The bullpen

Well I have done the starters' preview, although I think i'll go back and make a few edits. Now it is time to take a look at the most volatile part of any baseball team, the bullpen. It is almost impossible to predict how good any bullpen will be. The way to really have a good shot at having a good bullpen is to have really good starters that will eat up a lot of innings so the team can stay away from the middle relievers and simply use their top arms as relievers. Or the team could play at petco park in San Diego and all relievers can become instantly good.

The real approach should be never to spend a ton of money on relievers because they do not pitch enough innings throughout the year to match a high dollar value contract. High cost relievers are a luxury if those relievers are actually good, but as we saw with Francisco cordero last year, relievers being good throughout a long term contract is very unlikely. The key is to load up on power arm prospects and those that do not make it as starters have a good chance to succeed out of the pen because they can just come in and use their power instead of needing to be exceptional in their command or secondary pitches. If a team can have a high number of these players throughout their system it is likely that the team will be able to find some valuable relievers for low cost.

Well the reds have the opportunity to use some good prospects as relievers barring injury to starters this year. Aroldis chapman was outstanding late last year and Nick Masset is still cost controlled as a solid later inning guy. While I think chapman should be give every opportunity to start, it seems dusty baker thinks their is a such thing as a #1 bullpen guy and that is the same as a #1 starter. This is exceptionally flawed, but nonetheless it seems the reds will again have chapman bringing the heat in the late innings. So the bullpen will likely have many moving parts, but I think it is likely we see a lot of chapman, Masset, and cordero in the late innings.

Francisoc Cordero
Nick masset
Aroldis chapman
Arthur Rhodes
Bill bray
Logan andrusek
Jordan smith
Daniel Ray Herrera
Jared Burton
Carlos fisher
Enerio del Rosario


That is a quick list of many of the possible relievers this year. There are certainly others, such as Sam lecure, Matt Maloney, the loser of the 5th starter battle, and prospects such as Phillippe valiquette. The reds have strength in numbers and a few quality guys to use in the high leverage situations. The weak link here could very well be Cordero as the closer. They could look to trade him and give the job to masset, but cordero's contract is likely untradeable. The bigger issue is how everything will be affected if baker is forced to demote corder from that role.