The Mets bullpen leads the national league in ERA, and they are tied with Seattle for second (the Red Sox lead the majors in this stat with a sterling 2.90 bullpen ERA).
They are also second in bullpen losses in the National League, and tied with Cleveland for second overall.
The blown saves are down from last year--the Mets currently have 9, which is tied for 13th in baseball--middle of the pack.
Now we all know that last year the team's Achilles heel was the blown save--the Mets converted only 60% of their save opportunities in 2008. That said, 2009 hasn't been all that much better. Even with Frankie Rodriguez and his magic closer's arm, the Mets have only converted 68% of their save opportunities.
Couple that with the losses, and are the Mets really better off as a whole when it comes to the bullpen?
It's very tough to take issue with most of these guys, especially Pedro Feliciano and Frankie Rodriguez--they have been superb.
Still, there have been issues, and it's troubling that the team has had so much difficulty putting teams away.
Take a look at the stats, and you see the three "leaders" in bullpen losses: Nationals, Mets and Pirates.
Realizing of course that half of the blame for those losses can be placed squarely on the offense, it's still troubling that at this early point in the season the Mets have lost 14 via the bullpen.
By way of comparison, the 2008 Mets had 28 bullpen losses. In 2007, the bullpen had only 21 losses. In 2006, which was, in my opinion, our last great bullpen, the Mets only had 15 losses via the relievers.
So while I don't place a huge amount of importance on this stat right now, it is something to keep in mind as we work through the toughest part of the schedule.
The team is on pace for a staggering 37 bullpen losses in 2009.
Should the pace remain the same, it will surely mean this team is headed for a season barely over .500.
The below stats compare the 2006 and 2009 Mets bullpens, and below that are the current 2009 National League bullpen stats:
Mets 2006 Bullpen |
NAME | GP | GS | W | L | Sv | Hld | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | K/9 | P/GS | WHIP | ERA |
Aaron Heilman | 74 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 27 | 87.0 | 73 | 35 | 5 | 28 | 73 | 7.55 | 0.0 | 1.16 | 3.62 |
Billy Wagner | 70 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 40 | 0 | 72.1 | 59 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 94 | 11.70 | 0.0 | 1.11 | 2.24 |
Chad Bradford | 70 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 62.0 | 59 | 20 | 1 | 13 | 45 | 6.53 | 0.0 | 1.16 | 2.90 |
P. Feliciano | 64 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 60.1 | 56 | 14 | 4 | 20 | 54 | 8.06 | 0.0 | 1.26 | 2.09 |
D. Sanchez | 49 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 55.1 | 43 | 16 | 3 | 24 | 44 | 7.16 | 0.0 | 1.21 | 2.60 |
Darren Oliver | 45 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 81.0 | 70 | 31 | 13 | 21 | 60 | 6.67 | 0.0 | 1.12 | 3.44 |
R. Hernandez† | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20.2 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 6.53 | 0.0 | 1.11 | 3.48 |
Heath Bell | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37.0 | 51 | 21 | 6 | 11 | 35 | 8.51 | 0.0 | 1.68 | 5.11 |
G. Mota† | 18 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 18.0 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 19 | 9.50 | 0.0 | 0.83 | 1.00 |
Jorge Julio† | 18 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 21.1 | 21 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 33 | 13.92 | 0.0 | 1.45 | 5.06 |
Royce Ring | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12.2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 5.68 | 0.0 | 0.79 | 2.13 |
Henry Owens | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4.50 | 0.0 | 2.00 | 9.00 |
B. Fortunato | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 3.00 | 27.00 |
B. Bannister | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2.25 | 0.0 | 2.00 | 11.25 |
Philip Humber | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 9.00 | 0.0 | 0.50 | 0.00 |
Dave Williams† | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
John Maine | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 2.00 | 0.00 |
Totals | 157 | 0 | 32 | 15 | 43 | 73 | 542.2 | 483 | 198 | 52 | 174 | 485 | 8.04 | 0.0 | 1.21 | 3.28 |
4 comments:
Great piece.
JJ Putz and his injury is a big part of those numbers.
I also think that we're over relying on Parnell.
It's what happens when you're constantly going to the bullpen early and the offense stinks.
Timely article...
Unfortunately, it was.
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