arthurracoon
The Cardinal Smiles
(This article also discusses the DBacks a little)
http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/7365939
For teams like the Indians, pen is mighty -- big problem
A poor bullpen can make a good team mediocre. But when a mediocre team has a bad bullpen, the results can be catastrophic -- just ask the Indians. Scott Miller breaks down the majors' worst 'pens, led by the Indians, who have blown 14 of 18 save opportunities.
Overseeing a major-league bullpen can be a lot like managing a fast-food burger joint. From one summer to the next, when it comes to employees, for the majority of them, there's no telling what you're going to get.
"The last five, six, seven years, clubs in the top 10 in bullpens out of the 30 teams don't usually stay on that list," Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro was saying the other day. "It's amazing. There's just a lot of volatility."
That Shapiro was coherent enough to string a couple of sentences together says a lot about the guy's resilience. No other GM in baseball has died as many long, slow, agonizing, late-inning deaths watching his team this season as Shapiro.
The Indians don't only have the worst bullpen in the American League, they've got the worst bullpen in the major leagues.
It says so right there in the Cleveland relief corps' staggering 6.57 ERA -- a full run-and-a-half worse than the next-worst bullpen in baseball, Arizona and its 5.13 ERA through midweek.
Says so right there in the Cleveland pen's stunning 14 blown saves in 18 opportunities.
Say so right there as Shapiro and manager Eric Wedge continue to move more parts around than shady pawn shop dealers.
As the baseball season rounds first and heads into the Memorial Day weekend, the Indians, owners of a seven-game losing streak, certainly are not monopolizing the market on turning late-inning leads into nauseating, whirling amusement park rides.
Kansas City has demoted All-Star closer Mike MacDougal, Toronto has removed Terry Adams from sole possession of closer and Baltimore made an astounding seven roster moves Tuesday -- most of them dictated by a bullpen absorbing so many hard shots lately that were Francis Scott Key anywhere near the Inner Harbor today, he'd likely be moved to pen a sequel to his Star-Spangled Banner ("And the bombs bursting in air, Lee Mazzilli's red glare....").
Things are going so poorly for Matt Mantei in Arizona (three blown saves in seven opportunities, an 11.81 ERA) that he's considering a move toward attempting to become a starter, and Houston still doesn't have a foolproof plan in the post-Billy Wagner era. The Astros were considering making Brad Lidge the closer and moving Octavio Dotel back from the ninth inning to the setup role he seems more comfortable in -- then Lidge surrendered a three-run homer to Cincinnati's Austin Kearns in a tough loss Monday.
It was Lidge's second consecutive day of trouble: Sunday, he yielded two eighth-inning runs to snatch another victory away from Roger Clemens as the Astros were beaten by the Reds again in what turned into a four-game Cincinnati sweep. Suddenly, that 97 mph fastball and wicked slider don't seem like such a sure thing.
"What have you got, nine or 10 guys out of the 30 clubs who are slam dunks, and that's debatable," Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "You hope you can develop one of those guys, but you never know."
If the season's first seven weeks have done anything, they have served as a persistent reminder that, in these days of dwindling complete games from starters, it's difficult to do much of anything in this game without a deep and successful bullpen.
Particularly in Cleveland, where the late kicks in the teeth have come more often and more consistently than anyplace else.
At midweek, the 18-26 Indians were only 7½ games behind first-place Minnesota and Chicago -- which only magnifies Cleveland's maddeningly movable bullpen.
"You just take those 13 blown saves," Shapiro said Tuesday, only hours before the Indians would blow their 14th save. "Two of them were four-run leads. Give us those. Four others were two-run leads. Give us half of those.
"That's four games (the Indians arguably should have won), and we're right there then.
"Some other bullpens around the league have struggled, but our performance is off the charts. And a lot of it is guys with track records. Who would have ever guessed?"
Particularly in light of Cleveland's relief performance in 2003 -- fourth in the AL with a 3.84 ERA.
This year, though, the Indians are making Shapiro an unwilling witness to his earlier statement -- that the past few seasons, bullpens previously statistically ranked toward the top of the game often take a hard fall.
Right-hander David Riske, the aptly named now-former Cleveland closer, was the toughest reliever in the league for left-handed batters to hit last season. They managed only a .138 batting average against him.
This season, Riske, who was removed by Wedge from the closer's role a couple of weeks ago, is one of the easiest relievers in the league for left-handed batters to hit. Through midweek, they were blistering him for a .361 average.
"He's still throwing 90, 91 miles an hour," Shapiro said. "He's not the first guy like that."
Riske is tied for the major-league lead with four blown saves, along with Anaheim's Troy Percival, Cincinnati's Danny Graves and the Chicago White Sox's Damaso Marte. But Graves also has converted 21 save opportunities, and Percival 12.
The Indians on Thursday acquired journeyman Lou Pote from Oakland, and Pote will be the latest body Cleveland will throw at the problem. They also named veteran Jose Jimenez as their closer Wednesday -- the third Cleveland closer in 44 games. He replaces Rafael Betancourt, who replaced Riske. Jimenez was 102-for-123 in save situations for Colorado from 2000-2003, though he's 0-for-1 in Cleveland this season.
While Riske's was a clear demotion, moving Betancourt out of the closer's role was more of a self-defense move. Betancourt has been Cleveland's most consistent reliever, having not allowed a run in 13 of his 21 appearances.
Veteran Scott Stewart was ticketed to return to Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday to make room for Pote, 32, who was 1-2 with two saves and a 3.38 ERA for Triple-A Sacramento this season.
Pote will become the 13th reliever the Indians have used in a season that otherwise includes several bright spots. The continued development of switch-hitting catcher Victor Martinez, the shocking offensive success of second baseman Ronnie Belliard, the continued emergence of Travis Hafner -- Shapiro's rebuilding plan continues to take root.
It's just that, on too many nights after the bullpen has taken another pummeling, it doesn't seem like it.
"As much as you talk about a plan, a strategy, those late-inning losses are particularly painful," Shapiro said. "We have an extremely resilient club. After almost every one of those excruciating losses, we've come back strong the next day. Youth is part of our resilience."
But, as Shapiro also said, with a half-chuckle in one of those laugh-to-keep-from-crying moments, "The more I study the bullpen, the more I realize how little I know."
Tums Teams
The statistically most troublesome bullpens so far this season in each league, along with pertinent numbers and a quickie analysis:
American League
14. Cleveland, 6-14, 6.57 ERA, 14 blown saves in 18 opportunities: If the Indians bullpen was even 50 percent better, the Indians would be challenging Minnesota and the White Sox for the AL Central lead.
13. Seattle, 8-10, 4.55, eight saves: It has been a struggle. Opponents are batting .298 against Mariners relievers, the highest average against any bullpen in the majors. And thanks in part to closer Eddie Guardado's sore shoulder earlier this season, Seattle has blown eight of 16 save opportunities (Guardado is 8-for-10, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and J.J. Putz each are 0-for-2 and Julio Mateo and Rafael Soriano each are 0-for-1.
12. Toronto, 8-13, 4.52, six saves: Only Cleveland has fewer saves in the AL than the Blue Jays. Manager Carlos Tosca removed Terry Adams from the closer's role shortly after the crushing, pinch-hit grand slam he allowed to Minnesota's Matt LeCroy last week and is going with a closer-by-committee (or, as Ricciardi prefers to call it, a "closer-by-choice"). That closer-by-committee idea, by the way, is not endorsed by the Boston Red Sox -- been there, done that in 2003.
Honorable mention: Kansas City. Though the Royals' bullpen ranks fifth in the AL with a 3.57 ERA and a 10-9 record, it has been as guilty as anybody else for Kansas City's disappointing season. The Royals have led five games this season going into the ninth inning and ended up losing. Jeremy Affeldt has been taken out of the rotation and installed as the closer.
National League
16. Arizona, 6-9, 5.13, seven saves: The Diamondbacks pitching staff has walked an inexplicable 190 batters in 44 games, putting them on pace to walk 700 for the season. No NL team since 1900 has finished with a winning record while allowing 700 or more bases on balls.
"Walks have been huge all year long, and I don't understand it," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "I've got to believe if I'm sitting down there in the bullpen watching the games and the phone rings and it's me coming in there, I'm going to throw the ball over the plate and let them put it in play and take my chances with the gloves behind me. But that just doesn't seem to be the case."
15. Colorado, 5-7, 4.84, 10 saves: We're pretty sure it's a major-league rule that the Rockies must appear among the league worst in all pitching statistics. The Rockies have blown seven of 17 save opportunities (Vladimir Nunez is 0-for-3), though Shawn Chacon is 10-of-12 since being installed as closer.
14. San Francisco, 10-8, 4.48, 15 saves: Matt Herges (14 saves) has been an unexpected delight in the absence of closer Robb Nen -- who many think might never pitch again.
Rolaids Teams
As in, the Rolaids Reliever awards -- the best bullpens in each league along with pertinent numbers and a quickie analysis:
American League
1. Boston, 9-4, 2.61, 12 saves: Night and day difference between last season's disastrous closer-by-committee and this season's closer-by-Keith Foulke. Opponents are hitting just .204 against Boston's pen. Setup men Alan Embree, Mike Timlin and Scott Williamson (before he landed on the disabled list) get a tip o' the cap.
2. Anaheim, 8-3, 3.01, 17 saves: Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez is in his 2002 postseason form, Percival is still solid, and with setup men Scot Shields and Kevin Gregg going well, they've overcome the continued absence of All-Star Brendan Donnelly.
3. Tampa Bay, 5-6, 3.50, seven saves: Danys Baez, Lance Carter, Trever Miller, Travis Harper, Jorge Sosa -- you never would have guessed, would you? But Tampa Bay produced a club-record 27 2/3 scoreless bullpen innings before it finally ended against Minnesota on Tuesday.
"Impressive," manager Lou Piniella told Tampa Bay reporters. "That's pretty darn good, it really is. And why? We've been aggressive in the strike zone."
Honorable mention: New York Yankees. Statistically they rank sixth, behind the aforementioned three teams along with the White Sox and Kansas City, but with Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon and Paul Quantrill, we know better.
National League
1. Pittsburgh, 7-5, 2.73, 14 saves: Closer Jose Mesa is experiencing a renaissance on the other side of Pennsylvania after pitching himself right out of Philadelphia.
2. Philadelphia, 7-7, 2.89, 15 saves: Who needs Mesa? Though things will be easier for the Phils when Billy Wagner gets healthy again -- if he and the Phillies training staff ever get beyond the widening rift in which Wagner is pretty much on his own.
3. Los Angeles, 8-2, 2.96, 12 saves: Two words: Eric Gagne. OK, Guillermo Mota is a bullpen ace, too.
Honorable mention: San Diego. The Padres rank fifth with a 3.54 bullpen ERA, and they've got a great thing going with setup men Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka and closer Trevor Hoffman. And, they've finally gotten Rod Beck back.
Attack of the Tomato Grower
Also on the bullpen front, as rookie skipper Lee Mazzilli attempts to keep his Baltimore Orioles hoisted over the .500 mark and toward the top of the AL East, he's learning early how to handle a situation in which there is no right answer.
Rodrigo Lopez, who went from pitching winter ball for the Culiacan Tomato Growers in the Mexican League in 2001 to lead the Orioles with 15 victories in 2002, was lights out in a reasonably steady Orioles bullpen earlier this season. He compiled a sparkling 0.33 ERA in 12 relief appearances despite his disappointment at Mazzilli's spring decision to use him out of the pen instead of the rotation. No matter, in the season's first five weeks, Lopez bailed out more Orioles starters than AAA and probably was the team MVP.
Wellll ... enough holes sprung open in Baltimore's rotation that Mazzilli was left with an unappetizing choice:
Did he allow the rotation to flounder and keep Lopez in the pen?
Or did he move Lopez into the rotation, thus opening up a gaping hole in the bullpen?
With little choice but to opt for moving Lopez into the rotation -- hey, Lopez wasn't going to be doing anybody any good if the Orioles were trailing 7-0 every time he entered a game -- Mazzilli did just that.
Lopez responded by allowing six runs in the fifth inning of his first start, and he was tiring in the fifth inning of Wednesday night's 12-9 loss to the Yankees before a rain delay ended his evening. Lopez wound up allowing five runs and six hits in five innings. He walked four and didn't strike out anybody.
"I thought we had the right answer in spring training," Mazzilli said. "The right answer in spring training was that we were going to try him out of the bullpen because I felt that's where his value was. He was really great out of the pen. He did a hell of a job.
"He was very valuable in the pen, but you always have to be ready to make changes in this game. You can't stand pat."
The Orioles pitching reached crisis point this week as the club made a whopping seven roster moves Tuesday. Included were optioning pitchers Matt Riley and Rick Bauer to Triple-A Ottawa and recalling pitcher Denny Bautista from Double-A Bowie.
The Orioles also may be facing a decision soon on what to do with veteran Mike DeJean. As leaks spring up all over their pitching staff, the veteran DeJean should be able to help. Instead, DeJean is 0-4 with a 9.19 ERA and has allowed a shocking 53 base runners in just 15 2/3 innings.
Buy 'em by the sack
The $325 that Anaheim traveling secretary Tom Taylor dropped at a White Castle near Detroit this week just might be the best money the Angels have spent since signing Vladimir Guerrero.
Anybody who lives near a White Castle knows that those bite-sized little burgers rank high among life's pleasures, and now the Angels, enduring weather and an all-night trip from Anaheim to Toronto, can attest.
Blocked from landing in Toronto on Sunday night because of thunderstorms and fog, the Angels were diverted back to Detroit ... where they landed at roughly 2 a.m. Monday morning. Given the option to either loading up in a couple of buses and driving the four or five hours from Detroit to Toronto or waiting for clearance to fly, which was expected to come around 6 a.m., the Angels opted to wait.
That's when Taylor, who remembered Angels radio engineer Darren Chan bringing back a 30-pack of White Castles to the team hotel in Detroit a month ago, sprung into action. Informed by the flight attendants that the only food remaining on the plane was some whole fruit ...
"I said, 'Gosh, it would be great if there was a White Castle around here, so I asked one of the (airport) ground crew members what was nearby," Taylor said. "He said there was a Denny's across the street. I asked him if there was a White Castle nearby and he said there was one five or 10 minutes away."
So off he went. Taylor walked into the White Castle about 3:45 in the morning and said, "I need eight 30-packs, 25 fries and 25 onion chips."
"The guy behind the counter, a young guy, maybe 18 or 20, said, 'Hold on one second' and disappeared in the back," Taylor said.
He returned with a manager, Taylor explained his predicament, and the manager said, "Give us 25, 30 minutes."
Soon Taylor was back aboard the plane with White Castles for everyone: Two party packs of 100 burgers, a 30-pack box, eight or nine bags of fries and onion chips -- and the plane was dark. Everyone was asleep. Until ...
"As I walked from the front of the plane to the back, heads started popping up once everyone began smelling the White Castles," Taylor said. "The flight attendants passed them out to everybody ... the players, pilots."
The Angels wound up landing in Toronto at 6:30 a.m., they reached their hotel at 8 ... and then lost a 6-5 decision to the Blue Jays later that night.
But at least they weren't hungry.
No-no man
One last stray item from Randy Johnson's perfect game against Atlanta. It was just another ho-hum night for Braves coach Pat Corrales, who now has been in uniform eight times for a no-hitter.
The list of memorable nights for Corrales, the longtime Atlanta coach and one-time backup catcher in Cincinnati:
May 18, 2004: Randy Johnson's perfect game against the Braves.
April 4, 1994: Atlanta's Kent Mercker no-hits the Dodgers.
Sept. 11, 1991: Atlanta's Kent Mercker, Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena combine to no-hit San Diego.
June 23, 1971: Philadelphia's Rick Wise no-hits the Reds.
June 3, 1971: Chicago Cubs' Ken Holtzman no-hits the Reds.
May 1, 1969: Houston's Don Wilson no-hits the Reds.
April 30, 1969: Cincinnati's Jim Maloney no-hits the Astros.
July 29, 1968: Cincinnati's Jim Culver no-hits the Phillies.
The list
Rodrigo Lopez lists the five best things about being a Tomato Grower:
"The fans really love baseball. It's hard to find that in Mexico because it's more soccer."
"Every year, they build a team that is competitive enough to win the championship of that league."
"The women are beautiful -- but I'm married."
"That's my hometown. That's where my house is."
"The tomatoes are very good."
http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/7365939
For teams like the Indians, pen is mighty -- big problem
A poor bullpen can make a good team mediocre. But when a mediocre team has a bad bullpen, the results can be catastrophic -- just ask the Indians. Scott Miller breaks down the majors' worst 'pens, led by the Indians, who have blown 14 of 18 save opportunities.
Overseeing a major-league bullpen can be a lot like managing a fast-food burger joint. From one summer to the next, when it comes to employees, for the majority of them, there's no telling what you're going to get.
"The last five, six, seven years, clubs in the top 10 in bullpens out of the 30 teams don't usually stay on that list," Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro was saying the other day. "It's amazing. There's just a lot of volatility."
That Shapiro was coherent enough to string a couple of sentences together says a lot about the guy's resilience. No other GM in baseball has died as many long, slow, agonizing, late-inning deaths watching his team this season as Shapiro.
The Indians don't only have the worst bullpen in the American League, they've got the worst bullpen in the major leagues.
It says so right there in the Cleveland relief corps' staggering 6.57 ERA -- a full run-and-a-half worse than the next-worst bullpen in baseball, Arizona and its 5.13 ERA through midweek.
Says so right there in the Cleveland pen's stunning 14 blown saves in 18 opportunities.
Say so right there as Shapiro and manager Eric Wedge continue to move more parts around than shady pawn shop dealers.
As the baseball season rounds first and heads into the Memorial Day weekend, the Indians, owners of a seven-game losing streak, certainly are not monopolizing the market on turning late-inning leads into nauseating, whirling amusement park rides.
Kansas City has demoted All-Star closer Mike MacDougal, Toronto has removed Terry Adams from sole possession of closer and Baltimore made an astounding seven roster moves Tuesday -- most of them dictated by a bullpen absorbing so many hard shots lately that were Francis Scott Key anywhere near the Inner Harbor today, he'd likely be moved to pen a sequel to his Star-Spangled Banner ("And the bombs bursting in air, Lee Mazzilli's red glare....").
Things are going so poorly for Matt Mantei in Arizona (three blown saves in seven opportunities, an 11.81 ERA) that he's considering a move toward attempting to become a starter, and Houston still doesn't have a foolproof plan in the post-Billy Wagner era. The Astros were considering making Brad Lidge the closer and moving Octavio Dotel back from the ninth inning to the setup role he seems more comfortable in -- then Lidge surrendered a three-run homer to Cincinnati's Austin Kearns in a tough loss Monday.
It was Lidge's second consecutive day of trouble: Sunday, he yielded two eighth-inning runs to snatch another victory away from Roger Clemens as the Astros were beaten by the Reds again in what turned into a four-game Cincinnati sweep. Suddenly, that 97 mph fastball and wicked slider don't seem like such a sure thing.
"What have you got, nine or 10 guys out of the 30 clubs who are slam dunks, and that's debatable," Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "You hope you can develop one of those guys, but you never know."
If the season's first seven weeks have done anything, they have served as a persistent reminder that, in these days of dwindling complete games from starters, it's difficult to do much of anything in this game without a deep and successful bullpen.
Particularly in Cleveland, where the late kicks in the teeth have come more often and more consistently than anyplace else.
At midweek, the 18-26 Indians were only 7½ games behind first-place Minnesota and Chicago -- which only magnifies Cleveland's maddeningly movable bullpen.
"You just take those 13 blown saves," Shapiro said Tuesday, only hours before the Indians would blow their 14th save. "Two of them were four-run leads. Give us those. Four others were two-run leads. Give us half of those.
"That's four games (the Indians arguably should have won), and we're right there then.
"Some other bullpens around the league have struggled, but our performance is off the charts. And a lot of it is guys with track records. Who would have ever guessed?"
Particularly in light of Cleveland's relief performance in 2003 -- fourth in the AL with a 3.84 ERA.
This year, though, the Indians are making Shapiro an unwilling witness to his earlier statement -- that the past few seasons, bullpens previously statistically ranked toward the top of the game often take a hard fall.
Right-hander David Riske, the aptly named now-former Cleveland closer, was the toughest reliever in the league for left-handed batters to hit last season. They managed only a .138 batting average against him.
This season, Riske, who was removed by Wedge from the closer's role a couple of weeks ago, is one of the easiest relievers in the league for left-handed batters to hit. Through midweek, they were blistering him for a .361 average.
"He's still throwing 90, 91 miles an hour," Shapiro said. "He's not the first guy like that."
Riske is tied for the major-league lead with four blown saves, along with Anaheim's Troy Percival, Cincinnati's Danny Graves and the Chicago White Sox's Damaso Marte. But Graves also has converted 21 save opportunities, and Percival 12.
The Indians on Thursday acquired journeyman Lou Pote from Oakland, and Pote will be the latest body Cleveland will throw at the problem. They also named veteran Jose Jimenez as their closer Wednesday -- the third Cleveland closer in 44 games. He replaces Rafael Betancourt, who replaced Riske. Jimenez was 102-for-123 in save situations for Colorado from 2000-2003, though he's 0-for-1 in Cleveland this season.
While Riske's was a clear demotion, moving Betancourt out of the closer's role was more of a self-defense move. Betancourt has been Cleveland's most consistent reliever, having not allowed a run in 13 of his 21 appearances.
Veteran Scott Stewart was ticketed to return to Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday to make room for Pote, 32, who was 1-2 with two saves and a 3.38 ERA for Triple-A Sacramento this season.
Pote will become the 13th reliever the Indians have used in a season that otherwise includes several bright spots. The continued development of switch-hitting catcher Victor Martinez, the shocking offensive success of second baseman Ronnie Belliard, the continued emergence of Travis Hafner -- Shapiro's rebuilding plan continues to take root.
It's just that, on too many nights after the bullpen has taken another pummeling, it doesn't seem like it.
"As much as you talk about a plan, a strategy, those late-inning losses are particularly painful," Shapiro said. "We have an extremely resilient club. After almost every one of those excruciating losses, we've come back strong the next day. Youth is part of our resilience."
But, as Shapiro also said, with a half-chuckle in one of those laugh-to-keep-from-crying moments, "The more I study the bullpen, the more I realize how little I know."
Tums Teams
The statistically most troublesome bullpens so far this season in each league, along with pertinent numbers and a quickie analysis:
American League
14. Cleveland, 6-14, 6.57 ERA, 14 blown saves in 18 opportunities: If the Indians bullpen was even 50 percent better, the Indians would be challenging Minnesota and the White Sox for the AL Central lead.
13. Seattle, 8-10, 4.55, eight saves: It has been a struggle. Opponents are batting .298 against Mariners relievers, the highest average against any bullpen in the majors. And thanks in part to closer Eddie Guardado's sore shoulder earlier this season, Seattle has blown eight of 16 save opportunities (Guardado is 8-for-10, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and J.J. Putz each are 0-for-2 and Julio Mateo and Rafael Soriano each are 0-for-1.
12. Toronto, 8-13, 4.52, six saves: Only Cleveland has fewer saves in the AL than the Blue Jays. Manager Carlos Tosca removed Terry Adams from the closer's role shortly after the crushing, pinch-hit grand slam he allowed to Minnesota's Matt LeCroy last week and is going with a closer-by-committee (or, as Ricciardi prefers to call it, a "closer-by-choice"). That closer-by-committee idea, by the way, is not endorsed by the Boston Red Sox -- been there, done that in 2003.
Honorable mention: Kansas City. Though the Royals' bullpen ranks fifth in the AL with a 3.57 ERA and a 10-9 record, it has been as guilty as anybody else for Kansas City's disappointing season. The Royals have led five games this season going into the ninth inning and ended up losing. Jeremy Affeldt has been taken out of the rotation and installed as the closer.
National League
16. Arizona, 6-9, 5.13, seven saves: The Diamondbacks pitching staff has walked an inexplicable 190 batters in 44 games, putting them on pace to walk 700 for the season. No NL team since 1900 has finished with a winning record while allowing 700 or more bases on balls.
"Walks have been huge all year long, and I don't understand it," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "I've got to believe if I'm sitting down there in the bullpen watching the games and the phone rings and it's me coming in there, I'm going to throw the ball over the plate and let them put it in play and take my chances with the gloves behind me. But that just doesn't seem to be the case."
15. Colorado, 5-7, 4.84, 10 saves: We're pretty sure it's a major-league rule that the Rockies must appear among the league worst in all pitching statistics. The Rockies have blown seven of 17 save opportunities (Vladimir Nunez is 0-for-3), though Shawn Chacon is 10-of-12 since being installed as closer.
14. San Francisco, 10-8, 4.48, 15 saves: Matt Herges (14 saves) has been an unexpected delight in the absence of closer Robb Nen -- who many think might never pitch again.
Rolaids Teams
As in, the Rolaids Reliever awards -- the best bullpens in each league along with pertinent numbers and a quickie analysis:
American League
1. Boston, 9-4, 2.61, 12 saves: Night and day difference between last season's disastrous closer-by-committee and this season's closer-by-Keith Foulke. Opponents are hitting just .204 against Boston's pen. Setup men Alan Embree, Mike Timlin and Scott Williamson (before he landed on the disabled list) get a tip o' the cap.
2. Anaheim, 8-3, 3.01, 17 saves: Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez is in his 2002 postseason form, Percival is still solid, and with setup men Scot Shields and Kevin Gregg going well, they've overcome the continued absence of All-Star Brendan Donnelly.
3. Tampa Bay, 5-6, 3.50, seven saves: Danys Baez, Lance Carter, Trever Miller, Travis Harper, Jorge Sosa -- you never would have guessed, would you? But Tampa Bay produced a club-record 27 2/3 scoreless bullpen innings before it finally ended against Minnesota on Tuesday.
"Impressive," manager Lou Piniella told Tampa Bay reporters. "That's pretty darn good, it really is. And why? We've been aggressive in the strike zone."
Honorable mention: New York Yankees. Statistically they rank sixth, behind the aforementioned three teams along with the White Sox and Kansas City, but with Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon and Paul Quantrill, we know better.
National League
1. Pittsburgh, 7-5, 2.73, 14 saves: Closer Jose Mesa is experiencing a renaissance on the other side of Pennsylvania after pitching himself right out of Philadelphia.
2. Philadelphia, 7-7, 2.89, 15 saves: Who needs Mesa? Though things will be easier for the Phils when Billy Wagner gets healthy again -- if he and the Phillies training staff ever get beyond the widening rift in which Wagner is pretty much on his own.
3. Los Angeles, 8-2, 2.96, 12 saves: Two words: Eric Gagne. OK, Guillermo Mota is a bullpen ace, too.
Honorable mention: San Diego. The Padres rank fifth with a 3.54 bullpen ERA, and they've got a great thing going with setup men Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka and closer Trevor Hoffman. And, they've finally gotten Rod Beck back.
Attack of the Tomato Grower
Also on the bullpen front, as rookie skipper Lee Mazzilli attempts to keep his Baltimore Orioles hoisted over the .500 mark and toward the top of the AL East, he's learning early how to handle a situation in which there is no right answer.
Rodrigo Lopez, who went from pitching winter ball for the Culiacan Tomato Growers in the Mexican League in 2001 to lead the Orioles with 15 victories in 2002, was lights out in a reasonably steady Orioles bullpen earlier this season. He compiled a sparkling 0.33 ERA in 12 relief appearances despite his disappointment at Mazzilli's spring decision to use him out of the pen instead of the rotation. No matter, in the season's first five weeks, Lopez bailed out more Orioles starters than AAA and probably was the team MVP.
Wellll ... enough holes sprung open in Baltimore's rotation that Mazzilli was left with an unappetizing choice:
Did he allow the rotation to flounder and keep Lopez in the pen?
Or did he move Lopez into the rotation, thus opening up a gaping hole in the bullpen?
With little choice but to opt for moving Lopez into the rotation -- hey, Lopez wasn't going to be doing anybody any good if the Orioles were trailing 7-0 every time he entered a game -- Mazzilli did just that.
Lopez responded by allowing six runs in the fifth inning of his first start, and he was tiring in the fifth inning of Wednesday night's 12-9 loss to the Yankees before a rain delay ended his evening. Lopez wound up allowing five runs and six hits in five innings. He walked four and didn't strike out anybody.
"I thought we had the right answer in spring training," Mazzilli said. "The right answer in spring training was that we were going to try him out of the bullpen because I felt that's where his value was. He was really great out of the pen. He did a hell of a job.
"He was very valuable in the pen, but you always have to be ready to make changes in this game. You can't stand pat."
The Orioles pitching reached crisis point this week as the club made a whopping seven roster moves Tuesday. Included were optioning pitchers Matt Riley and Rick Bauer to Triple-A Ottawa and recalling pitcher Denny Bautista from Double-A Bowie.
The Orioles also may be facing a decision soon on what to do with veteran Mike DeJean. As leaks spring up all over their pitching staff, the veteran DeJean should be able to help. Instead, DeJean is 0-4 with a 9.19 ERA and has allowed a shocking 53 base runners in just 15 2/3 innings.
Buy 'em by the sack
The $325 that Anaheim traveling secretary Tom Taylor dropped at a White Castle near Detroit this week just might be the best money the Angels have spent since signing Vladimir Guerrero.
Anybody who lives near a White Castle knows that those bite-sized little burgers rank high among life's pleasures, and now the Angels, enduring weather and an all-night trip from Anaheim to Toronto, can attest.
Blocked from landing in Toronto on Sunday night because of thunderstorms and fog, the Angels were diverted back to Detroit ... where they landed at roughly 2 a.m. Monday morning. Given the option to either loading up in a couple of buses and driving the four or five hours from Detroit to Toronto or waiting for clearance to fly, which was expected to come around 6 a.m., the Angels opted to wait.
That's when Taylor, who remembered Angels radio engineer Darren Chan bringing back a 30-pack of White Castles to the team hotel in Detroit a month ago, sprung into action. Informed by the flight attendants that the only food remaining on the plane was some whole fruit ...
"I said, 'Gosh, it would be great if there was a White Castle around here, so I asked one of the (airport) ground crew members what was nearby," Taylor said. "He said there was a Denny's across the street. I asked him if there was a White Castle nearby and he said there was one five or 10 minutes away."
So off he went. Taylor walked into the White Castle about 3:45 in the morning and said, "I need eight 30-packs, 25 fries and 25 onion chips."
"The guy behind the counter, a young guy, maybe 18 or 20, said, 'Hold on one second' and disappeared in the back," Taylor said.
He returned with a manager, Taylor explained his predicament, and the manager said, "Give us 25, 30 minutes."
Soon Taylor was back aboard the plane with White Castles for everyone: Two party packs of 100 burgers, a 30-pack box, eight or nine bags of fries and onion chips -- and the plane was dark. Everyone was asleep. Until ...
"As I walked from the front of the plane to the back, heads started popping up once everyone began smelling the White Castles," Taylor said. "The flight attendants passed them out to everybody ... the players, pilots."
The Angels wound up landing in Toronto at 6:30 a.m., they reached their hotel at 8 ... and then lost a 6-5 decision to the Blue Jays later that night.
But at least they weren't hungry.
No-no man
One last stray item from Randy Johnson's perfect game against Atlanta. It was just another ho-hum night for Braves coach Pat Corrales, who now has been in uniform eight times for a no-hitter.
The list of memorable nights for Corrales, the longtime Atlanta coach and one-time backup catcher in Cincinnati:
May 18, 2004: Randy Johnson's perfect game against the Braves.
April 4, 1994: Atlanta's Kent Mercker no-hits the Dodgers.
Sept. 11, 1991: Atlanta's Kent Mercker, Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena combine to no-hit San Diego.
June 23, 1971: Philadelphia's Rick Wise no-hits the Reds.
June 3, 1971: Chicago Cubs' Ken Holtzman no-hits the Reds.
May 1, 1969: Houston's Don Wilson no-hits the Reds.
April 30, 1969: Cincinnati's Jim Maloney no-hits the Astros.
July 29, 1968: Cincinnati's Jim Culver no-hits the Phillies.
The list
Rodrigo Lopez lists the five best things about being a Tomato Grower:
"The fans really love baseball. It's hard to find that in Mexico because it's more soccer."
"Every year, they build a team that is competitive enough to win the championship of that league."
"The women are beautiful -- but I'm married."
"That's my hometown. That's where my house is."
"The tomatoes are very good."
