Pirates Morning Report: Mismanaging a Bullpen

This report is coming from the west coast may be even early afternoon before I’m done with it, so you will just have to deal with it. The Pirates bullpen has been mishandled from the first day of the season. I debated on how to go about writing this blog. At first I thought I would go with a game by game description of when there were bullpen blunders. Then I changed my mind and decided to show how it affected each player who has been in the bullpen and how this has contributed to many lost games. The biggest challenge of this blog is to keep it at some reasonable length. Before I list the members of the bullpen. There were two glaring errors that I have to mention. First there was the opener game. Mason Montgomery opened the game and pitched one inning. Carmen Mlodzinski came in and pitched his best ball game of the year giving up 2 hits. This led to a 2-0 shutout win over the Nationals. They never did this again. Then there was the famous bullpen game when the Pirates thought of innings instead of pitches. If they had thought of pitches they might have only used 4 pitchers instead of 8. This led to the Pirates saying the bullpen was exhausted when in reality it was not. More on that later. Now to the bullpen members since the season started. The list includes Gregory Soto, Yohan Ramirez, Isaac Mattson, Dennis Santana, Justin Lawrence, Mason Montgomery, Evan Sisk, Hunter Barco, Wilber Dotel, Jose Urquidy, Cam Sanders, and last but certainly not least 35 yr. Old Chris Devinski. Let’s get Devinski and Sanders out of the way first. They are an example of mismanagement just by the fact that they are on this team at any point of the season. The Pirates have to have someone better than these two or you can kiss this season goodbye. Now to look at each pitcher

Soto: He seems to have been the least affected by the bullpen blunders. The same cannot be said of the team. The bullpen game was game 29. He did not pitch again till game 34. Game 31 and 32 were winnable but Soto did not appear. In game 34 the Pirates were ahead 17-7. He now needed work. Great time to put in your best reliever. This was one of many times this year that the Pirates put their A relievers in games that were not close.

Ramirez: In game 19 Ramirez had thrown 17 pitches. In game 21 that went into extra innings they made Ramirez go 3 innings and throw 44 pitches. You have to wonder how that has led to his ineffectiveness lately. There were plenty of other options that game. Montgomery had thrown 7 pitches in game 18. Even Santana could have come later in the inning.

Mattson: Over a period of 4 games, 28 through 31, Matttson had thrown 3 pitches. On his appearance in game 32 he got 2 outs and gave up 5 runs. Since then he has only been used twice in the last 8 games. They have used Devenski and Sanders more than that. They used Mattson 13 times in the first 22 games. He seems thrive on work so they decide to stop using him. He then became ineffective. Good job.

Santana: He has been mishandled from opening day. He has been put in more low leverage situations for a guy that was supposed to be one of your best relievers and basic closer.Not only that but twice he has had 5 days rest and once 4 days rest. Four times this year he has been brought in when the Pirates were behind or ahead by more than 3 runs. He lost the bullpen game fiasco when if the pitchers would have been used correctly, he would have not even been used. It was obvious he did not have it and Ramirez was available which may have kept the score2-2

Lawrence: Another pitcher who’s lack of work may have negatively affected him. After throwing only 9 pitches in the bullpen game where he was very good, he has only made 3 appearances in the last 12 games. He had 6 days rest coming off 2 outings where he gave up 0 runs. With 6 days rest he gave up 3 runs.

Mason Montgomery: Even though he has been very effective he by far has had the most missed opportunities. Twice he has not pitched for 6 days and once for 4 days. He has only pitched in two games in a row twice. In the bullpen game he threw only 7 pitches. Since then he has pitched in only 3 of the next 12 games. He was certainly needed more than that as the bullpen faltered badly.

Sisk: He came on the team in game 16 and has done well in mostly low leverage situations. Has not had any prolonged rest periods and pitched only once in consecutive games. Gee I guess one out of twelve is not bad. Will see how the Pirates try and screw him up.

Barco and Urquidy: I grouped them together because they started out the season with the team and were mismanaged the same way. Both were starting pitchers that the Pirates moved to the bullpen. I did not have a problem with that. If used in the right situation they would get some innings and give the bullpen a periodic rest. The Pirates used them like they were veteran relievers and put them in late inning high leverage situations for the first time in their careers. Of course they failed. Because of the phantom exhausted bullpen they let Barco take a beating in a game they still had a chance to win. They allowed Urquidy to pitch two games in a row where he threw 22 and 31 pitches. This for a guy who had not pitched for essentially 2 years because of Tommy John Surgery. We love you Urquidy, take one for the team. They are both back in AAA trying get themselves back together as starters. So far not all that successfully.

Dotel: In a nutshell. Made 3 appearances. All good or great. Sent back AAA not heard from since. Maybe he is just walking around in daze on the streets of Indianapolis while the Pirate bullpen continues give games away.

There you have it. How to lead a team to be one of the worst save percentage teams in baseball. In a nutshell use good pitchers in low leverage situations and bad pitchers in high leverage situations. Give lots of rest to pitchers that don’t need it and watch their performance deteriorate. To sum it up, when you need one of your better relievers he is not available because you used him when you were way ahead way or way behind. What an analytic department. That’s why I always write brain in quotes when I’m writing about the Pirates.