Redbird Report: Bullpen Roundup
Nobody really knows where the term “bullpen” came from, referring to the group of pitchers that come in relief, and just as it is hard to determine where the term came from, its just as hard to determine what a teams bullpen will look like in the upcoming season before spring training.
The Cardinals will probably have 7 bullpen spots in the ‘08 season. At least three pitchers, Jason Isringhausen, Russ Springer and Ryan Franklin, are all pretty much guaranteed a spot in ‘the pen’. But that still leaves 4 more spots for at least 10 pitchers to try to fill.
Okay, so lets look at closers. The Cardinals throughout the past 30 years have a legacy of great closers. With the likes of Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Tom Henke and Todd Worrell all having took the role of the Cardinals closer in the past, they leave a big role to fill. A role that the Cardinals current closer, Jason Isringhausen, has been filling for the last 6 years. He will be coming back for his 7th season this year with the Cardinals in ‘08, and it could be his last season as the Cardinals closer, even though he has two year left on his contract at age 35.
So with the closing job out of the way, we can look into the ‘08 bullpen a little deeper.
With Springer taking the right-handed set up man, the left handed setup man is still an open job. Currently, the Cardinals have two other main left handers available, Randy Flores and Tyler Johnson, not counting minor leaguers. More than likely, Johnson will get that left-handed setup job.
So where does that leave Flores? Well, Franklin will take a middle relief job, but he is a righty, so there will still be a spot open for a lefty middle relief pitcher, and that is where Flores will probably fit into the picture.
So that still leaves two spots in the bullpen up for grabs, and who those two spots will be given to will be greatly effected by who the will get the starting jobs in the rotation. There are currently 2 spots in the starting rotation available and the three pitchers that will probably get two of those jobs will either be Brad Thompson, Anthony Reyes, or Todd Wellemeyer –all righties. If either Wellemeyer or Thompson wins one of the jobs, then the other will be put in the bullpen and there will be only one spot in the bullpen still available. But if both Wellemeyer and Thompson win a starting rotation job, then the odd man out, Anthony Reyers, will probably be sent to the minor leagues and there will be two spots in the bullpen availible.
The pitchers who gets the spots will most likely be a minor league pitcher or a pitcher with a minor league contract. The favorites for getting that extra spots will either be Chris Perez, Kelvin Jimenez, Cliff Politte, John Wasdin or the new signee, Ron Villone. Another relief pitcher, Josh Kinney, is a very likely pitcher to get one of the spots, but he will not be available by opening day. I personally see Jimenez getting one of the spots and either Villone or Politte, both pitchers will plenty of major league experience, getting one of the other jobs. I don’t see a pitcher like Perez getting the spot because he would have a lot more opportunities to pitch in the minors.
So this is what the opening day bullpen might look like:
Closer: Jason Isringhausen
Righty Setup Man: Russ Springer
Lefty Setup Man: Tyler Johnson
Right middle relief: Ryan Franklin
Left middle relief: Randy Flores
Long relief: Brad Thompson/Todd Wellemeyer
Extra man: Kelvin Jimenez/RonVillone/Cliff Politte and possibly Josh Kinney later on.
But like anybody who knows anything about how a bullpen works knows that a bullpen is always changing. So as Spring training gears up to begin, the roundup of the bullpen will begin.
wow KB this is awsome…you should do html 4 a living..if u don’t do baceball.LOL
*~DEs~*
To be honest with you, I have never written any comments or posts in the Internet. This is my first time. Why did I decide to post? The answer is simple – all information here is so amazing and interesting that it’s hard to imagine someone wouldn’t comment it.
Feb 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[...] Original post here [...]
Feb 21st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
[...] KB wrote a fantastic post today on “Redbird Report: Bullpen Roundup”Here’s ONLY a quick extractNobody really knows where the term “bullpen” came from, referring to the group of pitchers that come in relief, and just as it is hard to determine where the term came from, its just as hard to determine what a teams bullpen will look … [...]
Feb 21st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
[...] KB wrote an interesting post today on Redbird Report: Bullpen RoundupHere’s a quick excerptNobody really knows where the term “bullpen” came from, referring to the group of pitchers that come in relief, and just as it is hard to determine where the term came from, its just as hard to determine what a teams bullpen will look … [...]