(Cody Who??? Courtesy of Getty Images)
(The following is being syndicated from An A-Blog for A-Rod)
Say what you will about the Yankees’ organizational ability to successfully manage their young pitching prospects and build them into something useful, or their ability to scout and sign the right external free agent pitchers to strengthen their rotation. Both of those track records are filled with their fair share of flops and failures, and any kind of reasonable criticism directed at them comes with some truth attached. But if there’s one thing the Yankees have done consistently well in recent years, it’s find and implement good relief pitching from unexpected sources. Internally, externally, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. The Yankees know how to get value from undervalued relief assets and the Cody Eppley-Clay Rapada tag team this season is just the latest example.
In 2009 it was the duo of “still-yet-to-be-fully-realized-as-a-boss” David Robertson and Alfredo Aceves who stepped to the forefront of the Yankee bullpen and proved that their 2008 small sample size success was no fluke when they were asked to take on bigger roles. With Joba sidelined , D-Rob and Ace combined to pitch 124.1 innings out of the ’09 bullpen to the tune of a 3.33 ERA, 3.38 FIP, and 9.41 K/9. In 2010 it was Boone Logan, a throw-in from the Javy Vazquez trade, and Sergio Mitre who combined for a 2.69/4.06 slash with 6.61 K/9 in 80.1 IP. The middle relief was light in front of Mo prior to the Yankees trading for Kerry Wood, and these 2 helped keep the ship afloat.
Last season the unsung hero group expanded to 3, with Luis Ayala (ST non-roster signee), Hector Noesi (mid-season call-up), and Cory Wade (mid-season FA signing) teaming up to pitch 147.1 innings of 2.75/3.97 ball with 6.78 K/9. Joba missed a lot of time, higher-profile signing Rafael Soriano missed a lot of time, and guys like Lance Pendleton, Scott Proctor, and Aaron Laffey just didn’t cut the mustard. Without this group to soak up innings in front of Mo and D-Rob, and pitch quality innings in the process, who knows where the Yankees would have ended up in the AL East race?
This season, the aforementioned tandem of Eppley and Rapada is carrying the unsung torch, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know that either guy existed before I heard about the Yankees signing them. Their overall numbers aren’t as impressive as the groups from years past (3.03 ERA/4.32 FIP, 5.80 K/9 in 35.2 IP), but each has found his own niche. Rapada has been very good as a LOOGY and Eppley is a groundball machine, and both have earned themselves higher-leverage work recently with the jobs they’ve done in D-Rob’s absence. You could probably throw David Phelps and his 25.0 innings of middle relief in there as well. Yeah, he made the team out of camp, but only because of Michael Pineda‘s injury, and I don’t think Joe anticipated having to lean on Phelps as heavily as he did early in the season when the rotation was floundering.
My favorite part of this annual bullpen tradition is watching which guys end up flourishing and sticking for the future. Some guys mentioned above have washed out or joined other teams, but some of them are now key members of the current bullpen. D-Rob has evolved from erratic middle reliever to fireman to Mo’s setup man, and was handed the keys to the coveted closer role when Mo first went down. Boone Logan has become one of the most reliable left-handed relievers in the game and has grown to the point that he can be counted on to effectively work against righties as well. And Cory Wade, recent high HR rate aside, is having arguably his best season of his career. Clearly this isn’t just the Yankees throwing nets out and hoping they catch something; they really know what they’re doing here.
And the best part about this continuing trend is that it doesn’t appear to be over this year. Most people assumed David Aardsma was a low-risk/high-reward signing for the 2013 season, but with the way he’s been quickly plowing through his rehab schedule, Aardsma could be up in the Bronx bullpen by the middle of next month. This is a guy with closing experience, who nobody wanted because of the TJS and labrum injury, and who nobody probably expected to even pitch this year, and he’s going to be the team’s extra 6th-7th-inning middle relief luxury arm for the baseball monetary equivalent of a plate of nachos. That’s smart business and smart baseball.
The bullpen has been a consistent strength for the Yankees for a while now, and it is their ability to consistently find guys capable of pitching quality innings that is a major contributing factor. That ability has become especially handy in 2012, when the big dogs in the bullpen yard have been cut down by injuries, and the collection of new and former bullpen gems have combined to keep the Yankee relief corps among the game’s best. There’s still plenty of time left this season for another name to come out of nowhere and impress. Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen at the expense of one of the current key contributors.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
7 Responses to Singing The Songs Of The Unsung Bullpen Heroes
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
The way that Giradi has handled the pen along with Cash acquiring and developing a great relief corps has been nothing short of astonishing. After the last couple years to think that Logan could be more than a LOOGY is astonishing. Considering the Yankees have both Joba, Aardsma coming up later in the year means that they will be a tough team to beat once the game enters the sixth and seventh innings.
The fact that you mentioned Sergio Mitre reflects the fallacy in your thinking. Sergio Mitre stinks. He, like most marginal guys, will put together brief streaks of competence and as a result will be lionized as a “find” until the inevitable overexposure catches up with him. You can say the same about Ayala and Wade and it’s not at all hard to imagine Eppley and Rapada being far behind.
So Logan is now “one of the most reliable left-handed relievers in the game”? Huh? did you watch Saturday’s game in which he allowed a runner representing the go-ahead run to get an enormous jump on him and steal second to get into scoring position and then gave up a hit to the lefty he was brought in to face which would have scored the winning run if not for a blown call by the umpire.
Yes, Logan has had a nice run this year but I still don’t trust him in the job he’ supposed to do which is get lefties out (not that I really like the whole LOOGY thing even one little bit) and I have little confidence that his success against RH hitters isn’t just some small sample size thing.
I refuse to get all dewey-eyed over relief pitchers. The ones that are worth a damn for more than a season (if that much) are few and far between. I cringe every time I see most of these guys come into a game especially when the bullpen train starts in the 6th or 7th inning.
Joe Girardi drives me nuts for many reasons but I will give him this – he does seem to have a sense of when to stick with a starter who’s on a roll and not use the bullpen pre-emptively on the flawed premise that these guys are always a better bet than the guy who has been shutting down the other team for 6 or 7 innings.
Boone Logan as a Yankee to date: 105.1 IP, 2.99 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 9.91 K/9
His wOBA against by LHH: .248 (2010), .338 (2011), .265 (2012)
The numbers don’t lie. Logan’s been very good both in general and against lefties. One bad outing does not a career make.
As for the Mitres and Ayalas of the world, you’re right on that they aren’t the greatest relief pitchers in the world, and I certainly wasn’t trying to imply that they were. But in ’09 and 2011, when the Yankees’ bullpen situation called for them to pitch more innings and more important innings, they did a good job.
Maybe it was just an incredible stroke of luck, but as long as that luck was on the Yankees’ side when they needed these marginal guys for higher-leverage work, I’ll take it. I’d like to think that there’s more to it than that, but I have no way of supporting that thought. All I can do is point to the numbers and those numbers for these “unsung” guys are pretty solid. I’ll take 100 innings a year of middle relief work in the 3.00-4.00 FIP range every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
He’s had far, far more than one bad outing in his Yankee career. Saturday was just one example which I brought up to illustrate the point that the bad outings are not really a thing of the past with him.
Yes Logan has been good this year and he does have some very good aggregate numbers but a lot can happen between those strikeouts, and in Logan’s case the past two years, it quite often did.
My point is that none of these guys are going to survive a lot of exposure and I compliment Girardi (a real rarity for me) in the way he’s used these guys more or less only when necessary (at least he has lately).
Looking at their peripherals you can certainly expect regression from some of these guys; it doesn’t change the fact thy to this point theyve done their jobs, an done them well.
It isn’t some revelation that Mitre wasn’t going to be a long term staple in the Yankees pen, or that he was on the right side of luck, but claiming he didn’t do well out of the bullpen is far from correct.
I didn’t see any projections in the article that expects them to all outpitch their FIP/xFIP, so I’m not sure what your problem is with stating the facts to this point. I’m sure there is a parade out there you can find to take a dump on.
I think you should take a class in reading comprehension.
First, I did acknowledge that Mitre had flashed brief periods of competence but that eventually his limitations were exposed.
Second, I didn’t say I had a problem with someone pointing out that the bullpen has put up some good numbers to date. My problem is the happy talk that ignores the fact that most of these guys are DFAs waiting to happen and that the numbers don’t always reflect the number of blown outings (like the many times last year that Logan either failed to retire the lefty he was brought in to face or stuck out the side but gave up key runs).
As far as your gratuitous “take a dump” remark, I will resist the temptation to respond in kind. Feel free to disagree with my opinion but unless your balls are big enough to say something like that to my face then just STFU.
Considering the rate of attrition for relief pitchers that’s nothing new; which is why you don’t give ridiculous contracts to relievers. Wether or not they are DFA’s waiting to happen has nothing to do with what already has taken place.
As fa as my “dump” comment, too bad. Sounds like you need to grow some thicker skin tough guy.