The Bullpen - Would You Make Henderson the Closer

[Funketown]

Parra was fairly good his first season as a starter (2008?). But after that, he's pretty much been horrible. If he doesn't have any options left (I don't think he does), I see no reason to keep him around outside of just being a warm body.

[torts]

Parra has at least one more Arb year left.

[torts]

Parra, Loe and Veras are all Arb3 eligible next season, all are FA in 2014

axford is Arb1 eligible, not a FA until 2017 season

Estrada and Narveson are both Arb1 eligible next season, will not be FA until 2016

Dillard and Kintzler are both still in pre-arb years, their final, and will not be FA until 2017

 

any call-ups from the minors for september or the start of next season would be in pre-arb years, they will be on the Brewers team payroll until 2018 at least.

[torts]

that is just to give you an idea of how cost-controlled the brewers bullpen is for the next 4-5 years.

[Funketown]

I think all of those guys are non-tender candidates. Parra will be due for at least $1-$1.5MM in arbitration, Veras $2-$2.5MM, and Loe $2.5-$3MM. Loe has actually been pretty decent over the last couple seasons, despite that horrendous stretch last year (~3.75 ERA, 3.50 FIP). I'd probably hang onto him for next season.

 

Veras and Parra don't seem worth it for $4.5MM total. Quite frankly, these guys just aren't terribly good at preventing the other team from parading across home plate. Non-tender them and if they're willing to sign for $.5-$1MM I'd have them back.

[FVBrewerFan]

Loe will be around $3MM, so no thanks. Veras has never been that good, so I don't understand what we're really expecting out of him. Ditto for Parra. Yes, they both have electirc stuff every once in a while, just neveranywhere close to be consistent enough to be effective.

[torts]

I was so bummed that Veras was all we could get for McGehee from the Pirates... so bummed.

[pebadger]

I was so bummed that Veras was all we could get for McGehee from the Pirates... so bummed.

 

Switch the order of the names, and Pirates to Brewers, and somebody in Pittsburgh probably felt the same way.

[RWeeksFan23]

I guess i'm in the minority, but no way do I non-tender Parra. He hasn't been THAT bad this season, and it seems like usually when he has gotten in trouble, it's because he gave the hitter a first-pitch fastball right down the middle, if he cuts down on that type of thing, he'll be alright.

 

Parra's the kind of guy that if we get rid of, he'll turn out to be a stud somewhere else. Lefties with that kind of stuff don't grow on trees.

[And That]

There's no reason to get rid of Parra. He's a terrible starting pitcher, but a pretty decent reliever. He has a career ERA of 3.82 out of the pen and a 10 K/9, though he still walks too many guys and isn't really a lefty-killer. Not a guy you get rid of just to get rid of.

[RockCoCougars]

At this point, I have to think that this is one of the worst bullpens in MLB history. They certainly have to be on pace for the record for most games lost leading after seven innings. Get the Elias Sports Bureau on the line.

[TooLiveBrew]

Is it even the worst bullpen in the league this season?

[adambr2]

I've never seen anything like this.

 

It amazes me that we are actually NOT the worst bullpen in baseball this year, statistically. It hardly seems possible.

[homer]

I've never seen anything like this.

 

It amazes me that we are actually NOT the worst bullpen in baseball this year, statistically. It hardly seems possible.

 

 

I'm guessing that's because the offense and starting pitching have been pretty good. I bet most crappy bullpens are on teams with either bad hitting or bad pitching in general. Just my guess anyway.

[markedman5]

It's bad enough that if there is a worse one I don't want to see it.........

[RockCoCougars]

There may be 'worse' bullpens if you use stats or WAR, but keep in mind, that on a lot of teams starters have trouble getting through the fifth inning. That generally hasn't been the case with the Brewers this year. I'd expect a bad team that regularly uses their pen in the 4th inning with mop up guys, etc to have worse bullpen stats than the Brewers.

 

How many times has the bullpen been handed the lead in the 7th inning and gagged it away, with the team to go onto lose? It has to be at least a dozen, and I'm wondering what the record is... they have to be close to the pace.

[adambr2]

In 2006 we actually had a worse bullpen ERA at 5.03. That's just hard to believe.

 

Of course, the season isn't over yet.

[KCBrewerfan34]

How can K-Rod look any of his teammates in the eye right now? We have K-Rod because we thought we were going to get stupid draft picks, if the new rules would have been in place we could have bought anyone else for the 8th who would have been better than K-Rod.

 

That guy and Ax and Loe and Parra stink. Although I think part of Axfors's problem is pitch selection, how about bouncing a curveball 0-2 once, it may work.

[TooLiveBrew]

It's bad enough that if there is a worse one I don't want to see it.........

Same here. Maybe they're the most painful to watch bullpen ever?

[danzig6767]

There may be 'worse' bullpens if you use stats or WAR, but keep in mind, that on a lot of teams starters have trouble getting through the fifth inning. That generally hasn't been the case with the Brewers this year. I'd expect a bad team that regularly uses their pen in the 4th inning with mop up guys, etc to have worse bullpen stats than the Brewers.

 

How many times has the bullpen been handed the lead in the 7th inning and gagged it away, with the team to go onto lose? It has to be at least a dozen, and I'm wondering what the record is... they have to be close to the pace.

 

That i believe needs to be factored in, not just the bullpen ERA.

 

This hasn't been one of those type of years some teams have where the starters struggle badly to eat up innings, thus the bullpen not only gets super worn out, the long reliever and more garbage time guys in the pen have to pitch a lot. That inflating the overall bullpen ERA.

 

Instead with the Brewers this year, tons of the bad bullpen production has come from the 7th inning on and in close games or games we were winning. It's pretty rare from my recollection for a team to have every single one of their supposed better "late inning guys" all struggle.

[TooLiveBrew]

Adam McCalvy with a relevant blog post: "Brewers' bullpen is worst since '06"

[Nader Raider Tim]

The Brewers bullpen may not have the worst ERA this year but I have a hard time finding a team whose 7th 8th and 9th inning guys inspire less confidence than the Brewers trio this year.

 

It sucks because going into the year the Bullpen was set up to, arguably, be the Brewers greatest strength.

[JayZZ755]

Adam McCalvy with a relevant blog post: "Brewers' bullpen is worst since '06"

 

The 2006 pen didn't lead the majors in relief losses or in WHIP the way this one is doing. ERA either, though 2012 somehow doesn't have the worst ERA either. 2006 rotation was also less impressive that this year's so the dropoff was less noticeable.

[pitchleague]

At this point, I have to think that this is one of the worst bullpens in MLB history. They certainly have to be on pace for the record for most games lost leading after seven innings. Get the Elias Sports Bureau on the line.

 

 

the ironic thing is this bullpen is more or less the same guys who went some unbelievable record of 88 games in a row (or something like that) that they won when leading after 7 (or was it 8?) innings. That was just last year and into this season! And then it allllllllll fell apart.

 

Funny how baseball works sometimes. Just when you think you've got it all figured out . . . .

[adambr2]

So who actually gets their job back next year?

 

Axford simply because he was too good prior to this to give up on this quickly. K-Rod will be long, long gone, and he can take Veras with him.

 

Loe is going to be a free agent, and while he's better than the previous two mentioned, he isn't good enough to make me want to invest $3-$4M a year in him. I really wouldn't care to see Parra back, but he would be about the only other one I could think of that might be.