Opinion: Unpredictable Bullpens
During last night’s loss to the Braves, Aaron Sele allowed one run in relief, as did Mike Pelfrey, while Willie Collazo pitched one inning and gave up three runs on three hits and two walks.
…either the Braves were totally locked in at the plate last night, or the Mets pitchers, short of Phil Humber, were just off…
…collazo, or colazzo, depending on which jersey he is wearing, has looked decent since joining the team…he’s a Pedro Feliciano clone, to some extent…
…some fans were calling for collazo last month, as though he’d be an obvious and easy solution to the team’s recent bullpen struggles…but, i believe they were nothing more than the ‘everybody loves the back-up quarterback’ sensation, which is totally understandable…
…it’s not to say that collazo can’t be a solution…it’s just, in this era, i am fairly certain there is no magic bullet for what ails a bullpen…again, it’s a total crapshoot out there…guys are hot, they’re cold, they’re good on this team, not good on that team, this month they’re okay, next month they’re not, they pitch well with this arm slot, next week not so much…it’s just ridiculous and seemingly totally unpredictable…
…colleges are now grooming pitchers to throw in relief, and i hope this helps…however, until that pans out, the way i see it, the idea of what a bullpen is will continue to be a total mess for years to come…our expectations of these guys are totally out of whack, and if a starting pitcher could just last past the fifth inning, a lot of these issues would go away…
…so until a) starting pitchers begin pitching deeper in to games, and b) the idea of a ‘save’ gets stricken from our minds, and c) a better financial incentive is created so guys want to pitch in middle relief, i believe we’ll continue to have this constant anxiety about more or less every relief pitcher, including the guy in the minor leagues who we hope can be the answer to all these problems…
