A Call to the Pen
Starting pitchers in baseball get much of the attention (and money) thrown their way. The average starter is asked to go 6-7 innings, while aces are expected to give 7-8 quality innings. Many games are decided in the last three innings, however, making relief pitchers an extremely important, and often overlooked, factor.
The use of effective relievers is nothing new. Specialized closers were around in the 1960s, with terrific relievers like Dick Radatz, John Hiller, Luis Arroyo and knuckeballer Hoyt Wilhelm. During the early 1970s, the Oakland Athletics had a deep bullpen with Rollie Fingers, Dave Hamilton and Darold Knowles. That group helped win three straight World Series from 1972-74. Then came the Big Red Machine, and Sparky Anderson had lights-out relievers in Will McEnaney and Rawley Eastwick. That has evolved into a situation where today managers league-wide use a variety of closers, middlemen and lefty/righty specialists.
It's important from a betting perspective to examine which teams have solid bullpen depth and which ones don't. The Cubs and Reds have blown many saves already this season and both have been money-burners. The Cubs spent a ton of money in the offseason to upgrade their team, but the one area that isn't clicking is the bullpen, and it's been costly. The Cubs started 2-10 in one run games while the bullpen was meltdown city, going 3-11.
The Red Sox pitching has been the biggest surprise, second in the American League during their red-hot start. A huge key has been the four starting pitchers, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield, going 6-7 innings almost every night. That has taken a load of the bullpen, which has been outstanding while being used sparingly. The opposite is taking place with the struggling Yankees, who've gotten little quality starting pitching and the bullpen has been overused. Last week New York had just 3 saves, by far the lowest in baseball, and 10 blown saves. Astounding for a team with all that offense and Mariano Rivera.
The Indians revamped their bullpen after a disappointing 2006 season, and it's been a huge plus in their turnaround. Cleveland has gotten excellent middle relief work from Rafael Betancourt and Aaron Fultz (both with ERAs under 2.00) while new closer Joe Borowski has been very productive despite a misleadingly high ERA.
The same thing happened to the Braves, who got a 10-4 start from a revamped pen. The White Sox used a deep, hard throwing bullpen to help win the World Series two years ago, yet their 2007 relief pitching has been shaky, with a 5.30 ERA, third worst in baseball.
The team with the most saves? The surprising Arizona Diamondbacks, battling the Dodgers and Padres for first place in the NL West. They have some live relief arms with Brandon Lyon, Juan Cruz, Tony Pena and closer Jose Valverde. These days it's not enough to have one strong relief pitcher. If a manager uses his best reliever for 3 innings to close out a game, that reliever is likely not available the next two games.
The top two bullpens in the National League have been the Padres (2.33) and Mets (3.15). The Padres have excellent depth in the pen with ace closer Trevor Hoffman (15 saves) supported by Cla Meredith, Heath Bell (1.20 ERA) and Justin Germano, though they are much better at home.
The Marlins have been decimated by injuries to the pitching staff and unreliable relief pitching, but the manager recently made a move by naming Kevin Gregg the closer. Gregg has gotten the job done, stabilizing the pen and helped Florida win 8 of 12 games, winning five times as a dog. Lou Piniella of the Cubs is in the same boat, making all kinds of moves to try and plug the leaks on what has been an awful pen.
The first-place Angels have the second best pen in the AL which has been an engine in their recent hot streak. The Angel pitching dominated the Dodgers in a three-game Interleague sweep, then went East and swept three at Yankee Stadium, holding the Bronx Bombers to 10 runs in three games. The Yankees had a 2-1 lead in the 7th inning of the final game, but relief pitching let them down. They spent too much money on high profile players and paid far too little attention to the pen, which is a huge part of baseball success today, on the field and at the betting window.
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