The postseason begins today with the American League and
National League Wild Card Rounds set between the New York Yankees and Minnesota
Twins representing the American League while the Arizona Diamondbacks and the
Colorado Rockies will represent the National League. These four teams are both
looking for one thing and one thing only, a victory. Even if that victory means
that your team would then have to face the team with the best record in your respective
league, it’s the playoffs and anything can happen. A starter can be less than
effective, the offense could be lulled to sleep or the bullpen could just be
completely and utterly dominant in every sense of the word meaning that
anything can happen in a short series. Speaking of the bullpen let’s take a
minute this morning to rank the 10 bullpens entering this postseason to see
which team potentially has the edge this October.
The Cleveland Indians are the best team in Major League
Baseball according to many, including myself, so it would only be fitting that
the team has the best bullpen as well, right? You’re waiting for me to say “wrong”
but I am not going to because it is the Indians that have the best bullpen in
the playoffs in my opinion with closer Cody Allen and former Yankees Nick Goody
and Andrew Miller. Bryan Shaw is the Indians answer to Dellin Betances as he
leads the team in appearances while not many teams, including the Yankees, can
get the ball in the air to hit home runs off Dan Otero. With the short series
in the ALDS looming the Indians could also see Danny Salazar and Mike Clevinger
join the bullpen in relief, which is borderline unfair for opposing batters if
you ask me.
Prepare your rotten tomatoes to be thrown because I am about
to do something unthinkable and say that the Boston Red Sox have a better
bullpen then the New York Yankees. Yeah, they do. Craig Kimbrel has been the
best reliever in all of Major League Baseball this season in my opinion, yes
better than Kenley Jansen, while Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Joe Kelly and some
dude named David Price have been lights out in the bullpen for Boston. Add in
the fact that a couple of the Red Sox starters could be entering the bullpen as
well and Boston could have one of the deepest bullpens in the playoffs here in
2017.
Slightly behind the Red Sox are finally your New York
Yankees and their bullpen. Trust me, it hurt to put the Bronx Bombers behind
the Red Sox but I just had to do it. New York doesn’t know what they can expect
out of Adam Warren after returning for the final weekend after missing time
with a back issue while Tommy Kahnle is inconsistent at best right now for New
York. Dellin Betances has been better but the big right-hander has always had a
knack for working himself into trouble and I find it hard to rely on him like I
have in years past. Don’t get me wrong, I love this bullpen and if everyone is
healthy and pitching to the back of their baseball cards then this bullpen can
match with anyone in the league, especially the Red Sox and even the Cleveland
Indians, but right now not even me being a massive “homer” can rank this
bullpen any higher than third out of ten teams, which isn’t bad at all.
Finally a National League team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Or
should I say the Los Angeles Kenley Jansen’s because it has been the Jansen
show for LA out in the bullpen this season. Jansen recorded 41 saves here in
2017 including 12 saves that were for more than one inning, something you don’t
see a whole lot of here in the game lately. Kenta Maeda is in the bullpen and
Alex Wood may be not far behind him for the NLDS as the Dodgers combo of Pedro
Baez and Ross Stripling looked shaky down the stretch in September.
The Arizona Diamondbacks may have the second best bullpen in
the National League, who saw that coming when the season started back in April
of 2017? Some may argue against having the Diamondbacks this high but what
Fernando Rodney did after a slow start to the season, 33 saves in 37 chances
with a 2.38 ERA along with a .200 batting average against, did enough to convince
me that the Diamondbacks were for real here in 2017. Remember, the Arizona
pitching staff is amazing so the Diamondbacks are unlikely to have to rely on
their bullpen for four-to-five innings a night like some teams. The plan for
Torey Lovullo and company has to be to get seven innings out of their starter
before handing the ball to Archie Bradley and then Rodney in the 9th.
Bradley pitched to a 1.73 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP this season as the setup man and
as a multi-inning arm for the Diamondbacks here in 2017 and will likely be used
in the same capacity during this year’s postseason.
The Washington Nationals were thought to have one of the
worst bullpens in all of the NL East Division when the season started as the
team was without a lockdown closer or much middle relief, but then came the
July 31st trade deadline. Before the deadline the Nationals acquired
Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson and Brandon Kintzler in separate trades which
completely transformed their bullpen into a dominating machine. Doolittle is
the team’s closer now and converted 21 saves after being acquired by Washington
allowing Dusty Baker to use arms like Matt Albers, Sammy Solis and Oliver Perez
in early inning situations when needed.
The Chicago Cubs bullpen is a bullpen that I would describe
as “good, but not great.” Good will win you games and may even win you a short
series with some offensive help behind you but I truly think in a seven-game
series a “good, but not great” bullpen will get exposed. Wade Davis is still
amazing but it is everyone behind Davis that is suspect, even an emerging Carl
Edwards Jr. Justin Wilson is a big strikeout guy while Mike Montgomery and
Brian Duensing should be effective against Washington’s left-handed hitters but
I don’t think it will matter at the end of the day unfortunately.
The Colorado Rockies are here only because of Greg Holland.
The Rockies middle relief has been shaky all season long even after the
acquisitions of Pat Neshek and Jake McGee and it will only garner more question
marks when rookie starters Antonio Senzatela and Jeff Hoffman join the fold. If
the Rockies can just get the ball to Holland though the team has a chance to
win every time so that has to be the plan out in Colorado.
The Houston Astros are only in this position because the
Minnesota Twins traded away their closer Brandon Kintzler before the July 31st
trade deadline. The Astros probably have the shakiest bullpen among all the
postseason-bound teams here in 2017 which is evident by their staff ERA of 4.29,
18th best in MLB among all 30 bullpens. Ken Giles was great this
season converting 34 of 38 save opportunities but it was the middle relief that
is the reason why Giles didn’t get many more saves than that, well that and
that high-powered offense.
Finally we have the Minnesota Twins whose bullpen defied the
odds after their closer was traded in late July. Matt Belisle is the new closer
and has done well all things considered while rookies Trevor Hildenberger and
Alan Busenitz have both exceeded expectations in their first years in the bigs
respectively. Taylor Rogers has done well as a left-handed specialist for Paul
Molitor’s bullpen while the team has been able to patch their way to the
postseason without Kintzler. The team’s bullpen can’t be relied upon in my
opinion but hey, you can’t predict baseball. Let’s just hope you can tonight in
the Bronx.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)