Bull P*N
Coming into this season, the Giants seemed to have a semi-solid bullpen. It wasn't supposed to be great, but a collection of decent to mediocre castoffs and veterans were supposed to bridge the gap to Mando, and he closes the door. Needless to say...
A lot of scorn and ire and other fun words have been heaped on the pen of bull of the Giants. Looking at the stats though, it's not that horrible. It's not good; but like much of the Giants this season, the bullpen is trying as hard as possible to be mediocre. Unfortunately, the bullpen is underperforming just enough to make life hard on the rest of us.
First off, Giants relievers have thrown fewer innings than any other NL team. Many have noted how crazy it is that Flippy, of all people, has the least-worked pen in the NL. Last year he had 511 relief appearances notched, more than any other manager in all of baseball. No one else even cracked 500. This means either the starters are much better, the relievers are much worse, or that he's been sleeping through games.
It'a probably a combination of all three. Compared to last year, he's making about one less move a game and is leaving the starters in for about a half inning longer. And once he makes a move he's sticking with it longer, though the difference is only about one out.
Last year there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the starters and the relievers, though the relievers were the better of the two. They gave up fewer hits per inning (8.89 to 9.17), fewer homers (.75 to 1.04), and most of the other rate stats are almost identical. Really, neither was great, but the relievers were slightly above average and the starters slightly below.
This year it's switched, but the starters have put more distance between themselves and the relievers so far. The starter HR/9 is much better (0.91 to 1.00 for relievers), though their SLG are almost identical (0.403 for starters and 0.406 for relievers). The big difference is in OBP, at 0.326 for starters and 0.356 for relievers. BB/9 is huge (3.45 to 4.63). This translates into a WHIP difference of 1.34 to 1.54 and an ERA difference of 4.16 to 4.70.
And so it is the death by a thousand pin pricks. The relievers are giving up a lot more singles than the starters and more walks, leading to more runs even though they have a better XBH%, 0.28 to 0.34. So Flippy is leaving the starters in longer than last year and making fewer changes.
Thanks to Dave Pinto and the Baseball Musings Day-by-Day Database.
Extra: I noticed two things looking trough the numbers
A lot of scorn and ire and other fun words have been heaped on the pen of bull of the Giants. Looking at the stats though, it's not that horrible. It's not good; but like much of the Giants this season, the bullpen is trying as hard as possible to be mediocre. Unfortunately, the bullpen is underperforming just enough to make life hard on the rest of us.
First off, Giants relievers have thrown fewer innings than any other NL team. Many have noted how crazy it is that Flippy, of all people, has the least-worked pen in the NL. Last year he had 511 relief appearances notched, more than any other manager in all of baseball. No one else even cracked 500. This means either the starters are much better, the relievers are much worse, or that he's been sleeping through games.
It'a probably a combination of all three. Compared to last year, he's making about one less move a game and is leaving the starters in for about a half inning longer. And once he makes a move he's sticking with it longer, though the difference is only about one out.
Last year there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the starters and the relievers, though the relievers were the better of the two. They gave up fewer hits per inning (8.89 to 9.17), fewer homers (.75 to 1.04), and most of the other rate stats are almost identical. Really, neither was great, but the relievers were slightly above average and the starters slightly below.
This year it's switched, but the starters have put more distance between themselves and the relievers so far. The starter HR/9 is much better (0.91 to 1.00 for relievers), though their SLG are almost identical (0.403 for starters and 0.406 for relievers). The big difference is in OBP, at 0.326 for starters and 0.356 for relievers. BB/9 is huge (3.45 to 4.63). This translates into a WHIP difference of 1.34 to 1.54 and an ERA difference of 4.16 to 4.70.
And so it is the death by a thousand pin pricks. The relievers are giving up a lot more singles than the starters and more walks, leading to more runs even though they have a better XBH%, 0.28 to 0.34. So Flippy is leaving the starters in longer than last year and making fewer changes.
Thanks to Dave Pinto and the Baseball Musings Day-by-Day Database.
Extra: I noticed two things looking trough the numbers
- I want San Diego's bullpen
- Cincinnati is weird. They don't walk anyone, but they can't stop giving up hits. The pitchers aren't so much accurate as they can't convince people not to swing.
Labels: Giants
posted by Chris at
9:28 PM
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