Thursday, April 17, 2008

Bullpen Thoughts






After watching the newly sculpted Brian Bruney blow away the Red Sox with a 97 mph heater last night, and LaTroy Hawkins start to show some reliability, it's becoming obvious that a real strength of this Yankees team will be the bullpen.

Assuming 6 innings from our starters, General Joe has an enviable wealth of arms from which to choose for the last 3 innings of a game.

In the 7th, Hawkins, Bruney, Traber and Ohley have all shown to be very reliable in the early going. Additionally, provided he is used correctly (one inning only, no back-to-back appearances, etc...), even Farnsworth has shown flashes of effectiveness.

The depth of the Yankee relief corps is damn near embarrassing. At SWB are the following relievers -

Jose Veras - 7ip, 10k, 2er
Chris Britton - 7ip, 7k, 0er
Edwar Ramirez - 7ip, 11k, 0er
Jonathan Albaladejo - 7.2ip, 7k, 0er (includes 2.2 ip, 4k, 0er with Yanks)
Scott Patterson - 5.2ip, 4k, 2er
Heath Phillips - 9ip, 7k, 2er

At least 4 of these pitchers could/would be on the majority of other team's major league rosters and be extremely effective.

With the game essentially over once getting the ball to The Beast in the 8th, the depth and quality of 7th inning candidates should make most games 6 inning affairs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not so fast. Its pretty easy for a bullpen to have success in April - the off days help minimize the outings by the back of the pen, and the cold weather keeps a lot of balls in the park. A bullpen earns its stripes in July and August.

YankeeGM said...

anon-

You are absolutely right. What I should have said is that it is a good sign that the 'pen is looking reliable, and hopefully they can continue it through the year.

Good point.

Search This Blog