Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

The Jays had the day off yesterday, but it has been 2 weeks since the last bullpen report, so it's that time again. No rest for the weary.

This being the 5th bullpen report, a summary seems in order. Here are the first 4 reports: v.1, v.2, v.3, and v.4.

Without further ado, the chart for the last 2 weeks:

May 27-June 9

(entrance inning/batters faced/opp. GPA)

date Batista Speier   Frasor   Downs     Schoen      Chulk      Walker
                                         
Ma 27        6.0/4     7.0/4              8.0/3 
	     .175      .113               .233
Ma 28 8.0/3                     4.2/10
      .000                      .000
Ma 29------------------another Doc complete game----------

Ma 30                  6.2/6                          4.2/7
                       .150                           .1
Ma 31 8.0/4  7.0/7              5.0/9     8.0/4        
      .238   .436               .128      .783
Ju 01        7.2/1
             .000
Ju 02                  7.0/4                                      4.1/9
                       .175                                       .105
Ju 03 8.0/5                               7.0/4
      .243                                .175                                              
Ju 04        7.0/4                                    6.0/3
             .363                                     .000
Ju 05        7.0/5     6.0/4    1.0/12    5.0/3                   3.0/6
             .243      .175     .513      .233                    .000
Ju 06 8.0/4                                           7.0/4
      .350                                            .363
Ju 07 8.0/3            7.1/3              6.2/2                   5.1/9
      .000             .483               .000                    .375
Ju 08                                                 7.0/3
                                                      .000
Ju 09------------------day off------------------------------

Each member of the bullpen now has a defined role: the closer (Batista), the set-up men (Frasor, Speier and Chulk), the LOOGY (Schoeneweis) and the left-handed (Downs) and right-handed (Walker) long men. Let's take a brief look at Batista, Frasor and Speier, with the help of THT's detailed statistics. We'll catch the others next time.

Miguel Batista

John Gibbons has stuck very closely to the modern closer role in using Batista. He has come out almost always for one inning of work. Five times Batista has come on with two outs in the eighth to finish the game, but otherwise it's been nothing but short stints. Batista is on pace to pitch 70 innings this year, an average number for a closer.

Batista has taken advantage of the improved Jay defence to be successful. He is striking out just over 1 per 2 innings of work, but walking many fewer than last year. He has not allowed a homer this season. The defence has responded by turning almost 77% of balls in play into outs.

Jason Frasor

Like Batista, Frasor has usually pitched short stints. Most often, it has been an inning or less, and only once has he thrown more than an inning and a third. In over half of his appearances, he enters in the eighth inning. He is on pace to pitch 67 innings this year, a modest workload for a set-up man.

Frasor has pitched adequately this season. His control has not been as sharp as would be ideal, with about 1 walk every 2 innings of work, but all other aspects of his game have been fine.

Justin Speier

Prior to spring training, Speier was the presumptive closer on the club. The team converted Batista into the role in March, and made Speier into the primary set-up man. Whether it was due to diminished confidence or some other reason, Speier struggled mightily in April. John Gibbons responded by moving him into a lower leverage role, and Speier pitched well in May. In June, he has been brought into more important situations. He has almost always pitched an inning or less in his appearances, and is on pace to throw 51 innings this season.

Speier has struck out few, less than 4 per 9 innings, walked very few and given up more long-balls than you would like. He's a flyball pitcher, and the Jay outfield defence has done a nice job of turning the great majority of the balls in the air off him into outs. He will need to miss a few more bats to be successful over the season.

Posted by Mike Green on Friday, June 10 2005 @ 08:00 AM EDT.

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daryn - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 10:50 AM EDT (#119306) #

I like the summary.. is it too much to ask for a column with the game results? I had a hard time figuring out this line

Ma 30                  6.2/6                          4.2/7
                       .150                           .1

if you came in at 6.2 and faced 6 batters, does that mean the bottom of the ninth wasn't played? I assume this was a "mop up" situation?? Since the relievers pitched well, but there is no quick way to check what happened. a good performance in a mop-up means something different than a bases loaded "hold"

Mike Green - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 11:14 AM EDT (#119310) #

I definitely contemplated adding in information about the score at the time of entry- i.e. +3 or -2 or whatever. There is always a compromise between providing information and avoiding overload and layout confusion, but if there is demand for this information, I will provide it in the next report.

daryn - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 12:51 PM EDT (#119333) #

Mike, well I won't "demand" it *wink*

We'll see if anyone else states a preference.
Thanks for the data
DT

Anders - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 12:54 PM EDT (#119334) #

Great work again Mike.

The thing I dont understand, for the life of me, is why the Jays carry 12 pitchers. Surely JP realizes how stupid this is, right? I suppose the Jays pitchers havent been pitching that far into games, which is the only mitigating factor. But honestly, wouldnt having JF Griffin/Eric Crozier etc up here to be a bat off the bench be more worthwhile?

Lefty - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 01:36 PM EDT (#119337) #

Off topic.

Yesterday the USAtoday baseball page had a trades story up. Shea Hillenbrand was the poster boy for the piece. He was quote roughly as saying Theo's a great guy etc.

Espn insiders has their annual trade rumours page up now as well. Not being a so called insider I couldn't see where they are speculating Shea will land.

But if it is Boston, would Ricciardi be asking for Kelly Shoppach?

uglyone - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 02:37 PM EDT (#119350) #

I love these bullpen updates, they're great, but I have a problem with this part....

I don't think that does Batista justice. Batista has simply been unhittable this year. He's given up two extra base hits (both doubles) the entire season so far. I believe both of them came from the first batter he faced upon coming in. The majority of groundouts he's been able to get have been so close to strikeouts (i.e. such minimal contact made) that any fielders, no matter how bad, would be able to get the outs.

He's had pinpoint control, and his usual great movment on all his pitches.

In fact, IMO he's probably been very unlucky not to get more strikeouts, with batters having an inordinate number of foul tips and "grounders" bounced just in front of the plate.

I'd expect his strikeouts to continue to rise as they have so far (APR: 2.7k/9, MAY: 6.6k/9, JUN: 6.0k/9) and continue to creep up to the 7.0 level, as that luck balances out.

Mike Green - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 03:01 PM EDT (#119354) #

You have a point. Batista's line-drive rate is lower than average, but he actually hasn't been an extreme ground ball pitcher. It is difficult to avoid giving up the long-ball altogether if you are giving up a fair number of fly balls. Subjectively, I do remember more than a few nervous moments. It is true that he has been good, and getting better, but I do not expect that improvement to necessarily be reflected in an improved ERA.

Since I wrote this article, THT has updated its stats. That is why my figures are somewhat different from the current THT's stats. For instance, the defence behind Batista has now turned 76% of balls in play into outs.

Pistol - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 05:41 PM EDT (#119374) #

Romero will be pitching tonight and the game is going to be broadcast on ESPN2 at 10 pm.

Anders - Friday, June 10 2005 @ 05:45 PM EDT (#119376) #

Re: Hillenbrand

The Espn insider bit just has a tiny piece on it, with Gibby saying that he loves Shea and he's a great clubhouse guy, and that the Jays would have to be out of it to pull the trigger. Nothing about Shoppach, although apparently he might be trade bait for a first baseman.

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