Desperately Seeking Relief

I believe that, in the modern game, bullpens, particularly middle relief, have emerged as a decisive factor. For all the Red Sox heroics last year--you can talk Manny and Big Papi, World Series MVP Mike Lowell, the infusion of youth with Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury and the top to bottom pitching with Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon--anybody who watched that team day in day out knows that Hideki Okajima was the MVP, a shutdown link between the starting pitching and closer Papelbon. Last year Okajima averaged less than a baserunner an inning; this season he appears hapless, averaging 1.38 baserunners per inning, as is just about every other Red Sox reliever other than the closer. That bullpen collective already has 16 losses in 2008, two more than during the entire 2007 season.

You can talk about Tampa Bay's standout, young lineup (third baseman Evan Longoria is the real deal and has more RBIs and fewer errors than A-Rod) and its exceptional starting pitching over the first half of the season. But the performance of the Rays' no-name bullpen--Dan Wheeler, Trever Miller, Grant Balfour, J. P. Howell, Gary Glover, Kurt Birkins--has been the biggest difference-maker. The no-longer-Devil Rays are the best story in baseball's first half, better than the strong play of a Cubs team that was at least expected to compete. If Tampa Bay falters in the AL East with the Red Sox and Yankees giving chase, my guess is it will be the Rays bullpen where the cracks show. The Yankees seem to have their bullpen in working order, but the team's starting pitching remains so suspect that exceptional relief may not be enough. When Yankee fans are actually talking about the possible return of Carl Pavano, you know there is some desperation there. Even if Ortiz returns to the Red Sox lineup, the defending champs will be hard-pressed to repeat if they can't find some outs in their bullpen.

While relief pitching is always available in the trade market at this point in the season, it usually comes at inflated prices. And it seems almost impossible, even for the savviest GM, to predict who will be a solution and who will become part of the problem. National League pitchers, used to bigger ballparks and weaker lineups, seem particularly chancy. Last year Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was credited with the coup of the trading deadline when he landed Texas closer Eric Gagne to join Okajima in setting up for Papelbon. Gagne proved to more of a poison pill, blowing so many leads that that he almost singlehandedly drew the Yankees back into the race. And for a painful footnote, among those dealt for Gagne's two-month horror show was a young outfielder named David Murphy who, so far this season, only has as many RBIs as Manny Ramirez.

Pitching in baseball madhouses like Boston or New York just isn't the same as pitching in Texas or other less rabid environs. Back in 2003, the Red Sox tried to solve bullpen woes by dealing with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Scott Sauerbeck, a lefty who was described as unhittable by left-handed batters. If he was unhittable in Boston, it was largely because he couldn't throw the ball over the plate, walking more than one batter an inning and compiling an ERA of 6.48. Part of the price for Sauerbeck was Freddy Sanchez, who would go on to win a batting crown--.344 in 2006--in Pittsburgh. And even when the reliever does everything asked of him to help usher a team into the playoffs, as Larry Anderson did for the Red Sox back in 1988, the price can still be too high. The Sox were swept in the opening series by Oakland, Anderson was pitching in San Diego the next season and the kid Boston dealt for him, Jeff Bagwell, stayed in Houston for 15 years, hit 449 home runs, won an N.L. MVP and played in four All-Star Games.

While the Red Sox contemplate that history, Tuesday night is a chance for all fans of the game to appreciate Rivera. Baseball debates are at the heart of fandom. Mantle vs. Mays? Where does Barry Bonds fit in the game's pantheon? Is A-Rod a boon for or a drag on his team? But there is no debate at all about where Mariano Rivera stands at his position: all alone-best ever!

© 2008