Red Sox sign RP Edward Mujica

[Stradling]

Here is an idea, if you guys don't like the threads that are complaining about Dipoto, stop reading them. I know that is a difficult concept for you, but try it.

Stop reading all threads in the main forum, got it.

[Stradling]

With health this bullpen is better, but may not still be great. I think with a healthy Burnett we can be much better. Everyone seems high on Morin, and hopefully he is as good as advertised. I like a few of us on here will take a wait and see approach, because I don't think Dipoto is done tinkering. I am pretty sure most of us would be happy if he added one more guy like Howell.

[KingJustinian]

Saying our bullpen set is completely inaccurate. Yes, we have a lot of guys but are we really counting on Jepsen, Kohn, and Salas?

With that said, Mujica isn't that great. Yeah his command is pretty damn good but I think there's a reason the Cardinals didn't use him in the playoffs.

Yes we are, for the sixth and seventh inning maybe the occasional eighth.

Also, why are we comparing our bullpen to the A's?

[HaloMagic]

We are comparing our bullpen to good bullpens.

[Brandon]

I never thought a good bullpen was so black and white.

Teams get guys like De La Rosa that come out of nowhere or we see random situations like 2002 where Weber and Donnelly came out of nowhere (literally) to make the Angels pen one of these good bullpens mentioned.

[jshep]

With health this bullpen is better, but may not still be great. I think with a healthy Burnett we can be much better. Everyone seems high on Morin, and hopefully he is as good as advertised. I like a few of us on here will take a wait and see approach, because I don't think Dipoto is done tinkering. I am pretty sure most of us would be happy if he added one more guy like Howell.

 

I agree that if Burnett is healthy, it's better, but I'm also not in love with the idea of assuming that Burnett is going to be healthy.

 

And Morin doesn't currently look like he'll make the Opening Day bullpen, although he's likely put himself in a position where he's the 1st guy up in case of an injury, which is nice to have because guys are going to get hurt.

 

I would like to see them add someone like Howell, assuming they can do that while still adding 2 non-crappy starters.

[VariousCrap]

Even if the Angels signed Tanaka and Garza for the final starting pitching spots, I would still say the bullpen is not good enough. 

 

When you factor in the possibility that the Angels may not sign starting pitchers as good as Tanaka and Garza, that makes the bullpen even more important.

 

This bullpen is simply not good enough.  We need at least one more BP arm.  Heck, we probably need two more.  Jepsen and Salas are total shit.

[ettin]

I never thought a good bullpen was so black and white.

Teams get guys like De La Rosa that come out of nowhere or we see random situations like 2002 where Weber and Donnelly came out of nowhere (literally) to make the Angels pen one of these good bullpens mentioned.

 

Apparently not having enough high-profile "named" relief pitchers doesn't equate to a high quality bullpen. I guess we need more high-profile relievers, such as Joakim Soria, Ryan Madson, Drew Storen, Johnny Venters, and Sergio Santos to enter the new season with a sense of bullpen stability.

 

Brandon this is just a general comment about the reliability of reliever's arms and not directed at your particular comment.

 

[Taylor]

Dipoto read this headline and said, "Wait, Mujica was a free agent?"

[mtangelsfan]

Apparently not having enough high-profile "named" relief pitchers doesn't equate to a high quality bullpen. I guess we need more high-profile relievers, such as Joakim Soria, Ryan Madson, Drew Storen, Johnny Venters, and Sergio Santos to enter the new season with a sense of bullpen stability.

 

Brandon this is just a general comment about the reliability of reliever's arms and not directed at your particular comment.

 

 

It is funny to me that a few posts earlier you posted about the overall tone of this forum lately and then you go ahead and mock an argument that absolutely nobody has made.  Do you think that maybe it's posts like yours that might add fuel to the fire?

[m0nkey]

I never thought a good bullpen was so black and white.

Have to add some brown and yellow

[stormngt]

Our bullpen is a disaster waiting to happen. Just like it was the last four seasons. I don't see how anyone can be content with it.

FIXED

[ettin]

It is funny to me that a few posts earlier you posted about the overall tone of this forum lately and then you go ahead and mock an argument that absolutely nobody has made.  Do you think that maybe it's posts like yours that might add fuel to the fire?

 

The point of the post was that relievers arms are highly unreliable year to year. It doesn't matter if they have a high profile name or not, they just have a higher chance of getting injured period. Even the great Mariano Rivera got unexpectedly injured. That was all that I was commenting about.

 

I wanted to make sure Brandon didn't take offense since I decided to piggy-back off of his black and white staement.

 

For the record there have been many people here who have been upset that the Angels didn't sign high-profile free agent relievers such as Wilson, Mujica, et. al. and my point to them was that it is not the name that is important.

 

It did have a mocking tone to it now that I re-read it so for that I apologize. For that matter I'm just going to take a break from commenting for a while.

 

Right now you literally can't say anything without someone stepping in and hammering you for it. This is not me playing a victim or what not either. I love Angels baseball but this board is draining me unnecessarily at this point in time and until it gets under control I need to step away. The level of discourse from myself and others is to combative. You of all people MT understand what that has been like around here lately.

 

If I were having these conversations with people face to face instead of through message board posts it would probably be a different feeling but I have always been a bit on the sensitive side so I'll just lurk for a time and cool off.

[mtangelsfan]

It's definitey tense in here.  That is for sure.  I think if peeps could just keep talking baseball, all would be ok.  Your posts are almost always baseball orientated robert.  I enjoy reading them and your articles.

 

I just found the two disparate posts strange.

[Brandon]

Yeah, I thought you backed my point.

Instead of big names, I always see good bullpens that have a key guy or two, but mostly homegrown guys that perform and the random cheap FA or De La Rosa types that over perform.

I could be wrong and don't care to look up the stats, but think good bullpens vary from year year to between teams and aren't really consistent...outside of maybe having a core group together for a few years.

I can't even remember the last time a good or great bullpen was assembled from FA.

[Angel Oracle]

 

The Angels are 7 deep in the bullpen, they do not need another relief pitcher.

 

• BULLPEN
• E. Frieri (CL)
• J. Smith
• S. Burnett
• D. De La Rosa
• M. Kohn
• K. Jepsen
• F. Salas

 

Morin had better be replacing Jepsen soon.

[Mark68]

Yeah, I thought you backed my point.

Instead of big names, I always see good bullpens that have a key guy or two, but mostly homegrown guys that perform and the random cheap FA or De La Rosa types that over perform.

I could be wrong and don't care to look up the stats, but think good bullpens vary from year year to between teams and aren't really consistent...outside of maybe having a core group together for a few years.

I can't even remember the last time a good or great bullpen was assembled from FA.

This year's Sox bullpen was mainly guys brought in from elsewhere. Uehara was a FA.

[Mark68]

Morin had better be replacing Jepsen soon.

And everyone keeps forgetting Berg.

[SoWhat]

4 pages for Boston signing a reliever? lol

[Brandon]

This year's Sox bullpen was mainly guys brought in from elsewhere. Uehara was a FA.

I meant supplemented with homegrown or young guys. The second paragraph was more along what I meant as far as bullpens varying and being inconsistent as well as arms being inconsistent, much like the Red Sox team you mention. For some reason I was fixated on the Cards bullpen when I wrote that.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Have to add some brown and yellow

the pen the last few years has looked like toilet water already. So I think we're good there.

[Scott34]

Our bullpen looks like a pile of dung compared to those in our division.

 

And our rotation... well...

[ukyah]

i think it's funny that the majority of people that think our bullpen is good enough right now, keep making fun of those that say it isn't by plainly jeering that we only want big names. that's hardly the point at all.

[Brent Maguire]

For the Angels bullpen to be good, Frieri needs to pitch like he did in 2012, Jepsen like he did in the 2nd half of 2012, and Salas the way hit pitched in 2011. Burnett needs to be healthy and effective too.

That's a lot of ifs. I'm not saying it's impossible for the bullpen to be good next year but right now I see a below average bullpen with the potential to be average, maybe slightly above average.

[arch stanton]

Assuming all are healthy to start the season.you should be able to get 180+ fairly reliable innings from Burnett/Smith/Frieri at the end so that leaves De La Rosa, Salas, Kohn, Jepsen, whoever else to try to manage 100 innings or so worth of 6th and 7th inning outs holding it close and whatever is left of the blowout games. It's not optimum but as long as the 3 on the back end can do the job with a lead the rest could be viable.