Angels bullpen report, Week 2: New faces, worse results

After an opening week where seemingly nothing could go wrong, Newton’s Law brought the Angels crashing back down to earth in week two. It started with the announcement that Andrew Bailey was placed on the 10-day DL with right shoulder inflammation, never good news for an injury-prone right-handed reliever. Coupled with news that Garrett Richards was not yet ready, necessitating the shifting of J.C. Ramirez to the rotation, the Angels went into last week down two guys they leaned heavily on the first 7 games of the season.

With Mike Scioscia forced to re-shuffle his deck early on, let’s see how the cards fell into place:

Cam saw a little bit of the sheen rub off of his week one dominance. He picked up the win in extra innings against the Rangers, but needed the help of Superman in center field, soaring above the wall to rescue him from the clutches of Lex Luthor himself, Mike Napoli.

In his other appearance last week, he was thrust into one of the toughest situations possible, no outs with runners on the corners and the game on the line. He coaxed a pop-up for the first out, giving the Angels some hope, but promptly allowed a single to Alcides Escobar to end the game. Still, with the game on the line, it was the right move to bring in your relief ace, rather than reserving him for a save that may never come.

Bud Norris was arguably the Panther of the Angels’ lone victory last week, shutting down the Rangers for three innings in relief of Tyler Skaggs, setting the stage for the Angels’ dramatic ninth inning comeback. After a few days rest, he bounced back nicely, stranding an inherited runner and keeping things close against the Royals.

With J.C. Ramirez moved to the rotation, Norris seems to have assumed the “Swiss Army Knife” designation in Scioscia’s pen, capable of soaking up innings while remaining precise enough to enter high-leverage situations.

Andrew Bailey’s injury has opened the door for Parker to earn more trust from Mike Scioscia. He has continued to be a strikeout machine, with a 15.0 K/9 ratio through six innings on the young season. He did stumble a bit in his last appearance, allowing a hit and his first walk of the season. A wild pitch put the eventual winning run on third, at which point he was lifted in favor of Bedrosian.

A few things have remained true about Parker thus far. One, of course, is he reliably misses bats while keeping his walks under control. Another, unfortunately, seems to be a lack of stamina. After allowing back-to-back hits during his second inning of work against the A’s, he looked less sharp working his second consecutive game against the Royals. The small sample caveat applies, of course. But if he is going to be a key member of the pen, he has to show he can pitch on back-to-back days occasionally.

Alvarez continues to be used as a situational lefty, a role he failed miserably at when he allowed a go-ahead home run to Mike Moustakas in the eighth inning of a winnable game against the Royals. To his credit, he bounced back the next day when he entered a scoreless tie, pitching a clean eighth inning and earning two strikeouts along the way.

The pen’s designated mop-up man continues his blue collar ways, keeping things low-event when the stakes are low. He did allow a home run to Carlos Gomez, putting a game a bit further out of reach. In a week when the Angels did not enjoy any leads, Petit saw plenty of work.

When folks quibble about the definition of replacement-level player, take a gander at these three fellas. Get well soon, Andrew Bailey.