Beavan might re-located his 95 mph stuff in the pen.
Erasmo is giving you too much to send him down, same with Noesi, and Iwakuma is doing what you asked him to do.
On most teams the best pitchers are the starters. If you have Felix, you don't make him a closer you make him a Cy Young winning starter.
I'm starting to wonder if the Ms are planning on making Future Felix a closer, though. I mean, if you wanted a bullpen full of killers, you'd take some of your excess starters and move them over, right? I mean, if they had good stuff.
Noesi and Erasmo are both throwing 94 as starters. What can they do in the pen?
As this HBT article discusses, one of the best bullpens ever - if not THE best - is the 2003 Dodgers.
Gagne was a converted starter, Quantrill was a former swingman-starter who was deadly in the pen until he was overused, Shuey was a #2 pick OVERALL and minor league starter who was moved to the pen almost immediately a la Papelbon, Martin was a starter-made-closer, and Mota started for a year before HE was made a closer.
Talk about an All-Star, all-money bullpen.
We're currently aiming Robles (former starter), Snow (swingman), potentially Beavan, Noesi and Erasmo at the pen, all starters. Could Paxton wind up as a closer instead of a 200 inning starter? I would think (and hope) not, but if Hultzen and Walker both pass him up for starter slots and we have the need, we might make the same decision that the Red Sox did with Papelbon.
I've been thinking the Mariners are gonna have to find some way to deal with all this depth, pitching and hitting wise.
What if their answer is to put a whole armada of bat-first players on the field and supplement their lack of gloves with a fist-full of Ks and utter lack of hits because they're putting 10 or 15 million dollar (WAR) starters in the pen as swing and set-up men once they've stuffed the rotation?
It's an interesting idea. Get a couple of key gloves and let the rest of the bats do the talking around the absolute silence of pitchers playing catch with their battery mates.
Isn't that the Yankees, Bo Sox and Phillies plan when they can manage it?
~G
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