Alright, here we go….take a breath, gather yourself, post number one (of many to follow).
When thinking about what my first post would be about, visions of all you can eat hotdogs in the outfield came to mind initially but I then experienced a rush of other ideas; Prince Fielder, State of the Franchise, AA’s offseason, or perhaps even the distinguished Mr. Rick Donaldson, everyone’s favourite drummer. These ideas were overplayed, boring, or premature so it brought me to the topic of today’s enlightenment.
The Bullpen.
Before we proceed, let us remember this time last season…pitchers and catchers reporting in the coming weeks…there was A LOT of talk about how the pen was a strength going into the season. Francisco and Rauch, the two towers, the 1-2 punch that would bring confidence to our starters…just get us to the 8th, we’ve got it from here! Sadly, those guys didn’t deliver and the bullpen became our ultimate crutch. Saves were blown, batters were walked, home runs were hit, players were walked, and even the number of base on balls seemed painful. Excuses ensued. “Well there were no assigned roles from the get-go”, “Frankie was injured to start the year”, “Dora backpacks weren’t shared equally among the rookies”…the list goes on. AA shuffled the deck and after the Rasmus deal, our pen was essentially non-existent with the exception of Janssen and Frankie (yes, Frankie).
Were all of our hopes misleading?
Maybe….maybe not.
Is the pen better this season?
Maybe…maybe not.
Are Frankie, Rauch and Dotel synonymous with Santos, Cordero, and Oliver?
NO!
Let’s look at a few highly important and non-sabermetric categories.
All it took was a Timmy’s large and a bit of excel spreadsheeting and I managed to paint a pretty user-friendly picture of the way things are, or appear to be, going into the 2012 season.
If we look at the beautifully appointed tables that are included below, we can see that there are some similarities….and several differences.
Similarities from Previous Season (aka 2010 for the 2011 pen and 2011 for the 2012 pen) Stats:
Total strikeouts, walks per 9 innings, blown saves, and even age.
Positive Differences from Previous Season Stats:
IP, ERA, WHIP, Total SVs, Blown SV % (thank god!), and Wins.
Previous Season
| |||||||||||
IPs
|
ERA
|
WHIP
|
K's
|
K's/9inn
|
BB/9inn
|
SV
|
BS
|
BS%
|
W
|
L
| |
2011
|
492.3
|
3.86
|
1.36
|
479
|
8.8
|
3.3
|
52
|
23
|
31%
|
30
|
22
|
2012
|
545.5
|
3.47
|
1.24
|
476
|
7.9
|
3.1
|
72
|
24
|
25%
|
38
|
26
|
How about career numbers?
Take a gander…
Career
| |||||||||||
IPs
|
ERA
|
WHIP
|
K's
|
K's/9inn
|
BB/9inn
|
SV
|
BS
|
BS%
|
W
|
L
| |
2011
|
3758.6
|
3.94
|
1.31
|
3494
|
8.4
|
3.4
|
276
|
145
|
34%
|
216
|
214
|
2012
|
4533.5
|
4.02
|
1.38
|
3491
|
6.9
|
3.4
|
415
|
128
|
24%
|
264
|
249
|
Positive Notes from the Career Comparison:
We gain 774 IP, 139 total SV, 48 wins, and an improvement in blown SV% of 11%!
How about these numbers:
Salary($Mil)
|
Experience (MLB Yrs)
|
Age
|
Weight
|
Postseason IPs
| |
2011
|
19.1896
|
51
|
32
|
226
|
14.2
|
2012
|
18.116
|
58
|
32
|
212
|
44.4
|
Could it be we are paying less for a pen with more years of MLB service, playoff experience, and even average player weight. Kudos to AA for keeping up with his tendencies for more athletic players.
Sure, we are taking some big leaps and bounds and these numbers don’t reflect several intangibles that exist in any bullpen/clubhouse, not to mention those who may burst on to the scene in spring training, but it does seem that we are ahead of where we were last year and this will hopefully translate into some wins.
That being said…LETS GO BLUE JAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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