Yankee Bull Pen is second rate

[Hank Parks]

Without Joba and Mariano the Yanks would be lucky to win 5 th place
I can't believe with all George's bread they couldn't get a much stronger Pen
Except for Joba and Mariano I say a little prayer everytime one of those guys comes out to save
They pissed away a game a few days ago unbelievably
In other words they all stink

[Evangelion]

Ohlendorf and Bruney are off to nice starts to the season. Hawkins should be decent. Honestly, take a look at the other MLB bullpens, the Yankees have much potential in the bullpen. Without Chamberlain and Rivera? Unless one of the players is down for extended period, it doesn't matter if you believe the Yankees are no better than a last place team. These two make their bullpen a force along with young arms. Their bullpen in better shape than most teams' bullpen.

[soberdennis]

Ohlendorf and Bruney are off to nice starts to the season. Hawkins should be decent. Honestly, take a look at the other MLB bullpens, the Yankees have much potential in the bullpen. Without Chamberlain and Rivera? Unless one of the players is down for extended period, it doesn't matter if you believe the Yankees are no better than a last place team. These two make their bullpen a force along with young arms. Their bullpen in better shape than most teams' bullpen.

I agree. Look at Hawkins the last five outings. He has been near perfect. Overall, our bullpen has been a strength, not a weakness. And nobody forsees us being without both Mo and Joba.

[Pinstripes]

The Yankees bullpen may be the best its been in years. Farnsworth is actually throwing the ball better (more sinkers), Hawkins has been excellent lately, Bruney has newly found control (I blame the HRs on poor pitch selection and bad luck). Mo has been more Mo than ever. I don't think we've seen the best that Ohlendorf has to offer, either.

Not to mention we've got several quality arms we haven't seen much of (or any of) yet - Albaladejo, Patterson, Edwar Ramirez, etc.

Not to mention we've been without Joba for a few days now.

But besides my "casual" observations, the numbers back it up. The bullpen ERA is 3.34. That's 5th in the AL in bullpen ERA (they're 6th in the AL in OPS against). If you take out the one 6 ER from Hawkins in 2/3 of an inning against Tampa Bay (obviously you can't just take it away, but still) the bullpen ERA would be 2.41, which would be 2nd in the AL.

Just for comparison sake, Boston's pen ERA is 5.57 (12th in the AL).

[Mission 27]

And our starting rotation sucks without Wang and Pettitte.
Like the Sox rotation sucks without Beckett and Dice-K.

Why would we ever be without Mo and Joba? Obviously a bullpen is gonna be bad when you take out the set up man and the closer.

This is retarded lol

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I do not completely agree with the fact that our bullpen sucks.

The last couple of games, there are some guys that are able to keep the oponents from scoring. Ditto last night. Except for Albaladejo, the other two kept the Sox from scoring.

I won't say that we have a very good bullpen, but it is better than last year's.

[dougj1]

The starting pitching is much more important than the pen, although I'm not trying to minimize their role...If Yanks keep having too many starters that cannot get them into the 6th or better yet the 7th inning, the pen will implode...Cashman is counting on Kennedy & Hughes which is too much of a burden for a pitching staff which has age and or strong injury potential which Yanks staff has...Hughes can beat O's if he can find the plate.If not, the pen will soon run out of steam, as usual.

[bigbadwolf]

The Yankee bullpen is stronger than it has been in several years. Some fans relish the fact that a starter can 'eat up innings' bu pitching 200+. If 6 guys in the bullpen can pitch 80 innings each, that is only 1 inning every 2 games, that is equal to 480 innings. That covers a lot of ground.

[steve rogers]

Bruney did the same thing last year where he started off great and then fizzled. And I thought Edwar was released. I hope I'm wrong because I loved him. I was at the game where he debuted in the majors and struck out the side in the ninth.

Scott

[steve rogers]

I guess Edwar is still with the team because they called him up today and he's with the team in Baltimore.

Scott

[Westlake]

The Yankee bullpen is stronger than it has been in several years. Some fans relish the fact that a starter can 'eat up innings' bu pitching 200+. If 6 guys in the bullpen can pitch 80 innings each, that is only 1 inning every 2 games, that is equal to 480 innings. That covers a lot of ground.

EXTREMELY doubtful. I wouldn't be surprised if that has never happened in MLB history.

Yankees with 80 or more relief innings thrown....

2007: 0
2006: 2
2005: 1
2004: 2
2003: 0
2002: 2
2001: 3
2000: 0

Just for fun I looked at the Red Sox too..

2007: 0
2006: 0
2005: 1
2004: 1
2003: 1
2002: 0
2001: 1
2000: 1

[bigbadwolf]

Thank you for proving my point. The bullpen is no where near being overworked as has been suggested. There is almost no way a bullpen can get used up during a season as long as all relievers get used in the proper situation and context of each game.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

Thank you for proving my point. The bullpen is no where near being overworked as has been suggested. There is almost no way a bullpen can get used up during a season as long as all relievers get used in the proper situation and context of each game.

Of course it is quite hard to overuse a complete bullpen. But it was clear that Torre overused certain relievers.

[Evangelion]

Of course it is quite hard to overuse a complete bullpen. But it was clear that Torre overused certain relievers.

Paul Quantrill and Scott Proctor come to mind of relievers that were used quite often during their time in New York. At least during their time when they were effective and there happen to be difficulty finding other effective relievers during that period.

[bigbadwolf]

Of course it is quite hard to overuse a complete bullpen. But it was clear that Torre overused certain relievers.

As a manager wouldn't you use who has been effective or who you think will be effective in any given situation? You can't overuse guys who struggle to reach 80+ innings a year.