Bullpen

Sure.... the topic of the bullpen has been beaten like a dead horse. But let's beat it a little more anyway. As my analogy explained in my previous post... I'd rather have good starting pitching, good hitting, good (ok... average at best) defense and a terrible bullpen than have an all-around bad team.

If you take a look at the save percentages of other teams in the American League, you'll see just how bad our pen really is. The Indians, at 26.7%, are over 20 percentage points below the second worst team, the Royals, and almost 60 percentage points below the best, Boston.

Now... this year's pen was thought to be a strength before the season started. In retrospect, we were more deluded than Homer after he ate the hallucinatory chili peppers at the Springfield Chili Cook Off.

These numbers were much more staggering before the current losing but... if the pen converted the same percentage as the Royals, they'd be 21-23. If they were in the middle of the American League, they'd be 24-20 and 1.5 games back of the White Sox in the Central. I'm not even going to bother putting what our record would be if we led the league.

I know what you're all thinking..... that it's unfair to think of it that way. In your heads, some of you are saying: In the 18 games we've won, we're undefeated. But that's the way I'm thinking about it.... so BACK OFF!


In the second inning, did I see Jody Gerut dive into third just like Tony Danza in the opening sequence of Who's the Boss?

Separated at Birth?

Tomorrow morning I'm going to list the guys I most want up with runners in scoring position. Stats aside... who do you feel most comfortable with at the plate when there are ducks on the pond?

It's been a good start to tonight's game.... let's see if we can finish it off and get into the W column.