Bullpen Grievance Thread

[sneakypower]

I have no intention of dying on the Phil-Coke-is-good hill, but even if you believe he's going to get hit harder than usual (which there's probably some truth to) and stick around .360, he's STILL 140 points higher than that right now. Even if we go back to his career numbers of 7 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9, you're looking at a 3.7 FIP, which is just fine for the 7th or 8th best guy in your bullpen.

that FIP mixed with .360 babip equals a sub-replacement level pitcher who will lose you a fair amount of ballgames

 

Yes, let's get rid of all of them because we have dozens of better options in the minors.

 

News flash: every team's bullpens suck

were that true (it's definitively not) it'd be even more aggravating that we were uninterested in exploiting an inefficiency, content to embarrassingly roster two hopeless castoffs and rely on a guy who's suffered a litany of arm problems in his young career

[sneakypower]

5th in the majors in FIP

7th in the majors in WAR

8th in the majors in K%

5th in the majors in BB%

 

Everyone is frustrated after last night but the bullpen will be fine, especially when Grimm is back and if Ramirez is alive.

7th-worst in win probability added

[Guest]

It's Arguello disclaimer but

 

John Arguello ‏@CubsDen 3m3 minutes ago Phoenix, AZ

Word Is James Russell will be called up today in addition to Matt Szczur.

 

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Guest]

Rusell's clearly in good form at Iowa, I'm fine with him in the pen instead of Coke. It does further complicate what the plan is supposed to be with Wada though, maybe they really do plan on dumping Jackson.

[Guest]

Rusell's clearly in good form at Iowa, I'm fine with him in the pen instead of Coke. It does further complicate what the plan is supposed to be with Wada though, maybe they really do plan on dumping Jackson.

 

i just hate his stupid face

[jersey cubs fan]

It's Arguello disclaimer but

 

John Arguello ‏@CubsDen 3m3 minutes ago Phoenix, AZ

Word Is James Russell will be called up today in addition to Matt Szczur.

 

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Mark Gonzales ‏@MDGonzales 1m1 minute ago

Varvaro up, Germen optioned

[SouthSideRyan]

It's Arguello disclaimer but

 

John Arguello ‏@CubsDen 3m3 minutes ago Phoenix, AZ

Word Is James Russell will be called up today in addition to Matt Szczur.

 

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Mark Gonzales ‏@MDGonzales 1m1 minute ago

Varvaro up, Germen optioned

 

You missed the game thread.

[sontensei]

is vavaro really any better than germen? i mean he got dfa'd from the worst staff in the major leagues (red sox)

[Burt Macklin, FBI]

I have no intention of dying on the Phil-Coke-is-good hill, but even if you believe he's going to get hit harder than usual (which there's probably some truth to) and stick around .360, he's STILL 140 points higher than that right now. Even if we go back to his career numbers of 7 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9, you're looking at a 3.7 FIP, which is just fine for the 7th or 8th best guy in your bullpen.

that FIP mixed with .360 babip equals a sub-replacement level pitcher who will lose you a fair amount of ballgames

 

Replacement level FIP for NL relievers is like 4.4. Below average pitcher, absolutely. If you really think he's going to continue to get BABIP'd to death then maybe he's bordering on replacement level, but isn't that exactly what you should expect from the guy who signed a minor league deal and will probably spend most of the year back and forth with Iowa? Again, I'm not arguing he's a great pitcher (in fact the greatest compliment I've said is "probably above replacement level"), but for where he is on our bullpen depth chart, he's fine.

 

7th-worst in win probability added

 

It's almost like injuries have forced us to use schlitty relievers in high leverage situations. Pun intended, because Schlitter is at -.95 and single-handedly dragging us down horribly. Again, once we (hopefully) can stop doing that, things will be fine.

 

Also, Coke is basically league average in WPA, so yay! Don't need to worry about him anymore.

[jersey cubs fan]

It's Arguello disclaimer but

 

John Arguello ‏@CubsDen 3m3 minutes ago Phoenix, AZ

Word Is James Russell will be called up today in addition to Matt Szczur.

 

 

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Mark Gonzales ‏@MDGonzales 1m1 minute ago

Varvaro up, Germen optioned

 

You missed the game thread.

I put it in the blackhawks game thread

[RynoRules]

Varvaro's WHIP thus far is 1.8 over 11 innings. I realize the sample size is very small, but yikes. FIP is just below his career average though.

[sontensei]

why cant we just eat ejax contract.

[treebird]

why cant we just eat ejax contract.

 

we already called everybody up. jaxon sucks but so does everyone else. he'll be gone the moment he's blocking someone we care about.

[Sammy Sofa]

How many games has the bullpen given up as merciless sacrifices to an uncaring god this season?

[RynoRules]

Nearly lost what shoulda' been an easy one. Rondon has not looked sharp of late; Strop says his fastball is lacking life.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL201505080.shtml

[RynoRules]

Credit where it is due - nice job last night (though they did hit Rondon kinda hard).

[Sammy Sofa]

So is the FO just ridiculously unlucky when it comes to bullpens or are they not terribly good at building them?

[Derwood]

Left the house when it was 10-5, saw this thread bumped, checked the score, lol'd

[sneakypower]

So is the FO just ridiculously unlucky when it comes to bullpens or are they not terribly good at building them?

they're a little bit unlucky with health issues to Grimm, Neil but the Motte & Coke signings were pure idiocy

[TruffleShuffle]

So is the FO just ridiculously unlucky when it comes to bullpens or are they not terribly good at building them?

they're a little bit unlucky with health issues to Grimm, Neil but the Motte & Coke signings were pure idiocy

 

coke i can see being a bad signing, but motte i don't think was that bad. at least as a bounce back candidate.

 

it seems like there is only a small handful of relievers who are reliable from year to year (miller, clippard, etc) and then a bunch of guys who seem to fluctuate based on command issues and babip fortunes.

[sneakypower]

they gave him $4.5m for [expletive]'s sake

 

i imagine having more than one useful pitch helps mitigate inconsistency issues for a pitcher

[Guest]

Regardless of what they're paying him, he was 5th on the RHRP depth chart to start the season so they weren't exactly entrusting him to a season full of high leverage innings.

 

As far as the problem goes, it's a combination of a lot of things. Injuries(Grimm, Ramirez, Wada to a lesser extent), some bad timing/luck with the inconsistency from Strop and Motte, poor decisions(Coke, Motte sure doesn't look like he'll hit the 75% outcome), and some tough situations(lots of 1 run games, 16 of 35 starts haven't gone 6 IP, etc). Some of those should correct themselves, others can not, and others will not without intervention.

[sneakypower]

intervention: invent a Motte injury and call up Carl Sjunior

[sontensei]

forget inventing an injury dfa coke and someone else and get someone up here.