The Bullpen, Small Sample Size, and why the Wisconsin Sports Media is retarded.
So, the Cubs came back in dramatic fashion to win, wasting another fine effort from Gallardo. It’s the second in a row. Shame really. Sheets is going today. I might just heal.
But we are going back to Sunday (a.k.a. Gallardo gets screwed by the Pen the first). Brewers-Royals. A remarkably classic game in many aspects. Save the Brewers bullpen.
But we’re talking about the guy who let in the two and the three on that date. One Derrick Turnbow. For those of you who don’t know the story? A quick refresher.
In 2004, Turnbow was picked up from the Angels. He always had himself a power arm, but he could never really find the plate, and the Angels had grown weary of that noise. Thus, he became expendable. And wowie wow was his 2005 nice.
7-1 1.74 ERA 39 saves 1.084 WHIP 67 1/3 IP 49 H 24 BB 64K
Sure, the walks were a little shaky, but you wouldn’t kick that season out of bed for eating crackers. At least I wouldn’t.
Then came 2006. He was an all-star! He had 23 saves at the break. Sure, his ERA was at 4.04 at the end of June, but he’d work that down. We had faith in Derrick.
Oh what fools we were. It was not collapse. It was not implosion. Derrick Turnbow became a black hole of suck from which no baseball could escape. It’s not hyperbole either.
Derrick Turbow post July 1st: 0-6 1 SV 6.20 ERA 2.468 WHIP, 20 2/3 IP, 29 H, 30 ER, 22 BB, 24 K. Not to mention 5 Home Runs allowed.
Put it this way, as a Brewers fan, Derrick Turnbow was out of your circle of trust. He was unexplainably awful. And considering the high leverage situations he was in? It was a bad time had by all.
Cut to 2007. And through May 9th, Turnbow was great! Off the chain! It was a beautiful thing.
Then came Philly. 4 runs in two-thirds of an inning. He lost the next night too. He was fine for two weeks. Then three runs in a third of an inning in a loss to the Braves ended May on an awful note for Turnbow.
Just when he found his stride, it went bye-bye again. We understand that pitching the bean is a diffcult endeavor to do consistently well, but the fans stomachs started to turn every time the shaggy one would enter the game.
May turns to June, and he seemingly finds his stride again. That is, until June 24th. Gallardo shuts down the Royals, Odalis Perez avoids the big hit against the Brewers. The Brewers nurse a 2-1 lead going into the 8th.
In comes Turnbow. He walks Fernando Cortez, a man Baseball Propsectus found irrelevant. David DeJesus singles, and runners are on second and third due to a Billy Hall cock-up. Joey Gaithright grounds out in superhuman fashion, tying the game. And Mark Teahen singles home DeJesus.
And one of the worst teams in baseball has taken the lead with a rally situation.
Ned Yost brings in Brian Shouse for a lefthander, and the crowd goes boo. I mean, it’s the Royals, and it’s the young buck’s start wasted. Was it his fault? Not completely.
But he’s not in the circle of trust. So his screw-up got booed.
Cut to June 25th. Me, fresh off of my famous Stephen A. Smith blog posting, meandered toward getting the dog out of the kennel. And I heard indig-NATION!
“I was disgusted!”
“Those fans were idiots!”
“I wish I was there so I could complain!”–Joe Buck.
The argument. Turnbow’s last 8 appearances were scoreless. On the surface, fair. He had not allowed a run since June 5th, going in 8 games. But it’s also a fallacious argument.
Why? He pitched 8 innings. He faced 27 betters. Variance is a wonderful thing. Mike Benjamin, as an example, once went 14 for 18 in 3 games. Jose Jimenez pitched 9 consecutive inning of hitless ball in one game.
For a reliever, 8 appearances is just as meaningless. A reliever needs to have a season of sheer quality in order to be regarded as quality, or return to a status once held. Turnbow hasn’t done it yet.
No matter what Drew Olson, Mike Heller, and the rest of the media geniuses may say.
Fransisco Cordero on the other hand? Still in the circle of trust.
