Monday, April 21, 2014

Toronto Blue Jays bullpen takes a step back

The Blue Jays who are 10-9 and just completed a 5-4 road trip are having a few problems with an overworked bullpen that is not as strong as last season and it has cost them a couple of games this season so far. If you look at the models of great bullpens in the majors of Tampa Bay and Oakland usually have changes from season to season bring in fresh arms and letting the worn down arms find their pay raises elsewhere. The Jays really did not go out and find those fresh arms to replace the couple old arms and the Jays bullpen having given up 81 walks which is the second highest in the majors just behind the Chicago White Soxs (91 walks). It is not the bullpen fault because if R.A. Dickey and Brandon Morrow going to implode within the first 5 innings and leaving at least 4 innings of bullpen twice through the rotation. So I would not blame the bullpen when pitcher comes out at least to start the sixth and think we need to actually same this guys bacon once again for four innings. Dustin McGowan is not a guy that u would expect to go deep into the ballgame as he not able to get anywhere near 100 pitches as he has not pitched this much since the end of the '08 season. Mark Buehrle is the close down pitcher who the Jays have been lacking since Roy Halladay left the city of Toronto after the '09 season and his 4-0 record given up 2 earned runs over 28 innings and only 21 hits and 5 walks in the 28 innings for a whip .93 which is simply incredible. Drew Hutchison is somewhere in between what R.A. is downing and Buehrle is doing as he has pitched into the sixth inning 3 of 4 starts with his shortest outing (3.2 inning) was against the pitch eating Yankees. He has also finished the sixth once and it does not help him always having a guy on base with 21 hits and 8 walks in only 20 innings. The guys not able to throw strikes are Arron Loup (7 bbs in 8.2 innings), Brett Cecil (4 bb in 8 innings), and Steve Delabar (5 bb in 6.2 innings) and these are the dudes that were the shutdown guys and that along with closer Casey Janssen not close to rejoining the team does not help. So the Jays may want to find fresher arms to boost the bullpen Tom Mehegan

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