Bullpen Use Needs Work

I don't mean to pick on Jose Veras all the time. It seems like he's the culprit too often. But I think part of the problem has to do with the manager's use of the bullpen. It's hard to fault Joe Girardi now when the Yankees are doing well, but I think it's better to look at it during these times then when things are going poorly and there's a lot more blame to go around.

I first started thinking about this when River Ave Blues recommended rethinking usage patterns for the bullpen. The one advantage the Yankees have had over other teams is that they've had Mariano Rivera in the 'pen since 1995. Since 1997, he's been their closer meaning that they've just had to find a way to fill the innings before him.

Now there are two strategies to go along with it. The first I'll call "Joe Torre's Scott Proctor Special". It's the manager who takes one hot guy and rides him until his arm falls off. Like literally. Look at what happened to the Yankees bullpen under Torre: every one of those guys got rode until he couldn't pitch anymore (Proctor, Sturtze, Gordon, Quantrill, Karsay, Vizcaino, etc.). But everyone knows their role, their inning, and when they can be counted on to come into the game. This works because you're always going with the hot hand and the guy you can trust. It doesn't work because eventually he's going to run out of gas.

The second strategy is the "Joe Maddon Mix-and-Match" strategy of managing the bullpen. It employs no set role from long relief to middle relief to set up men to closer. It's all based on matchups. Lefty comes up, there will be a LOOGY, righty comes up, the opposite. If a hitter has too much success against one pitcher, you pull him for another he doesn't have so much sucess against. This works because you put people into situations they're comfortable in and you play towards the numbers. This doesn't work because no one feels trusted, too much pitching changes kills a team, and when you need a big out, you have no one to turn to besides your stat book.

I think Joe Girardi finds himself in between those two Joes. Sometimes he'll ride a guy (Bruney, Coke, JA). Sometimes he'll mix and match until you're ill (when he had Marte and Coke as two lefties in the bullpen). Sometimes he likes to define roles. Sometimes he'll just give everyone a different role depending on the game (Phil Coke has closed games, been a long reliever, a short reliever, a lefty specialist, a set-up man and a mop-up guy). This is not necessarily a problem, but it hasn't worked so far (cue those Joba-to-the-'pen-solves-all-your-problems crazies). And I think it makes it hard to really rely on anyone to get the job done because they don't know their role from game-to-game. Some guys like Alfredo Aceves (and Ramiro Mendoza in the past) can thrive on that. But most guys--especially young guys--can't.

The other issue I have with Girardi's bullpen use so far is that he's too conventional with the Great Mariano. Joel Sherman wrote--and I agree with him--that you can't leave your best pitcher in the bullpen. The Yankees lost a World Series game in 2003 because Joe Torre wanted to stick by the book and not use his closer unless he had a lead because it was a road game. I thought Girardi would be different, but the exact same thing happened the other day.

Again, this is being nitpicky beacuse the team has been so good, but with teams like Boston and Tampa coming up, these types of things will become even more important and Girardi's bullpen maintenance and use will be put to the test.

A Few Yankees Notes

How amazing is this story about Brett Gardner and the girl at the hospital who needed a heart transplant? This is like something out of a movie (or maybe a Seinfeld episode with Paul O'Neill and Kramer).

So I wasn't so wrong the Yankees bullpen: they are worse when they have to throw more pitches. Here's JA (courtesy of baseball-reference.com):

I         Split  G  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/BB   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB BAbip tOPS+
   Pitch  1-25 37 160 139 26 33  8  1  4  1  1 13 27  2.08 .237 .310 .396  .706 55   6   3  2  3   2  .261    92
   Pitch 26-50  6  24  22  3  6  3  0  1  0  0  2  7  3.50 .273 .333 .545  .879 12   0   0  0  0   0  .357   135
   Pitch 51-75  1   3   2  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0.00 .500 .667 .500 1.167  1   0   0  0  0   0  .500   229

And Phil Coke:

I         Split  G  PA AB R  H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/BB   BA  OBP   SLG   OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB BAbip tOPS+
   Pitch  1-25 29 103 98 8 15  4  0  3  0  0  4 25  6.25 .153 .184  .286  .470 28   4   0  0  1   0  .169    50
   Pitch 26-50  7  12  9 6  6  4  0  1  0  0  3  0  0.00 .667 .750 1.444 2.194 13   0   0  0  0   0  .625   586

Meanwhile, Brian Bruney hadn't allowed any of the first hitters he faced to reach base. That's a pretty good stat. Let's hope he comes back strong.

Also, WFAN's Sweeny Murti has a nice piece on how Tino Martinez spoke to Mark Teixeira...and how Teixeira has loosened up and began to hit afterward. I remember when Tino came in 1996 and how he tried to much at first trying to replace a legend. Same with Jason Giambi replacing Tino. WasWatching did a great job breaking down how those three first baseman did in their beginnings with the Yanks.

Next, The New York Daily News' Mark Feinsand has an interview with David "Boomer" Wells where he "lowers the boom" on Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens and their PED use. Wells never held back expressing his mind and certainly did not in this interview.

Lastly, forgot to write about this lately, but did people notice Suzyn Waldman cleaning off Johnny Damon, wiping away his pie-covered face? It was pretty funny. Gotta love Suzyn. She does everything for the Yankees.