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Omar 382
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"A quick recap of the performances:
April 1: Rangers walk off in the bottom of the ninth with a run against Mario Hollands and B.J. Rosenberg
April 2: Rangers score three runs in the bottom of the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon to walk off 4-3 winners
April 8: Brewers put the kibosh on any hopes of a comeback when Ryan Braun hit his third home run of the day, a three-run homer off of Brad Lincoln
April 9: Brewers break 4-4 tie and burst ahead with five runs against Antonio Bastardo and Justin De Fratus
Every member of the bullpen has shown a crack in the armor already and even Jake Diekman, perhaps the most trusted member of the bullpen by fans, has a 5.79 ERA. As a unit, the struggles aren’t surprising when you look at their peripherals. Over 23 2/3 combined innings, they have struck out hitters at an 18.7 percent clip and walked them at a 12.2 percent clip. The MLB average for relievers last season was 21.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively, so the Phillies are not missing many bits and they’re giving away too many free passes to first base. There’s no chance of pointing to bad luck as a culprit, either, as they have an aggregate .286 BABIP and eight percent HR/FB rate. Their 4.82 xFIP and 4.39 SIERA is, for all intents and purposes, verifying their awful ERA. In other words, they really are pitching as bad as they’ve looked."
Crashburn Alley ? Patience Required with Phillies? Young Bullpen
The rest of the article outlines why there should not be too much cause for concern, but it's not like we have Mariano Rivera and Dennis Eckersley struggling in the second week of the season. Manship and Lincoln are terrible, and De Fratus is average at best. I was counting on at least Diekman and Bastardo to be decent, but even they aren't doing their jobs. It's going to be very hard to win games that are 4-3 or 4-4 when the starting pitcher leaves.
April 1: Rangers walk off in the bottom of the ninth with a run against Mario Hollands and B.J. Rosenberg
April 2: Rangers score three runs in the bottom of the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon to walk off 4-3 winners
April 8: Brewers put the kibosh on any hopes of a comeback when Ryan Braun hit his third home run of the day, a three-run homer off of Brad Lincoln
April 9: Brewers break 4-4 tie and burst ahead with five runs against Antonio Bastardo and Justin De Fratus
Every member of the bullpen has shown a crack in the armor already and even Jake Diekman, perhaps the most trusted member of the bullpen by fans, has a 5.79 ERA. As a unit, the struggles aren’t surprising when you look at their peripherals. Over 23 2/3 combined innings, they have struck out hitters at an 18.7 percent clip and walked them at a 12.2 percent clip. The MLB average for relievers last season was 21.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively, so the Phillies are not missing many bits and they’re giving away too many free passes to first base. There’s no chance of pointing to bad luck as a culprit, either, as they have an aggregate .286 BABIP and eight percent HR/FB rate. Their 4.82 xFIP and 4.39 SIERA is, for all intents and purposes, verifying their awful ERA. In other words, they really are pitching as bad as they’ve looked."
Crashburn Alley ? Patience Required with Phillies? Young Bullpen
The rest of the article outlines why there should not be too much cause for concern, but it's not like we have Mariano Rivera and Dennis Eckersley struggling in the second week of the season. Manship and Lincoln are terrible, and De Fratus is average at best. I was counting on at least Diekman and Bastardo to be decent, but even they aren't doing their jobs. It's going to be very hard to win games that are 4-3 or 4-4 when the starting pitcher leaves.
