There's no relief in sight
No matter how you pitch it (yuck) -- Williams' way or Hendry's, Sox, Cubs bullpens are giving away games that should be wins
Don't even pretend to be surprised. Tie game, bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth. And Ozzie Guillen brought in David Aardsma from the bullpen, yuck, to face Torii Hunter.
Come on, you knew what was going to happen. I knew what was going to happen. Ball one, ball two, ball three, ball four.
Come on, you knew what was going to happen. I knew what was going to happen. Ball one, ball two, ball three, ball four.
Game over. Sox lose to Minnesota 7-6.
Game over. Sox lose to Minnesota 7-6.
The walk was a given, but I'll admit that doing it in just four pitches, well, that was a nice touch.
Imagine what Aardsma was thinking before that last pitch: ''Just throw it over the plate at any speed. No way will he swing. No chance. Lob it over, soft-toss it over. It doesn't matter. Any major leaguer can do that.''
Ball four. Game over.
Bullpen, yuck.
This city has bullpenitis. Two teams, no bullpens. Cubs GM Jim Hendry and Sox GM Kenny Williams put their opposing philosophies in play in the offseason, with Hendry buying every free agent at any price and Williams trying to be practical.
Two philosophies, no bullpens. And their two creations are on the verge of blowing up because of it.
''Not one time after the last game last season did I think the eighth inning would be a problem [this year],'' Hendry said. ''With bullpens, it's so hard to predict how they'll turn out.''
It just doesn't sit right to let a bullpen kill your team. It's like the floor mats killing your new Ferrari.
I mean, the bullpen? It's that hard to find someone to get two outs?
Well, I'm probably wrong about that, I know. Will Ohman, who has become one of the Cubs' reliable relievers, said that relievers are to baseball what offensive linemen are to football: important without glory.
He said that when your job is to get two guys out with runners on base, that any mistake makes you look awful. Starters struggle with two batters, and they have time to get out of it.
And I have to think that if Hendry spent $300 million on a team that can't produce a winning record, then he's gone. And Williams was supposed to be building on the momentum of a World Series with the Sox. Yet every day, the Sox seem to get closer to starting over with prospects.
If there is an art to building a bullpen, then San Diego GM Kevin Towers is Rembrandt. So I called him Wednesday night from Wrigley Field while watching Cubs starter Ted Lilly blow the game against Florida before the bullpen, yuck, could blow it for him. They lost 9-0.
And when you hear Towers' philosophies about building a bullpen, you see a marked difference from Williams and Hendry.
Start with this: Batters are hitting .194 against San Diego's bullpen, .254 vs. the Cubs' and .273 vs. the Sox'. That puts San Diego at No. 1, the Cubs in the middle and the Sox third from the bottom.
Yuck.
''My job gets real easy having a guy like Trevor Hoffman for the ninth,'' Towers said of his closer. ''Because of him, I'm only working from the eighth inning down.''
OK, fine, you're modest. How did you build that bullpen?
''In the offseason, we always focus on the bullpen first because starters wait for the market to play out and relievers sign a little quicker,'' he said. ''I like strike-throwers. I'm not a big believer that I have got to have one lefty, two lefties, three lefties to face left-handed hitters.
''There are very few situational left-handers out there and a much larger inventory of righties who can get lefties out. And if you have a lefty to face a lefty hitter, and he's not successful, then you burn two guys in one inning.''
San Diego's bullpen does not include a left-hander.
What about power pitchers for late innings?
''Velocity is overrated,'' he said. ''There are very few 93-, 94-plus [mph] guys who throw the fastball consistently over plate. I'll take command over velocity any day.''
OK, let's add this up. Forget the lefty-to-face-a-lefty-hitter thing. Don't worry about velocity. Get guys who can throw strikes. And because relievers aren't reliable from one year to the next, he said, sign them to short-term deals.
The Sox and Cubs tried to fix up their bullpens in the offseason with a trade: Aardsma to the Sox and Neal Cotts to the Cubs. The Sox were looking for power while the Cubs wanted a lefty to match up with left-handed hitters.
Now, the Cubs have called up Angel Guzman and Carlos Marmol from the minors because they want to change from the situational approach to the fireball approach.
I'm not kidding: Guzman gave up a homer as I wrote that sentence.
Which GM did a worse job on this? Williams. Not only is his bullpen worse, but also it wasn't any good last year. He should have addressed it this offseason.
Hendry brought in Bob Howry and Scott Eyre as overpaid setup guys last year, and they were great. This year, Howry is average and Eyre can't get anyone out.
Time to change the floor mats. Yuck.