MVN - Most Valuable Network

Bullpen looking like ‘07 lately

In 2008 the White Sox’ bullpen has been a far cry from the disappointing 2007 season, but lately the ‘pen has brought back dreadful memories of last year.

The bullpen has allowed 30 earned runs this month, and their performance since the All-Star break – one in which they let two close games turn into blowouts and blew one lead – has called into question for the first time all year whether or not this team needs to trade for an arm. 

The starting pitching has been pretty good since the break, but one wouldn’t know by looking at the final scores.  The Sox have lost three of their first four coming out of the break, and this is something we’ve seen before.  The Sox have struggled opening the second half of the season in each of the past three years.  In 2006, a poor second half dropped them from contention while 2007 saw them actually dip into last place for a while.

Looking at the bullpen’s numbers overall makes me think this is just a staff-wide slump that will go away.  Jenks, Thornton, Linebrink and Carrasco all have ERAs under 3.00, and Dotel and Logan are both under 4.00.

Vazquez made a good start last night, going seven innings and limiting then pen work to just two.  Buehrle will pitch today on three days rest, followed by the major league debut of Clayton Richard on Wednesday.  Both need to produce quality outings to help rest the bullpen before two crucial road series’ with Detroit and Minnesota.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 11:25 pm and is filed under Javier Vasquez, Bobby Jenks, Octavio Dotel, Transactions, Rumors, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.