Broken Bat - Help: Bullpen help

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Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#52228	08/13/2017 4:44:38 pm
Cactusguy21 Joined: 07/25/2017 Posts: 815 Presque Isle Vikings III.4	I've had plenty of games lately where the bullpen has blown or has come close to blowing a game, so I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Could someone look at my bullpen to make sure that I'm putting guys in their optimal positions (I've also got bullpenners in AAA right now, they are injured.) I plan on cutting Jimmy Thomas and Gabriel Wolfe once I can, but should I also cut Louis Lucas? I have my eye on an older replacement whose 1M cheaper but a little worse that I could sign if need be. I am losing money right now I'm pretty sure, my salaries are way too high. Plus there are some young guys like On, Cordero, and Da Silva that need playing time. Updated Sunday, August 13 2017 @ 4:45:00 pm PDT

#52229	08/13/2017 5:17:37 pm
occham Joined: 11/07/2011 Posts: 258 Inactive	Only two real comments - I'm sure others can break it down better than I can. First, your starters are generically of a better quality than your bullpen. If I looked correctly, 5 of your top 6 by SI are starters and the other is Wolfe. That not a bad thing but that fact alone will lead to some drop off in quality and performance when you hand games over to the bullpen. The other 'generic' issue is that almost your whole staff has a lot of stamina - including all the bullpen guys. Stamina is nice for a starter but less relevant for a guy throwing 3 innings. That means that players like Gori are actually 5 full points ahead of someone like Silva when it comes to the bullpen even though their SIs are simliar. Essentially, the 4 points in stamina aren't worth as much as 4 points in movement when you're talking about a reliever. There's really not much you can do about it at this point in terms of shuffling guys around - just over time, use that lens a bit to judge where players are going to fit on your pitching staff. Updated Sunday, August 13 2017 @ 5:20:19 pm PDT

#52230	08/13/2017 5:30:43 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9596 Haverhill Halflings III.1	I would cut Lucas as well, although you may need him in the short term. You have a lot of lefties in your bullpen (plus two starters). Guys like Carr and Kerr pitch equally well to righties, so you don't have to count them as lefties, but that still leaves you with three. Reagan is certainly weaker against righties, but probably good enough to cover up for that weakness. Dae On is completely untested, so not much to say, but lefties with high velocity can be HR machines. I'd keep a close watch. Gōri would probably be better as a LHS. I'd swith Gōri and Dae On; at least until you have a better idea what Dae On is going to give you. Gonzalez looks pretty borderline. Definitely not setup material. You might consider bringing one of the starters back to play a second setup role (or just stick with one SET and one LHS). Gonzales should probably be a MR (and replaced when possible). You could also try Lucas at SET, but I'd be nervous putting him there. Other than the three guys you talked about cutting, I'm not seeing any bad ERAs in your bullpen. You need to find one good SET, and then dump Gonzales, Lucas, Wolfe, and Thomas. Nothing else immediately needed; 12 men is a large staff. 11 is usually sufficient.

#52236	08/14/2017 2:43:07 am
crackit Joined: 05/15/2013 Posts: 315 Anchorage Lawless IV.4	My ten cents worth. As you suggest you have the right starter rotation in place (their record is 5-1 but might have been better without the 3 blown saves). Broadly speaking you are averaging 5-6 per start which is probably OK but given these are the strongest pitches on your squad you might consider if you could squeeze a little more out of them. And again, as you suggest, your bullpen needs looking at with a 5-5 record and those 3 blown saves. You have 3 older pitchers you are considering cutting as their performance is declining and can get a little more erratic. A lot of bb managers cut as soon as players' performance dips but I am of the school of thought that their SI was good enough on the way up so why not on the way down particularly as they now have all that experience. So I get rid when my younger players are clearly better; if they are stopping more talented players from developing; if I can't afford their salary or finally their performance is bad enough that they need to go. I also tend to move them to RHS, LHS, SET or CLR to limit the damage caused by erratic play (but only if the numbers are good enough). All I am saying is get rid of them when you feel the time is right. Having said that I think Wolfe looks about ready to go or at least moved to SS or LR2 to limit his impact. The other two I might keep until I was certain the younger players are ready to step up. Which comes to what I think your issue is, giving time to your developing players. As a rule of thumb I first start them as RHS or LHS pitching in the 7th (or 6th inning) with a low pull and pitch count. As I become more assured having increased their time a little I might move them to LR or MR2 to increase the number of innings further. LR is particularly useful for potential starters as they can get extended time in games that have often been decided. Again I start off with slightly lower pull and pitch count values until my confidence in them grows. As your roster stands at the moment I would probably use Kerr as CLR and Hawkins as SET because right now these look like the strongest two in the bullpen (though this could change as the season progresses) but it does seem to me like Hawkins is pitching too many innings. Look at your management settings to see you can reduce this to help your developing players more time. Also, Roque in the minors looks like a good prospect. I might consider playing him in cup games but making sure that he is at the right level for Friday's training. A different perspective, but hopefully food for thought.

#52237	08/14/2017 4:39:48 am
newtman Joined: 11/02/2013 Posts: 3343 Inactive	The advice given so far looks pretty solid, I just want to emphasize Rock's last point. You should not be carrying 15 pitchers (with two in the minors) at any point for any reason. It blocks development and will create shortages in the minors pipeline later on that will keep you from promoting past a certain point. 13 pitchers at the ML level is the most you will ever need. Between 11-13 will cover the times of year when you have newly promoted pitchers and/or are still in the cup.

#52244	08/14/2017 9:42:28 am
Cactusguy21 Joined: 07/25/2017 Posts: 815 Presque Isle Vikings III.4	So the problem is that while Lucas and Gonzalez aren't restricted, Wolfe and Thomas are. And restrictions aren't removed for 30 days, so that's the 25th then. So I just want to make sure I'm understanding this better. Since Cordero has been performing well (plus he KILLED IT in Spring Training) at LR, and will be taking over for Pate or Carr in a season or two, I will move him to a specialist role to get him in more high leverage situations. But where the heck should Gonzalez go? If he goes MR, then Dae On is MR2. Is that proper thinking? LR: Da Silva LR2: Lucas/Wolfe/Thomas? MR: Gonzalez MR2: Dae On LHS: Gori (this is where I had him originally, but since everyone sucks I had moved him) RHS: Cordero SET: Hawkins CLR: Kerr I HATE RELEASE RESTRICTIONS :P Anyway, there is another quite old pitcher I found in FA that is okay (10/16/12/11/9), for under 0.75M, would that be a worthwhile signing to replace Lucas? Then cut Thomas and Wolfe when I can? As for Hawkins playing too much, part of the issue is that he is really efficient, so the 25 pitch count sometimes lasts a long time. Updated Monday, August 14 2017 @ 9:47:48 am PDT