Open Thread: The Bullpen

Who is the JD Arney guy that posted this?  The name seems familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. :P

1. The age thing bothers me only because those guys are getting 2 year contracts.  There is no reason for it, yet it happens.
2. Yes, the bullpen will be better, but I don't think it will be a strength like it was in the early aughts.  It sucked so much last year though, that maybe I'm just thinking it has to be better by default.
3. If it were me, I'd be giving Coutlangus a try every night.

No confidence in anyone on there. For all the love we give Coffey, he still had a 1.44 WHIP last year. He's really, really hittable and unless he makes new strides with that splitter we saw some last year, that's unlikely to change. Cormier is useless -- a LOOGY who is worse against lefties than righties. I didn't like anything I saw out of Bray last year. His control was bad and his stuff was pretty unimpressive, and I don't see him ever becoming a good closer. Majewski is probably the best of the bunch when he's healthy, but his control and lack of strikeouts scare me. Stanton was a decent signing for one year, terrible one for two. Let's just hope he does well enough to be traded off for a decent prospect at some point. Weathers is the reliever I have the most confidence in, and let's not act like he's really anything more than a solid 7th inning guy in a decent bullpen. As for the rest, I still like Belisle as a potentially good back of the bullpen guy, assuming he can stay healthy. Coutlangus is also intriguing, if for no reason other than his name. Elizardo shouldn't be a bullpen candidate, there isn't much room for Love Shack without dumping Cormier (and we should be dumping him for Shackelford), and the rest are probably still a year or so away.

Age doesn't bother me as much as production.  I don't care if a guy's 60 as long as he can get people out.  Signing people circa 40 for more than a year is a little risky, I think.  This makes me a little uncomfortable with guys like Cormier.  But I don't feel the same about Stanton.  The guy's old, sure, but of everyone in the bullpen, he absolutely knows what he's doing.

Also, the only way it seems the Reds will ever construct a solid bullpen is either by signing aging relievers or grooming a young group in the farm.  There's no way they go out and spend big $$$ on prime relievers.  At least, I don't see it happening under this administration.

All this being said, I think it's a better bullpen than last year.  Maybe that's just 'cause I actually know who's in the bullpen this year and that makes me more comfortable.  Actually, I think the main reason we're better is that we know where Coffey does his best work (8th inn) and where Weathers does his best work (7th inn).  I guess that still leaves the 9th open, huh?  Well, I still feel better about things, no matter irrational.

1. The age in the bullpen? To an extent. I think that it IS absolutely necesary to have a couple of veteran relievers in there... David Weathers is the best example. As for Stanton and Cormier... We DO need one lefty veteran pitcher... Merker was the man last year... having two though seems like suicide to me. I totally agree with JD that Stanton will probably end up being our closer... not a good thing though in my opinion... he closed a good bit for the Giants last year.
2. I think the bullpen WILL be a bit better this year than it was last year. For one thing... you really can't get a lot worse than last year's bullpen. Majewski... who knows? He could end up being pretty good... One of the few guys in the pen that has a heater that can acutally reach the mid-90s. Bray is one of my favorite guys to watch. I think he's gonna be great in a year or two for us. Also, if Stanton doesn't work out, maybe we will start to SLOWLY integrate Coffey into the closer's role... He wasn't real good there last year... but he DOES have closer stuff.
3. Last spot in the bullpen? Assuming he's healthy, I'd probably say that on OPENING DAY... it should be Matt Beslile. He's got some experience, but isn't ancient. The other guys are all good and fine, but I'd really like to see them start in the minors so we could keep an eye on anything at the beginning of the season.

I'm with Slyde. There's something I also like about Coutlangus.

Sometimes Coutlangus stinks. Sometimes Coutlangus just doesn't get the job done. Sometimes Coutlangus is so much to handle I can't get the words out of my mouth. Sometimes Coutlangus leaves me so drop-jawed that I can't open my mouth for days.

But there's another side that i can't put my finger on. Sometimes Coutlangus is pretty sweet, smometimes, smummttmies... sorry, sometimes Coutlangus leaves me toungue-tied. It's hard to talk about, especially around a lot of people you know and respect. But as much of a pain in the neck as Coutlangus can be, I can't imagine life without him.

My favorite thing about Coutlangus? He teases with the fastball, then the change up, then the fastball, then another changeup, until, just when he's driving you so crazy you think you're going to scream, he finishes things off with a wicked screwball.

At least after three appearances, I'm assuming each of the pitchers in the 'pen will have an ERA.  Unlike Chris Hammond, who couldn't even get anyone out the first several games he was in, so his ERA was incalculable.  Amazing.  Simply amazing.  

And Majewski, the dashing buccaneer, represented our fine country in the World Baseball Classic last spring.  I'm hoping that that screwed him up, and this year he'll be great.  This is probably not realistic, but that's my hope.  And while we're there, all of Junior's misfortunes, including his new broken hand, can be heaped on the WBC too.

Is that a typo, JD?  Or is he now the two drink reliever?  "Hot" Toddy Coffey.  Not a bad nickname...

Age doesn't bother me, I think the bullpen will be better since we lost a lot of the ineffective guys from the first half, and my money is on Belisle.