When thinking about the teams who should have had the best bullpens in baseball coming into this season, you instantly think of the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, St Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox before talking about the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals and maybe even the Colorado Rockies and Kansas City Royals. While the results of the named teams are mixed despite most at least being decent, the team that has had the best results this early season currently sits with a 15-18 record.
And they traded their top set-up man last off season to get a 4th OF. They also used 14 different relievers in 2013 with mixed results. But, for whatever reason, they have gotten the job done so far in 2014.
The San Diego Padres dealt lefty specialist Joe Thatcher (3-1, 2.10, 50 games) to the Diamondbacks to get RHP Ian Kennedy during the 2013 season. In the off season, the Padres sent RHP Luke Gregerson (6-8, 2.71, 73 games) to the Athletics to get LH OF Seth Smith. The performance from their closer, Huston Street (2-5, 33 saves, 2.70) was good but not lights out. RHPs Dale Thayer 3-5, 3.32, 65) and Nick Vincent (6-3, 2.14, 45) were good but not spectacular. Thayer was cast away two years ago by the METS! They did add free agent Joaquin Benoit from the Tigers and traded for LHP Alex Torres from the Rays. Here are the early season results (through 5/5/2014):
Huston Street 1-0 0.69 13 0 10 13 7 3 15
Joaquin Benoit 0-0 1.98 14 0 1 13.6 9 2 12
Dale Thayer 2-0 0.56 17 0 0 16 12 2 17
Alex Torres 1-0 0.69 15 0 0 13 7 7 12 Nick Vincent 0-0 2.03 14 0 0 13.3 6 2 12
Tim Stauffer 1-0 2.45 10 0 0 14.6 13 2 14
Donn Roach 1-0 2.81 9 0 0 16 16 6 7
Kevin Quackenbush 0-0 10.80 1 0 0 1.6 2 1 1
Robbie Erlin 0-0 0.00 1 0 0 .6 0 0 1
Totals 6-0 1.76 33 11 102 88 25 93
I chose to include the 1 outing by Quackenbush which was less spectacular as well as Robbie Erlin's 1 relief appearance before he entered the starting rotation. Street and Benoit have pitched at this level before, but Thayer and Torres have been just as dominant. Even Stauffer, Roach and Vincent- who make up the front three of the bullpen (6-7th innings, extras and mop up) have pitched as good as many teams' setup men. The fact that they have not lost a game collectively as a pen is the most amazing stat. Can this continue? Probably not. But in an era where pitchers leave the game earlier than ever, the pressure is put on as much as ever for relievers to do their jobs. Most of the times a team's bullpen is brought up is for negative reasons. To this point, a lot of credit is due to manager Bud Black and pitching coach Darren Balsley. Give them credit now cause there is no way this is going to hold up.
And they traded their top set-up man last off season to get a 4th OF. They also used 14 different relievers in 2013 with mixed results. But, for whatever reason, they have gotten the job done so far in 2014.
The San Diego Padres dealt lefty specialist Joe Thatcher (3-1, 2.10, 50 games) to the Diamondbacks to get RHP Ian Kennedy during the 2013 season. In the off season, the Padres sent RHP Luke Gregerson (6-8, 2.71, 73 games) to the Athletics to get LH OF Seth Smith. The performance from their closer, Huston Street (2-5, 33 saves, 2.70) was good but not lights out. RHPs Dale Thayer 3-5, 3.32, 65) and Nick Vincent (6-3, 2.14, 45) were good but not spectacular. Thayer was cast away two years ago by the METS! They did add free agent Joaquin Benoit from the Tigers and traded for LHP Alex Torres from the Rays. Here are the early season results (through 5/5/2014):
Huston Street 1-0 0.69 13 0 10 13 7 3 15
Joaquin Benoit 0-0 1.98 14 0 1 13.6 9 2 12
Dale Thayer 2-0 0.56 17 0 0 16 12 2 17
Alex Torres 1-0 0.69 15 0 0 13 7 7 12 Nick Vincent 0-0 2.03 14 0 0 13.3 6 2 12
Tim Stauffer 1-0 2.45 10 0 0 14.6 13 2 14
Donn Roach 1-0 2.81 9 0 0 16 16 6 7
Kevin Quackenbush 0-0 10.80 1 0 0 1.6 2 1 1
Robbie Erlin 0-0 0.00 1 0 0 .6 0 0 1
Totals 6-0 1.76 33 11 102 88 25 93
I chose to include the 1 outing by Quackenbush which was less spectacular as well as Robbie Erlin's 1 relief appearance before he entered the starting rotation. Street and Benoit have pitched at this level before, but Thayer and Torres have been just as dominant. Even Stauffer, Roach and Vincent- who make up the front three of the bullpen (6-7th innings, extras and mop up) have pitched as good as many teams' setup men. The fact that they have not lost a game collectively as a pen is the most amazing stat. Can this continue? Probably not. But in an era where pitchers leave the game earlier than ever, the pressure is put on as much as ever for relievers to do their jobs. Most of the times a team's bullpen is brought up is for negative reasons. To this point, a lot of credit is due to manager Bud Black and pitching coach Darren Balsley. Give them credit now cause there is no way this is going to hold up.
RSS Feed
