Here’s the thing, I don’t
want to consistently talk about how
bad the bullpen is. The Nationals are 17-9, so while we should be talking about
the success of this team and how great the lineup looks, it’s tough to do so
when such an integral part of this team is struggling so badly.
The bullpen holds a 5-4
record, thanks in large part to the Nationals lineup, which is averaging 6.65
runs per game through the first 26 games of the year. That 5-4 record is about
the only thing respectable about what the Nationals bullpen has done so far
this year. The bullpen ranks 28th (out of 30 teams) in bullpen ERA,
26th in batting average against, and 26th in homeruns
allowed. The Nationals bullpen has given up 16 homeruns in just under 76
innings pitched. For comparison, Nationals starting pitchers have given up 19
homeruns in 160 innings pitched. One thing the Nationals bullpen has done well
is limited the number of walks they’ve issued. The Nationals bullpen has
surprisingly issued the least amount of walks of any bullpen in the Majors. I
say surprisingly because it seems like every time the bullpen comes in, they
either walk the leadoff man or give up a leadoff hit, but that doesn’t seem to
be the case when you look at the numbers. There is one caveat to this stat
though, the Nationals bullpen has thrown the third least innings in the Majors
(although they’ve played one more game than the team with the second least and
two more games than the team with the least).
Trust me, it’s a good
thing they’ve thrown such a low number of innings. Starting pitchers are going
deep into games, which is great. The main reason they’ve thrown such a few
number of innings though (and we touched on this before) is because Dusty Baker
doesn’t trust anybody in the bullpen to get him outs. Case and point, last
night, Tanner Roark threw 125 pitches to get through 6 innings. Dusty Baker
admitted after the game that he didn’t necessarily want Tanner to throw that
many pitches, but he didn’t have a choice. His reasoning was because some of
the guys in the bullpen were unavailable. I repeat, they were unavailable.
After an off day. An off day that followed a day where the offense put up 23
runs, where four relievers were used, two of whom pitched last night. If you
want to tell me that Matt Albers was unavailable last night because he pitched
two innings on Sunday, then fine, I’ll take that. Who in the world could have
been unavailable to pitch after an off
day. Blake Treinen pitched on Sunday and then pitched yesterday, so he wasn’t
unavailable. Joe Blanton pitched on Sunday and then pitched yesterday, so he
wasn’t unavailable. The only other reliever who pitched Sunday besides these
three, was Oliver Perez, who warmed up twice last night, so again, he wasn’t
unavailable. It’s baffling. Truly baffling, that a bullpen who has thrown the
third fewest innings in the Majors, coming off an off day, had two relievers
who were unavailable. Part of the problem was instead of bringing up a fresh
reliever to take Joe Ross’s roster spot, the Nationals brought up A.J. Cole,
who is serving a 3 game suspension for something that happened last season.
That meant he’s useless, and Jacob Turner, who is scheduled to start on
Saturday, was useless as well. So, you essentially have four pitchers who are “unavailable”,
which led to Dusty Baker having to use Blake Treinen, who works as fast as a
turtle and is statistically the second worst reliever in the Nationals bullpen,
and Joe Blanton, who is statistically the worst reliever in the bullpen, in a
one run game. Shockingly, that didn’t work out so well.
I could write for the
rest of the day about the struggles of the bullpen, but that isn’t going to
change anything. So, where do we go from here? Well, Mike Rizzo continues to
publicly state that he likes the bullpen and these guys have a track record and
they’ll come around. I seriously doubt, unless he’s going blind, that he
actually believes that. Will some guys come around? Of course they will, but to
depend on every single one of these guys coming around, that’s just ludicrous.
There are some guys in AAA that can help this team, mainly Austin Adams (who we
received for Danny Espinosa) and Neal Cotts, who has had a solid start to the
season in AAA. If Mike Rizzo and Dusty Baker don’t think these guys will help,
then it’s time to start looking at relievers on the trade market. David
Robertson is still available, Kelvin Herrera will be available soon, if he isn’t
already. These are two guys with proven track records that can right the ship.
In other news, Joe Ross
was demoted on Monday to AAA following two awful starts, where he wasn’t able
to get out of the fourth inning. Hopefully Ross gets it together in AAA, but if
not, we may see Erick Fedde sooner than we thought. Jacob Turner, although he
has pretty good stuff, has a terrible track record in the Majors, so I
seriously doubt that all of a sudden he is going to become a reliable starting
pitcher. Although the Nationals and Joe Ross are denying it, there is a chance
that Ross is hurt. His velocity has been noticeably down his past two starts
and his slider, which is his out pitch, isn’t sliding.
I’m still too distraught
to fully talk about Adam Eaton. The lineup looked unstoppable with Eaton in
there. The double steals that we saw last night from the top of the
Diamondbacks order is exactly what we would have seen from Turner and Eaton. That
will have to wait until next year though. It’s time for Michael A Taylor to
step up. Again. If I were a betting
man, I’d say the Nationals will either have Andrew Stevenson (the Nationals
2015 second round pick, currently in AAA) starting in centerfield by August 1,
or they will have traded for a new centerfielder. Michael Taylor is Danny
Espinosa, except he strikes out more. The Nationals just rid themselves of
Danny Espinosa, but now his clone is right back in the lineup. Espinosa struck
out 28% of his career at bats, Michael Taylor has topped that and struck out in
32% of his career at bats. That’s just not going to work. He plays exceptional
defense, but unless he’s figured out how to make more contact, I just don’t see
him holding on to the everyday job.
Just keep winning and
all of this becomes a moot point. In the midst of winning some games, if the
bullpen happens to settle down and Mike Rizzo makes a move to get a stud
reliever, that would be much appreciated. Finish the home stand strong against
Arizona, then go grab a few wins in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
