Both
whitesox.com's Scott Merkin and the
Sun-Times' Joe Cowley have stressed the bullpen as the No. 1 importance, and I can't blame them. Inconsistency from Cliff Politte and Boone Logan/Agustin Montero/Sean Tracey hurt them in the first half, and Neal Cotts, Bobby Jenks and David Riske crapped the bed in the second.
Cowley's article, however, presents two conflicting ideas that don't seem to resolve each other. First, Ozzie Guillen talks about the bullpens of the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins, but later he cites "an above-average list of middle relievers" that the Sox will peruse that includes Jamie Walker, Chad Bradford and
Darren Oliver.
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The thing is, the Tigers built a bullpen like the Sox did last year. Todd Jones was this year's Dustin Hermanson, Joel Zumaya this year's Bobby Jenks, Jamie Walker this year's Neal Cotts, Fernando Rodney this year's Cliff Politte. Dave Dombrowski did the right thing by collecting some interesting arms, and they paid off.
The highest-paid guy in the Tiger bullpen? Troy Percival at $6 million, and he didn't pitch a single inning. It's by far the worst move Dombrowski's made during his tenure.
Meanwhile, the Twins just know how to develop pitchers. Personally, I think they have some factory in Duluth that cranks out above-average ostensibly white relievers with ostensibly white names. Jesse Crain? Glen Perkins? Pat Neshek? They did the same thing with outfielders when Bobby Kielty, Chad Allen, Mike Cuddyer, Dustan Mohr and Michaels Ryan and Restovich came through the system. I think they've just shifted their focus.
But if they're going to compete for free agents....Oliver? Well, in 80 innings in 2006, he allowed 70 hits with a good strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 3.44 ERA. That sounds all well and good. But here's what isn't good: Oliver's previous 573 innings. From
2000-2004 (he was out of baseball in 2005), he had a 5.83 ERA, with a WHIP of 1.60.
I've stated my positions on bullpens before, but the solution isn't to throw money at it. Joe Kennedy leads Oakland relievers with a $2.4 million salary, Francisco Rodriguez is making $3.7 million for the Angels' deep bullpen, Billy Wagner's making way too much money, but he's only part of the reason why the Mets' bullpen is so good. Takashi Saito replaced Eric Gagne almost entirely for 1/15th of the price.
It may not be bad to try to lure a Bradford or Walker with a couple of million, but I'd put less effort in throwing money around, and more effort in seeing if
Don Cooper has any more bright ideas. It sure worked out well with Matt Thornton.
(He made $360,000.)