I logged on tonight to write about the bullpen, and the overreaction of some people to a few bad outings from people such as Jose Veras and Damaso Marte. I noticed that Joe P. from RAB made the point I wanted to make, so I will just post his thoughts and then expound upon them:
Damaso Marte and Jose Veras generated plenty of complaints, and with good reason. But to make sweeping statements about them based on one appearance is a bit much. We know what Veras is at this point: a guy with an electric fastball and a devastating curveball. There are going to be days when he can’t hit the strike zone with the fastball, rendering the curveball moot. Does that mean he sucks? No. He has his flaws, just as pretty much every reliever in the bigs has flaws. That’s why they’re relievers and not starters. Marte had a tough outing, too, reminiscent of his stinker in Texas last August. Yet to make proclamations about how he stinks is to ignore years of quality work — not to mention the quality work he’s done for the Yanks outside of a few appearances which stand out in fans’ minds.
The portion that I bolded is a point that I think is fairly important. Relieers as a group are generally streaky and flawed. Marte and Veras have had a rough start to the season. However, Marte has had a long, successful career, and there were periods last season where Veras was untouchable. It is too early to give up on these guys.
Are you allowed to be worried? Certainly. Bullpens are volatile, and players who perform well one season may be awful the following year. Depth is vital in finding an effective mix of pitchers. Thankfully, the Yankees are loaded with relievers in the minor leagues, and should be able to fill holes should certain pitchers continue to perform poorly. Pitchers such as Jackson, Dunn, Claggett, Aceves, Melancon, and Robertson are ready to contribute at the major league, giving the Yankees the depth necessary to piece together an effective bullpen.
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10 Responses to Overreacting About The Bullpen
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TIQ IQ
I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I wasn’t making a comment based on one (or two) appearances-especially concerning Veras.
Jose Veras has had one decent season in the bigs. His career up to 2008 was save about 20 IP, spent in the minors. His MiLB record isn’t very good, either. I’d rather take what a RP has done over several seasons than one out-of-context year like 2008. (Not that he was lights out last year.) I think there’s a reason why a guy like Veras having a 5.36 ERA in AAA at age 24 looks like the rest of his career. I just don’t think he’s that good. He’s certainly not good enough to keep guys like Melancon et al in AAA while he gets another bunch of opportunities with a contending team.
Marte had an 88 ERA+ last year while in pinstripes, and is in his mid-30s. I realize you can’t just throw him away, but I think assuming he’s the same guy he was in 2007 isn’t the right way to do things, either. He has to start getting people out to be relied on in key situations.
I can’t fathom how anyone can like Veras at all! The guy had half a good season last year and that’s it.
While I agree it is to early to hang Marte & Veras I think it is beyond to promote Melancon he can be that shut down reliever now. Make the move now.
Yeah, I really wonder why the didn’t seem to even consider bringing Melancon north to start the year. Maybe they see something he needs to do in his development that we just don’t see?
I think we’ll be seeing him before many more weeks have passed. Hard to ignore that kind of dominance
Speaking of David Robertson, he got sent right back down to Scranton and Juan Miranda was called up
Yeah, I just mini-posted that. Some reward for 2 innings of no run, 3k ball, huh? Too bad we can’t send Marte down for a couple weeks.
has to hurt knowing that he can help out here and others are stinking up the place
I do understand why they brought up Miranda but I do not understand why they sent down Robertson as well as why they are not moving on Melanson. I think Veras and Marte could use some development time in Scranton. Probably not going to happen however if we were talking about Joba would they be keeping him at Scranton I do think Melanson has the same kind of upside.
Veras and Marte can’t go down to Scranton – they don’t have options. You’d have to DFA them, unfortunately. Only the youngest guys have that option.