The seven-man bullpen

DMZ · July 22, 2011 at 7:22 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

When was the last time a team carried 13 pitchers for any significant length of time and afterwards looked back and said “That worked out really well. We were able to get everyone consistent work and they all contributed”?

Did you have to have double-headers regularly for it to make any sense?

Comments

12 Responses to “The seven-man bullpen”

  1. bostock4ever on July 22nd, 2011 7:44 pm

    DMZ I googled it for fun and as of July 17 2011 Twins were talking about it but as of today they only have twelve..
    Orioles carried 13 at the start of the season 2007..don’t think it worked out to well
    How’s your writing career going? I’m a big scifi fan so got any links to your stuff much appreciated

  2. jordan on July 22nd, 2011 8:11 pm

    Gray is grossly overworked.

  3. bostock4ever on July 22nd, 2011 8:24 pm

    White Sox, Giants tried it briefly the last couple of years also.
    Makes more sense to send poor performers down or release them, and have an extra bat..assuming a team can find an extra bat..which the M’s have not been able to do the last couple of years.
    Ozzie:
    “You give me 25 pitchers, I would take 25 pitchers,” said a smiling Guillen. “That’s always my philosophy.”
    (Merkin, MLB.com, 5/31/2011)
    AO Oz

  4. greentunic on July 22nd, 2011 9:02 pm

    Having a seven man bullpen is so low on our list of problems right now, honestly haha.

  5. JMHawkins on July 22nd, 2011 9:31 pm

    Yeah, in general I agree with Derek a 7 man pen is a dumb roster configuration, but for the M’s at this point, it’s moot. They don’t have enough bats to fill out a starting line-up, let alone a 5 man bench.

    Still, it’s one more “gee, we’re dumb” move that makes hope for a brighter future someday seem as far away as ever.

  6. G-Man on July 22nd, 2011 9:51 pm

    They don’t have enough bats to fill out a starting line-up, let alone a 5 man bench.

    Exactly what I was thinking. If they really had a bat in Tacoma or got one off the waiver wire we could use, then ditch a bullpen arm, but otherwise, the last reliever might as well hang around and keep Jason Phillips company out there.

  7. Breadbaker on July 22nd, 2011 10:28 pm

    Of course, in the world of consistent double headers, back when every Sunday was a double header, they used four man rotations and more bench players. The point of Sunday doubleheaders was a day off every week, and spot starters were expected to go just as deep as regular starters.

    We also went to school in the dark and snow in nothing but thin rubbers, ten miles uphill both ways.

  8. absolutsyd on July 22nd, 2011 11:03 pm

    Doesn’t even matter. They also have Cust and never use him, and they pretty rarely use Wilson. I mean, what batter would they even bring up?

  9. henryv on July 23rd, 2011 12:18 am

    Maybe it would be better if we went to a 20-man roster, and saved some money or something. To be honest there are members of this team who aren’t worth the cost of their plane tickets.

  10. Bodhizefa on July 23rd, 2011 4:25 am

    Can we at least go out and trade for Micah Owings to be our 7th bullpen arm and our DH? Please?

  11. davepaisley on July 23rd, 2011 1:09 pm

    5 starters + 7 relievers = 12 last time I looked. Where did the 13 come from?

  12. DMZ on July 23rd, 2011 3:19 pm

    Yeah, this was a bad post. When they added a pitcher, the MLB story mentioned that the seven-man bullpen was “more traditional” and Wedge had some comments about how they didn’t expect the starters to keep doing so well. But they don’t need seven now, and I wanted to ask if there were circumstances where you’d add yet another one.

    Totally borked it.

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