Shore up the Pen
by Angel Hawker on Nov 19, 2009 10:42 AM PST
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PrintAlright, so I know most of the discussion so far about the offseason has involved our free agents (John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Vladimir Guerrero, and Darren Oliver), big hitting free agents (Jason Bay & Matt Holliday), and trades (anyone remember a discussion about Curtis Granderson?), but there has not been much discussion about other free agents on the market which could really help our team.
What REALLY concerns me is the bullpen. It was torture last year.
Outside of Oliver and Matt Palmer, we had no real standouts. I believe Kevin Jepsen will one day develop into a great reliever, but he’s not a finished product yet. Jason Bulger remains a mystery, Jose Arredondo’s magic of 2008 disappeared, and Brian Fuentes was far from perfect (7 blown saves during the season and 1 in the ALCS). While Fuentes is a decent closer, he’s really not the guy I want on the mound when the game is on the line.
What the Angels had in Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez the previous few years was golden, shortening the game to 7-innings. Our greatest weakness this season was our bullpen. We need to bring it back to the strength it was in the past. Looking over the relievers out on the free agent market, these are the ones who seem to have some value:
Right Handers: Fernando Rodney, Rafael Soriano, Jose Valverde, Rafael Betancourt, Kiko Calero, LeTroy Hawkins, Brandon Lyon
Left Handers: Mike Gonzales & Scott Eyre
Here’s MLB.coms list
First, I’m glad Scot Shields will be back next season and hopefully he’ll be hungry to go out there and be his dominant self again. Darren Oliver will hopefully re-up with us again. Assuming we get those two back, who else should we go after?
My first choice is Rafael Soriano, and one writer is already predicting we’ll land him. Throws hard and strikes a lot of guys out (oddly, I remember him most for getting hit in the head by a line drive off Vlad’s bat in 2006).
Kiko Calero put up good numbers last year and seems to be a bit under-the-radar, so he probably could be had pretty cheap. Wouldn’t be a bad addition in my opinion.
Mike Gonzalez also intrigues me, I just don’t know how I’d feel about him joining the team. Great strikeout guy, but wild and blew 7 saves last year as well (not to mention he’s injury prone).
Some off-the-radar guy like Escobar for the pen on the cheap?
So what do you guys think? How do we shore up the pen?
This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.
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Some points:
Rafael Soriano is old and he faded terribly down the stretch.
Mike Gonzalez just picked up Scott Boras as his agent.
Our bullpen actually is scary:
Fuentes – 9
Shields – 8
almost 40-year old Oliver – 7/8
Jepsen / Bulger / Arredondo – 6/7
Palmer – Long
…oh dear…
Are you saying 29 is old?
Or are you saying that isn’t his real age?
Peanuts...Get your Overpriced Peanuts!
by Angel Hawker on Nov 19, 2009 11:17 AM PST up reply actions
lotta mileage + birth certificate
29 going on 36
by Rev Halofan on Nov 19, 2009 11:33 AM PST up reply actions
Fixed...
wow, hopefully we don’t have to remove more names from this list that quickly (unless it’s because we sign one).
Peanuts...Get your Overpriced Peanuts!
by Angel Hawker on Nov 19, 2009 11:15 AM PST up reply actions
JJ Putz is also available
Not that’d he’s going to be any good, but a cheap contract with incentives could justify taking the risk and see how he’s coming back from injury
I think we'll have one of our better overall bullpens as is
- Fuentes is no Frankie, but he’s better than average.
- Shields, if healthy, is among the best setter-uppers in the game.
- Jepsen throws crazy gas, and was great in the 2nd half
- Bulger actually had a pretty good year
- Oliver looks like he’ll be solid forever.
- The mean between Arredondo ’08 and Arredondo ’09 is a pretty good 6th reliever
- Thompson looks ready to be this year’s Bulger.
Don’t be fooled by the bullpen stats from last April and May. That’s not an accurate picture of these guys going forward.
by mattwelch on Nov 19, 2009 11:54 AM PST reply actions 2 recs
Absolutely agree, but...
I am not convinced that Shields can be the Shields of old. He was wearing down and getting lit up over the 2nd half of 2008. I’d be surprised if we recognize him as the Scot we all knew and loved in 2005 or 2006….
RIP Nick...
Jim Scully
Jim Scully Home
Agreed
I have doubts he can return to his former stellar set-up role (but that doesn’t mean he won’t). Regardless, he should be a major improvement over any of the other guys that were shuttling back and forth from the farm to the bigs.
Just shows how much more we need another good arm out in that pen cause we don’t know which Shields we’ll be getting back.
Peanuts...Get your Overpriced Peanuts!
by Angel Hawker on Nov 19, 2009 12:17 PM PST up reply actions
I would expect Shields to repeat 2007
…before I would expect Matt Palmer to repeat 2009.
Shields will be fine. Expecting Palmer to be a force in long relief isn’t as sure a bet.
"He's not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with''~Theo Epstein, talking about Papelbon
by George Kaplan on Nov 19, 2009 5:01 PM PST up reply actions
Agree, rec'd
And we still will have Matt Palmer for long relief as well I imagine.
The 2009 Pregame Picks Winner and Iron Man of Halos Heaven.com
I don't get the Jepsen love by fans on this site.
Bulger had a better season and a better playoffs.
Sure, K-Jep has great stuff, maybe he’ll really come around this season…but, his ERA barely snuck under 5.00 in ‘09. Here’s hoping for the second-half Jepsen for all of ’10.
NA, #34 SP, LAA
Light up the Halo for Nick!
More Howie please...
I just like him because it's nice to see an Angel hit 100mph on the gun.
Happy Birthday to the ground!
by Monkeyspanked on Nov 19, 2009 3:24 PM PST up reply actions
Oh I un-loved the hell out of him until the second half of last year
But he was great in the 2nd half, and seems to have enough stuff to be very good for a while.
Why not Putz?
He’d be cheap. If he does preform like he is capable he could become an 8th or 9th inning righty specialist of some kind. Now you might say we’re getting Shields back so why would we need Putz? Shields could go back to his 2005 form or he could blow a gasket. Putz would just be a cheap backup plan.
by Gold Glove Hunter 48 on Nov 19, 2009 11:17 PM PST reply actions
Bullpens aren't born, they're made
By definition, these are not your best pitchers; many of them are 1 or 2 pitch pitchers, too. Therefore, as we all know, reliever performance can fluctuate greatly from year to year. And it takes a good manager to be able to constantly adapt to this. Scioscia is one of those managers. Trey Hillman, probably not.
Scioscia has always managed to cobble together a decent, if not always dominant bullpen. Even this past season, with quite literally a “worst case scenario”, the Halos were able to eventually piece together a pretty decent unit. It took a while, but Scioscia got it done.
So, as Matt said above, we probably enter spring training with some pretty good arms (I think you could throw Trevor Bell into the bullpen mix as well). But, as we found out last year, that might mean nothing. Which means, ultimately, that we could sign some or none of the aforementioned free agent relievers, and still have no idea how our bullpen will turn out.
But our manager, thank goodness, WILL figure it out. He always has.
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
How about Justin Duchscherer?
How about taking a gamble on Duchscherer and Putz signing them each to a 1 yr $2 million plus incentives. Duchscherer could even be a spot starter. Soriano would be nice and I wouldn’t mind seeing the Angels bring back Escobar on maybe a minor league contract to give more depth. Oliver is a must to resign.
I thought about Duchscherer too...
just a big risk when he was out all year because of DEPRESSION?! What the crap?!
I just don’t know about a guy like that. He is a big unknown if you ask me, and I’d only give him a spring training invite to feel him out if I was an owner.
Escobar would not be a bad idea for one of those spring training Invites as well. Guaranteed money? No way. But an incentive laden deal provided he wins a job? Absolutely. I think the Angels should explore this, cause I don’t really see him getting a guaranteed contract from anyone.
I’m all for signing Soriano though. Would he be a big investment? I’m not sure, but I bet he won’t get anything better than Fuentes money (I’m thinking 5 to 8 million per for 2 to 3 years would get it done). If we don’t pick up anyone major (like Lackey/Bay), this should fit into the Angels payroll plans with some left over to sign Vlad (or someone else). If it’s the difference between keeping Lackey or not, I’d go for keeping Lackey though.
Peanuts...Get your Overpriced Peanuts!
by Angel Hawker on Nov 20, 2009 1:59 PM PST up reply actions
Id take Ben Sheets over Duchsherer.
They want power. We want respect...
by SenorChuckles on Nov 20, 2009 2:23 PM PST up reply actions
Totally Agree...
but he’d probably be a lot more expensive. I’m not for going for Duchscherer, too weird of a situation.
Peanuts...Get your Overpriced Peanuts!
by Angel Hawker on Nov 20, 2009 4:46 PM PST up reply actions
You forgot Joe Beimel
I’m somewhat partial to this guy as another lefty in our pen, and he wouldn’t cost us a great deal. He made $2M last year and had a 3.58 ERA, along with 13 holds. Granted his WHIP is not that great but he did pitch in Coors field. Not too shabby considering the hitters park that it is. He’ll be 33 at the start of next season, and I hardly call that a downfall. Relievers seem to get better with age, especially the type pitcher he is.
he really has no control
i have no faith in that beimel
Aybar is a nowhere man, Sitting in his Nowhere Land, Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
by princeton11loveshalos on Nov 22, 2009 3:08 PM PST up reply actions
You're healed!!! Have some faith...
In the past 4 years, he’s averaged a 3.11 ERA, and a WHIP of 1.353. While his WHIP is not eye popping, he held opponents to a batting avergae of .261 w/ RISP. Plus, he’s been durable pitching in 72 games a year.
Given the fact that Betancourt, Rodney, Soriano, and Valverde will all cost more, he’s an attractive option to fill out the bullpen, and be a consistent contributor.
But how does this all relate to....
CURTIS GRANDERSON????
Angels baseball. We do what we must, because we can -- HaloDutch
by red floyd on Nov 20, 2009 4:18 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
Soriano.
He has had a good career. An upgrade is needed, especially if we lose Oli. A trade may also be the way to go.
Harden could be filthy as closer, but the money just won't work out
I’d take Smoltz as closer over Fuentes as well.
Fuentes was shaky as a closer, I’d like to see us get Rodney, Valverde or Soriano, but I’d rather have Lackey so I don’t think any of that is going to happen. I’m not sure we can win a WS though with Fuentes as the closer blowing games. He’ll be 1 year old and it seems he is in a decline.
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