all expect and hope it would anyway. In 36.2 inning pitched, they have a 6.14 ERA and a 1.72 WHIP. Basically a doubled ERA for the bullpen is without question the biggest problem on this team.

 

How do we fix it? Do we hope things will just level off? I guess I don't know of any possible trade options this early in the season. I have a crazy idea which I wouldn't want to try but I think it'd be interesting just to have 8 or so starters pitch. Have 5 such as Peavy, Buehrle, Jackson, Danks, Floyd go when Peavy becomes healthy. And have Sale, Humber, and another starting do long term relief from the 6th or 7th on. I saw someone mention this idea in another thead as well, certainly interesting.

 

Come on relief pitching you have to do better! I have doubts on Thornton being the closer. How long is this going to last if it keeps going bad? The guy can't even convert a save, and I know it's not all his fault. 6 unearned runs so far while he's pitching. Something has to change, and it has to changed soon.

The crazy thing it is usually the opposite, with the pen having better numbers than the starters