April 3, 201214 yr The Sox and Cooper obviously feel the kid is ready to take the next step with the right coaching, hopefully they are right because the kid has a big league arm. The Sox might have the hardest throwing pen in all of baseball this year.
April 3, 201214 yr QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 2, 2012 -> 08:14 PM) The Sox and Cooper obviously feel the kid is ready to take the next step with the right coaching, hopefully they are right because the kid has a big league arm. The Sox might have the hardest throwing pen in all of baseball this year. Wouldn't be new. 2008 2009 2010 2011 You can also do an average from pretty much anywhere between, jeez I don't know, like 1991 and 2011 and the White Sox will have the highest average velocity among all teams. I stopped at 1998 because it was getting silly. Two big reasons are that 1) They have had atleast 2 hard throwing lefties in the bullpen pretty much every year for the last 5 years...there are exceptions, but for the most part, it holds true. There are some teams that haven't had a lefty in the pen, and if they have, it's mainly been for the purpose of having someone in the bullpen who throws with their left hand. 2) They haven't had any real specialty pitchers. Ohman should be treated like a LOOGY, and when he is he's a phenomenal reliever, but there were times when Ozzie abused the hell out of him last year. Wasserman had a shot at nabbing a niche role in the pen, but that fell through and I don't even know where he's at anymore. By far the biggest reason is that Kenny Williams likes his relievers to throw hard. It's hard to blame him. In those years mentioned above... 2008 - 5th in reliever WAR 2009 - 3rd in reliever WAR 2010 - 3rd in reliever WAR 2011 - 4th in reliever WAR It's funny, because in 2007, when the bullpen, along with everything else, failed miserably, people pointed out that Williams tried to essentially create a bullpen with nothing but velocity in it and that you couldn't do that. Not only is it ironic (NOTE: it's the good advice that you just didn't take) that 2007 was the last year when the White Sox didn't lead the league in reliever velocity, but it's also interesting to note that Williams had the right idea and just executed it very poorly that offseason. Your pitchers have to be good too, and he fixed that and has had the fixed very well for the past 4 seasons. I don't see why this season will be any different.
April 3, 201214 yr QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 3, 2012 -> 01:08 AM) Kenny builds some nice ass bullpens. I mean Matt's is a bit big, I guess I don't stare at enough to find it nice?
April 3, 201214 yr QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 3, 2012 -> 01:22 AM) I mean Matt's is a bit big, I guess I don't stare at enough to find it nice? <_>
April 3, 201214 yr Probably in 2004 when Takatsu slinging 67 MPH frisbees was the last time the bullpen velocity was down a bit... Yeah, we all remember Nick Masset was supposed to be another high 90's guy when he came over with the Rangers. And ironically, MacDougal and Aardsma (til he got injured) righted their careers after their time on the SouthSide. Bullpens are SO hit and miss, although if you stockpile a bunch of talented arms, odds are something positive's gonna happen eventually down there.
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