AngelsWin.com Today: Angels could be breaking new ground in bullpen

[AngelsWin.com]

The second year under a new General Manager is typically where you’ll begin to see the most change within an organization.  The first year is spent sort of learning the ropes, getting an infrastructure built, and evaluating just where you are and what you’ve inherited.  But the second year is when a GM can begin to make signings and trades that can shape the direction of an organization and reveal a lot of about a General Manager’s philosophy.  Some are harder to figure out, but not Billy Eppler.  He made clear what he values the day he traded for Andrelton Simmons.  He values run prevention, which is just a fancy way of saying defense.  Eppler  only reaffirmed it this winter when he traded for brilliant defensive middle infielder Danny Espinosa, rangy CF Cam Maybin to play LF (along with Ben Revere), and Martin Maldonado to play catcher.  But it also appears upon closer examination, that Billy Eppler may be trying to employ an entirely new tactic in pitching.

A long range bullpen.

Your typical bullpen is full of one inning specialist such as set up men and closers, a one out specialist like a lefty reliever, and one mop up man that can cover 2-3 innings if needed.

But one look at who the Angels have brought in and you start to suspect that perhaps Eppler intends to arm Scioscia with a series of relievers that are all capable of going 2+ innings.

There’s Jose Alvarez, who operates both as a multiple inning specialist and a lefty specialist, J.C. Ramirez, who the Angels are getting stretched out as a starter, Jesse Chavez who will work both as a starter or reliever as needed, Alex Meyer who is a starter but many believe will end up in relief, Vicente Campos who is being worked out as a starter as well but has the arsenal of a hard-throwing reliever, and Brooks Pounders who is expected to work in both capacities.  Now chances are, Chavez will be the fifth starter, Ramirez is being stretched out just for the sake of versatility, Alvarez will resume his multi-inning role and Meyer, Campos and Pounders will all be ticketed for AAA.

Sure, that clears everything up and makes it all squeaky clean.  But even in AAA, the Angels are still expected to have a rotation of Daniel Wright, Manny Banuelos, Nate Smith, Vicente Campos and Alex Meyer.  That still leaves Brooks Pounders, Chris O’Grady, Troy Scribner and Jordan Kipper as long relief options, lest the Angels wish to have Scribner and Kipper repeat AA again, a level they each had a ton of success at already.

Picture this for a moment, Jesse Chavez works three scoreless frames, one time through the order, and comes out.  It minimizes the offense’s opportunity for any familiar or comfortable at bats.  J.C. Ramirez who has a completely different arsenal and look comes in for another two innings.  A strong lefty component is on deck and in the hole, so Jose Alvarez comes in for another two innings, all to set up Bailey, Bedrock and Street.

Suddenly it appears the Angels have set up a group of pitchers versatile enough to compete against a variety of match-ups.

Or better yet, the Angels decide it’s time to really limit Richards, Skaggs and Meyer’s innings (once he’s in the majors) to prevent injury.  They’d also like to be able to hook Nolasco before the other team can do too much damage, or before his 13 million dollar option vests.  Suddenly we have four different starters that may only go 4-5 innings on a consistent basis, and will need a relief core to eat 2-4 innings a night before Bailey-Bedrock-Street take over.  With Ramirez, Chavez, Alvarez and Pounders all on the 40-man, all working in relief, the Angels would have the depth to pull such a move off.

Now obviously we can’t say it will or won’t be a certain way when it comes to bullpen alignment.  But it’s at least something worth thinking about.  A long range bullpen full of multiple inning specialists….

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[Glen]

This is rapidly becoming the worst-kept secret in the league.

[Troll Daddy]

Angels are quietly doing their part to speed up the game.

[Second Base]

I think the Padres plan to do something similar.

[Chuck]

The Padres have no SP at all though. 

[Docwaukee]

Not sure if anyone knows this about me, but I have been known to suggest something very similar.  

Dave Roberts caught tremendous heat for doing essentially the above.  Limiting his starters innings in general but limiting their exposure third time through.  And then he won manager of the year for it.  Which is interesting because he was absolutely given his marching orders from his overstaffed collection of saber oriented front office personnel.  

It flies in the face of conventional baseball.  You should set your team up so your starter get deep into games and limit the exposure/innings of your pen.  

But what if all your starters arms fell off and were recently glued back on?  Well, I give you the 2017 Angels.  Where not one starter will throw 200 innings.  In fact, I would be surprised in one throws 175ip.  

By default, the halo pen is going to be exposed.  Eppler knows this.  So you grab as many high upside arms as you can and hope some shit sticks.  

But that selling point is going out an removing Richards or Skaggs or Meyer after 4 2/3rds when they've given up 1 run.  MS is probably a little annoyed at the prospect of doing such.  Any of those pitchers would be pissed and the fans are scratching their head.  It could work nine times and if it doesn't on the tenth, the media will be all over it.  The fans will lose their shit, and AW might literally explode.  

But it's the right plan and needs to be executed.  We shall see.  

 

[Docwaukee]

BTW, nice job scotty.  

[Sully151]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

The Padres have no SP at all though. 

I heard they had a guy that, on occasion, touches 83 mph. 

[ukyah]

i live in san diego. so, i generally have some knowledge on the padres, but i don't know how a team that is literally always bad can have no young pitching.

[Second Base]

9 hours ago, Dochalo said:

BTW, nice job scotty.  

Thanks, Doc. I didn't realize you had already suggested it. Sorry about that.

[Troll Daddy]

I thought the idea was for starters to go deeper into the games.

save the bullpen 

[Docwaukee]

2 hours ago, Scotty@AW said:

Thanks, Doc. I didn't realize you had already suggested it. Sorry about that.

all good.  no apologies necessary.  

[wopphil]

I like Eppler a lot, but he gets pretty low marks from me when it comes to the bullpen. The last few years of bullpen building have largely been the same: quantity over quality.  And the results have been the same: mediocrity (at best).

I see no reason why this season will be any different. I expect the pen to be somewhere toward the bottom of the AL.

[Docwaukee]

51 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

I thought the idea was for starters to go deeper into the games.

save the bullpen 

I think that's the point many of us are trying to make.  

That works if you have the personnel for it.  Cubs, Giants, White Sox, Nats and Indians were all near the top in starter innings because they all have guys who are talented top of the rotation guys.  

Guys that you would likely rather have out their facing a lineup for the third time through vs. some mediocre pen arm.  

But honestly, even as much as it's conventional wisdom to 'get your starters deep and save your pen', my question is why?  

Why let a guy who is going to put up an era of 6.00 for innings 6 and 7 because he's tired and hitters are familiar with him when you can put out a fresh face who is likely to give you an era of 4.00 for those two innings?

Why are we saving the pen?  Again, conventionally it's because over the course of a season, you would have only 4 or 5 guys coming out of the pen and you wouldn't want to burn them out.  Yet, with this years halos, we have about 10-12 guys that could fill the role of a 2 inning guy that would net you a 4-4.5 era to bridge that gap between your starter and the true back of your pen.  

Play to your strengths or try to create them for yourself in potentially unconventional ways (by modern standards).  Traditional baseball methods have to be adjusted to what you've got.  

[OregonLAA]

The only problem is that I don't trust Scisocia in managing a bullpen. That's his biggest flaw in my opinion