Blue Jays closer B.J. Ryan reacts to giving up the game-winning run against the Mariners on June 11 (Frank Gunn / Canadian Press)
The problem with the Blue Jays' bullpen
04/07/2008 11:29:00 AM
On our planet everything has a purpose; I haven't figured out what mosquitoes and Paris Hilton are for yet -- although both will make you slap yourself silly seeking relief from them.
Now relief pitchers--their function is simple, they exist to ensure that my Blue Jays viewing experience will always include a degree of nervous frustration. It probably began with Joey McLaughlin--I think he became the prototype of the "Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th movies" relief pitcher regularly immolating himself on the mound and returning to life to torment the living again and again. The Duane Ward/Tom Henke years gave us a bit of a respite but he was soon followed by the likes of Mike Timlin and Tony Castillo--useful enough pitchers except when asked to close games (Timlin) or hold a slim lead late in the game with runners on base (Castillo). They seemed to have a knack for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory and causing me to sit with a bar of soap in my mouth to teach my children that family rules applied to everyone. Since Duane Ward went down with his now famous case of tendonitis (he's still three weeks from returning) the Jays have anointed 13 different relievers as "closer" with mixed results and zero post season appearances not to mention learning which type of beer is best for removing that Zest-fully clean taste from my mouth. I've been assured this has not been a problem for the Jays the last two seasons but why do my percolating stomach acids inform me otherwise? Riddle me this: Last year, the Blue Jays bullpen had the second best ERA in the AL and third best in MLB. In fact, an average AL relief corps had an ERA of 4.30 and was 24-22--the Jays crew had a snappy ERA of 3.46 but finished 19-25. A fluke perhaps? Well, this season, the Jays again have the second best bullpen ERA in the league (fourth overall in MLB)--an average AL bullpen in 2008 has an ERA of 3.75 and is 12-12 while Toronto's group is 4-17 despite a 3.16 ERA. How in the name of Miguel Batista's neck brace can a group give up so few runs yet lose so many games? To give you an idea of how ridiculous it is--here are the five best collections of firefighters in MLB at this point of the season (according to ERA): 1. White Sox: 14-9, 2.63 ERA 2. Phillies: 17-10, 2.67 ERA3. Dodgers: 16-9, 2.97 ERA4. Blue Jays: 4-17, 3.16 ERA5. Rays: 15-8, 3.18 ERA The main culprits of our potentially "17 and sucky" are: Jeremy Accardo: 3 lossesB.J. Ryan: 3 lossesScott Downs: 2 lossesBrian Wolfe: 2 losses Seven of the losses are of the walk off variety--road games like Tuesday's where the home team scores the winning run in the bottom of the final inning--also known as the "let ‘em eat cake" (as in of soap) time around our household. The Jays lead the league in this department with seven--six of those losses were off the relievers; Roy Halladay pitched a complete game walk off loss against the Red Sox earlier this year. They've lost five games at home in extra innings--all of those are off the bullpen. They've lost two more games in the ninth inning at home after failing to score in the bottom of the inning. That makes 13 games the relievers have lost in key situations during the innings at the end of the game. You would think the blame for some of them are at the feet of B.J. Ryan and Jeremy Accardo who have been used as Toronto's closers this season but you‘d be wrong. Jason Frasor and Jesse Carlson were responsible for two late losses, Scott Downs (not Tuesday‘s game), Shawn Camp and Brandon League each threw the final pitch of a game and Armando Benitez had a major meltdown against Baltimore aiding Brian Tallet into turning a 4-0 lead into a 6-4 deficit. Mmmmm ... Ivory goodness. It would be short-sighted to pin all the blame at the relievers' feet however. A few things have to be kept in mind: In four of their extra inning losses at home they had a runner on third with less than two out in extra innings and couldn't even produce a fly ball or a deep ground ball out to score the winning run. However, the bullpen does seems to perform worse in extra innings as opposing batters have a batting/on base/slugging average of .309/.426/.457 against Jay relievers. In back-to-back walk off losses to Anaheim the Jays had several opportunities to blow the game open with a key hit but went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position leaving the bullpen with razor thin margins to protect. It does appear that two situations have contributed to the Jays deceptively low ERA: pitching well when the other team grabs a lead off the starter (hence only the four wins) and holding slim leads until the end of the game when things get dicey ... especially in extra innings. Come crunch time however it appears they fold--in the seventh inning, opponents have a .306 on base average (OBA), in the eighth it's .302, in the ninth it rises to .318 and jumps to .426 in extra innings. The bullpen stops challenging hitters and begin walking more as the pressure mounts. Even B.J. Ryan hasn't been exempt--his walks per 9 innings pitched (BB/9) from 2004-2006 was 3.62, .3.33 and 2.49 and this year it's 4.50--his highest total since 2003. These extra base runners become game winning runs for the other team. It is undeniable though that despite a solid ERA, when it comes down to crunch time the bullpen simply spits the bit--were it just one or two culprits that would be one thing, but when it appears everyone has contributed--that's another story. Remember those candy necklaces you could get when you're a kid? Well, thanks to the bullpen my adult version of that is soap-on-a-rope. John Brattain is a former associate editor of MLBtalk (now ESPN Insider Baseball) and also writes for The Hardball Times and Baseball Digest Daily. He has previously worked on Baseball Prospectus, The Baseball Analysts and the Biz of Baseball. He's a weekly guest on ESPN 1450's The Mike Gill Show. John can be contacted at jkbrattain@sympatico.ca.
Now relief pitchers--their function is simple, they exist to ensure that my Blue Jays viewing experience will always include a degree of nervous frustration.
It probably began with Joey McLaughlin--I think he became the prototype of the "Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th movies" relief pitcher regularly immolating himself on the mound and returning to life to torment the living again and again. The Duane Ward/Tom Henke years gave us a bit of a respite but he was soon followed by the likes of Mike Timlin and Tony Castillo--useful enough pitchers except when asked to close games (Timlin) or hold a slim lead late in the game with runners on base (Castillo).
They seemed to have a knack for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory and causing me to sit with a bar of soap in my mouth to teach my children that family rules applied to everyone.
Since Duane Ward went down with his now famous case of tendonitis (he's still three weeks from returning) the Jays have anointed 13 different relievers as "closer" with mixed results and zero post season appearances not to mention learning which type of beer is best for removing that Zest-fully clean taste from my mouth.
I've been assured this has not been a problem for the Jays the last two seasons but why do my percolating stomach acids inform me otherwise?
Riddle me this:
Last year, the Blue Jays bullpen had the second best ERA in the AL and third best in MLB. In fact, an average AL relief corps had an ERA of 4.30 and was 24-22--the Jays crew had a snappy ERA of 3.46 but finished 19-25.
A fluke perhaps?
Well, this season, the Jays again have the second best bullpen ERA in the league (fourth overall in MLB)--an average AL bullpen in 2008 has an ERA of 3.75 and is 12-12 while Toronto's group is 4-17 despite a 3.16 ERA. How in the name of Miguel Batista's neck brace can a group give up so few runs yet lose so many games? To give you an idea of how ridiculous it is--here are the five best collections of firefighters in MLB at this point of the season (according to ERA):
1. White Sox: 14-9, 2.63 ERA 2. Phillies: 17-10, 2.67 ERA3. Dodgers: 16-9, 2.97 ERA4. Blue Jays: 4-17, 3.16 ERA5. Rays: 15-8, 3.18 ERA
The main culprits of our potentially "17 and sucky" are:
Jeremy Accardo: 3 lossesB.J. Ryan: 3 lossesScott Downs: 2 lossesBrian Wolfe: 2 losses
Seven of the losses are of the walk off variety--road games like Tuesday's where the home team scores the winning run in the bottom of the final inning--also known as the "let ‘em eat cake" (as in of soap) time around our household. The Jays lead the league in this department with seven--six of those losses were off the relievers; Roy Halladay pitched a complete game walk off loss against the Red Sox earlier this year. They've lost five games at home in extra innings--all of those are off the bullpen. They've lost two more games in the ninth inning at home after failing to score in the bottom of the inning.
That makes 13 games the relievers have lost in key situations during the innings at the end of the game.
You would think the blame for some of them are at the feet of B.J. Ryan and Jeremy Accardo who have been used as Toronto's closers this season but you‘d be wrong. Jason Frasor and Jesse Carlson were responsible for two late losses, Scott Downs (not Tuesday‘s game), Shawn Camp and Brandon League each threw the final pitch of a game and Armando Benitez had a major meltdown against Baltimore aiding Brian Tallet into turning a 4-0 lead into a 6-4 deficit.
Mmmmm ... Ivory goodness.
It would be short-sighted to pin all the blame at the relievers' feet however. A few things have to be kept in mind: In four of their extra inning losses at home they had a runner on third with less than two out in extra innings and couldn't even produce a fly ball or a deep ground ball out to score the winning run. However, the bullpen does seems to perform worse in extra innings as opposing batters have a batting/on base/slugging average of .309/.426/.457 against Jay relievers.
In back-to-back walk off losses to Anaheim the Jays had several opportunities to blow the game open with a key hit but went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position leaving the bullpen with razor thin margins to protect.
It does appear that two situations have contributed to the Jays deceptively low ERA: pitching well when the other team grabs a lead off the starter (hence only the four wins) and holding slim leads until the end of the game when things get dicey ... especially in extra innings. Come crunch time however it appears they fold--in the seventh inning, opponents have a .306 on base average (OBA), in the eighth it's .302, in the ninth it rises to .318 and jumps to .426 in extra innings. The bullpen stops challenging hitters and begin walking more as the pressure mounts. Even B.J. Ryan hasn't been exempt--his walks per 9 innings pitched (BB/9) from 2004-2006 was 3.62, .3.33 and 2.49 and this year it's 4.50--his highest total since 2003. These extra base runners become game winning runs for the other team.
It is undeniable though that despite a solid ERA, when it comes down to crunch time the bullpen simply spits the bit--were it just one or two culprits that would be one thing, but when it appears everyone has contributed--that's another story.
Remember those candy necklaces you could get when you're a kid? Well, thanks to the bullpen my adult version of that is soap-on-a-rope.
John Brattain is a former associate editor of MLBtalk (now ESPN Insider Baseball) and also writes for The Hardball Times and Baseball Digest Daily. He has previously worked on Baseball Prospectus, The Baseball Analysts and the Biz of Baseball. He's a weekly guest on ESPN 1450's The Mike Gill Show. John can be contacted at jkbrattain@sympatico.ca.
John Brattain is a former associate editor and senior columnist at MLBtalk (now ESPN Insider Baseball) and also writes for The Hardball Times, Baseball Digest Daily as well as maintaining a blog Ground Rule Trouble that is not for the faint of heart.
His work has also been featured at USA Today, Baseball Prospectus, The Baseball Analysts, the Biz of Baseball and elsewhere. He's a weekly guest on ESPN 1450's The Mike Gill Show and "The Locker Room with Kevin Williams" on Fox Sports Radio 1310AM and 1160 WOBM-AM.