The Illusion Of The Improved Yanks Bullpen
The stats below are how the Yankees pitching has done, to date this season, in terms of command (SO/BB) and what batters have done against them (Opponents BA/OBP/SLG and BAbip) – month by month. Here, it’s broken down by the Yankees starting pitchers, relief pitchers, and then the whole team combined.
Start. PA SO/BB BA OBP SLG BAbip PA/OPA April 549 1.57 .276 .359 .439 .308 .630 May 725 2.04 .266 .346 .428 .305 .651 June 164 2.36 .248 .325 .386 .287 .739 Bullpen PA SO/BB BA OBP SLG BAbip PA/OPA April 322 2.22 .267 .350 .498 .305 .370 May 388 1.63 .246 .334 .459 .254 .349 June 58 4.00 .204 .259 .315 .270 .261 Overall PA SO/BB BA OBP SLG BAbip April 871 1.81 .273 .356 .461 .307 May 1113 1.88 .259 .342 .439 .288 June 222 2.72 .236 .308 .367 .283
Note that I’ve included Plate Appearances (PA) to show you how many batters the pitchers have faced in each split. And, I’ve included PA/OPA which is the percentage of that PA (in the monthly split) compared to the overall PA in that month for the team.
What does this do? It tells you who – among the Yankees starters and bullpen – is doing most of the heavy lifting for the team in the pitching department.
As you can see, for April and May, the Yankees bullpen was facing about 35%-37% of the batters to play against the Yankees. However, in June, that’s dropped down to 26%. So, while the Yankees bullpen appears to be pitching better in June (based on SO/BB, BA/OBP/SLG, etc.), it’s more a matter of the fact that the Yankees starters are facing more batters (74% in June compared to 63%-65% in April and May) and this means the Yankees weak pitchers in their pen are not being asked to throw as often.
Can the Yankees keep this up for a long time? Can the Yankees starters throw 6 or 7 innings everyday? Time will tell…
This is a phenomenon that you will find on 99% of teams: the less the back of the bullpen is used, the better the bullpens stats will look.
the weaker pitchers pitching less could be a reason for the improved numbers. but that’s not the only reason.
alfredo aceves’ arrival and subsequent brilliance has been a stabalizing factor as well. he’s been this team’s unsung hero. i can think of at least five games (saturday against the twins at home, joba injury game, friday night at cleveland, this past thursday against texas, and yesterday) where he was a big, if not the biggest, piece in us winning the game.
and that’s just off the top of my head, i’m sure i’m missing some. guy is awesome.
The reason why it looks like the bullpen has improved this month is because it has improved this month.
Not because the guys who were awful earlier in the year got better, but because they were pitching less, or replaced by guys who are pitching better.
Veras is pitching very little. Albaladejo and Ramirez are in the minors. The Yanks’ starters have pitched better and gone deeper into games over the last 4 weeks or so. Aceves has pitched a lot of good innings. Tomko and Robertson have not pitched a lot, but they’ve pitched decently in their limited innings.
Add it all up, and it means better relief pitching overall.
Evan3457 wrote:
Yeah, I bet some people also forget that they have gonorrhea, or think that their condition has improved, when there are no flare ups. And, then, once they start going to the well a lot, they’re quickly reminded that they have an issue.
Once the Yankees start going to their well, the bullpen, more often, we’ll quickly be reminded that it has not improved.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Depends on usage. If they are overused or otherwise overworked, of course they’ll appear not to be improved. Anyway, given the volatile nature of bullpens, I’m not going to sweat it too much.
Yes, because having 3 strait CMW starts that averaged 2 innings and a Joba start lasting .2 inning due to line drive is clearly the norm in baseball.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Well, no, it probably won’t be as bad if they use it more, because several of the pitchers who compiled the bad record are not with the team at this time, which was one of the points.
In addition, if the starters pitch better, the weaker arms in the pen will be used less. So this is real improvement, if not all the improvement we’d like to see.
Now, if you get your gonorrhea cured by antibiotics, but you go out and get it again, that’s a different story…