Red Sox 2020 Bullpen Thread

[mvp 78]

I think this bullpen could be sneaky good this year.

 

He's a good refresher on some of the names:

 

https://www.overthemonster.com/2020/7/24/21336567/boston-red-sox-2020-season-preview-bullpen-workman-barnes-taylor-hernandez-walden

 

DHern and Taylor are both on the COVID IL, but are healthy. Roenicke stated that their stamina just isn't there yet and that it may take a few weeks to get there.

 

If Workman and Barnes can both keep it together, they should be lights out in the 8th and 9th.

[Bellhorn04]

Or will it be a parade of pigs?

[mvp 78]

Will they oink or squeal is the question!

[Kimmi]

My opinion all along is that the bullpen will be good, and because of that, this shortened season will play well for us.

[a700hitter]

My opinion all along is that the bullpen will be good, and because of that, this shortened season will play well for us.

Do you like the arms in the pen? The front line pen guys are awful. Even assuming Workman is lights out (big assumption), Brasier is a disaster and Barnes has been deteriorating badly for 2 years. We really need the second line guys to step up in a big way. Edited July 24, 2020 by a700hitter

[a700hitter]

Cody Allen has been released by the Rangers. Is he worth a flier? I think that he got beat out of a job by Daniel Bard. LOL!!!

[mvp 78]

Cody Allen has been released by the Rangers. Is he worth a flier? I think that he got beat out of a job by Daniel Bard. LOL!!!

 

Wasn’t Bard with the Rockies?

[a700hitter]

Wasn’t Bard with the Rockies?

My mistake.

[notin]

Cody Allen has been released by the Rangers. Is he worth a flier? I think that he got beat out of a job by Daniel Bard. LOL!!!

 

Cody Allen hasn’t been worth a flier since 2017. The Sox would be better off taking their chances dragging Fernando Rodney out of retirement...

[notin]

Former Sox relievers Andrew Cashner and Addison Reed are still unemployed, right?

[mvp 78]

Cashner would be fine in a relief role.

[notin]

Cashner would be fine in a relief role.

 

I’m calling his agent and pretending to be Bloom...

[mvp 78]

I’m calling his agent and pretending to be Bloom...

 

I have zero idea what he sounds like.

[Kimmi]

Do you like the arms in the pen? The front line pen guys are awful. Even assuming Workman is lights out (big assumption), Brasier is a disaster and Barnes has been deteriorating badly for 2 years. We really need the second line guys to step up in a big way.

 

I do like our pen. I think it should be pretty good.

 

Workman will not be as good as last year, but hopefully he won't regress too much and will still be a solid closer. I'm not sure what to think about Brasier. I'm not pinning a lot of hopes on him. IMO, Barnes is a very good reliever, much better than most people give him credit for. I like him for late innings, whether it be the 8th or 9th.

 

When Taylor and Hernandez return from their COVID recovery, that will deepen and strengthen the pen a good deal, particularly Hernandez. His peripherals play a lot better than 4.45 ERA, just like with Barnes.

 

Then there's a slew of 2nd line guys, as you put it. Someone (or two) in that crowd will step it up.

[Kimmi]

Cody Allen hasn’t been worth a flier since 2017. The Sox would be better off taking their chances dragging Fernando Rodney out of retirement...

 

Clay Buchholz anyone? He could seriously be very good out of the pen.

[notin]

I have zero idea what he sounds like.

 

Yeah it turns out Cashner's agent did know...

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Then there's a slew of 2nd line guys, as you put it. Someone (or two) in that crowd will step it up.

 

This is where, I think, we really need to trust Bloom, since bullpens are a Tampa speciality. The Rays became contenders rotating relievers -- just last year, they traded their number one opener for an even better reliever, then last winter they traded their closer when he was still good.

[mvp 78]

Clay Buchholz anyone? He could seriously be very good out of the pen.

 

Is he even working out? I keep looking for Clay updates but can’t find them.

[mvp 78]

https://www.overthemonster.com/2020/8/4/21353446/matt-barnes-boston-red-sox-bullpen-new-york-yankees-aaron-judge

 

For Barnes, it’s not overly complicated as he is essentially a two-pitch guy with his curveball and his fastball. Last year he started throwing his curveball more than his fastball for the first time, and he’s taken it even further so far this year with his curveball being thrown 60 percent of the time, per Baseball Savant. That could be part of the issue, but the fastball is down in velocity by about a mile and a half per hour. Also, both pitches are being crushed by whatever metric you would like to look at. Whether it’s wOBA or expected wOBA or whiff rate or average exit velocity or hard hit rate. Both pitches are way worse than they were a year ago.

 

With that, it’s possible that the increase in curveball usage contributed here, but it sure seems like there’s more than that going on. So, the next thing I looked at was where he was throwing his pitches. My assumption based on how hard he was being hit was that everything would be over the heart of the plate. But that’s not exactly the case.

 

With the curveball, he simply isn’t throwing the pitch for strikes as often, and he’s also favoring his glove side a bit more. We saw what happens when one of those are left up against Aaron Judge. With the fastball things are even more jarring, as he’s almost totally to the glove side. So, with both of his pitches, he is overwhelmingly favoring one side of the dish.

 

My initial thought was that his release point was messed up, but nothing I saw in that data indicated a major issue. Instead, it just seems he’s missing location. In the home run for Céspedes, for example, the target was on the outer half but it ended up as a fastball middle-in. We hear a lot when people talk about pitching that the idea is to change the hitter’s eyes. That’s up and down, but it’s also side to side. When you’re in a rut like Barnes where you’re throwing so much on one half of the plate, the opponent can focus in there and do big-time damage.