Mickey Callaway Death Watch Starts Again after Mets' Brutal Trip

By "W"
Mon, Jun 3, 2019 11:32 a.m.

The Mets are my backup team for watching over the internet. I pass this column along for his observation, toward the end, about Bullpen Baseball. The Nationals 7-8 inning guys have been awful since game one and they have had that problem over the past four years at least. Sherzer finally got a win yesterday and the Reds' broadcast noted that the Nats bullpen ERA, when he is taken out of a game late, was 11.73 going into the 9^th on Sunday. This time Doolittle got a 1-2-3 save. But this is only Sherzer's third win of the season, despite his fine pitching through the first two months.

In other broadcasts I have seen huge ERA's by the bullpens. Scary.

https://nypost.com/2019/06/02/mickey-callaways-mets-anger-may-be-coming-too-late/?utm_source=maropost&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=startinglineup&utm_content=20190603&tpcc=starting_lineup&mpweb=755-8005163-719864743

N.S.: If you're going to expect only six innings and three runs surrendered out of your starter, and will call that a "good start," don't be surprised when your bullpen collapses, even if you have eight warm bodies out there. When I was a kid, a "good start" was a complete game, giving up three or fewer runs. Pitching staffs had four-man starting rotations, and maybe five relievers, which allowed them to have deep, eight-man benches. Now, by contrast, they have at most four-man benches.

On paper, the situation ought to spell pitching heaven—and all that money!—but it hasn't quite worked out that way. The owners want guys who throw 100 mph, so few pitchers have stamina. And they want lots of home runs, because that puts fannies in the seats, so they're juicing the ball again. Mets announcer Gary Cohen talks about it all the time. "Balls are flying out of ballparks."

Well, why not? Owners and GMs have an inexhaustible supply of hard-throwing, young and not-so-young arms from south of the border.


Postscript, Tuesday, June 4, 2019, 5:33 p.m.:

A friend wrote, in response,

Not a “good start,” a “quality start.”

The “quality start”—six innings, 3 ERs—translates to 4.5 ERA which in the old but better baseball days, would have made a pitcher the mop up man—until he’s sent to AAA.

N.S.: All true.