So the Yanks cut Paul "Jay Witasick" Quantrill and Mike "Felix Heredia" Stanton today. Those are the first moves the Yanks will make in an effort to right the ship (whatever that means). While I never understood why Brian Cashman brought Mike Stanton back for a second tour of duty after he was so lousy in 2002, I am definitely disappointed in how it turned out for Paul Quantrill. For the first half of last year, the back end of the Yankee bullpen was dubbed "QuanGorMo" with Quantrill, Tom Gordon and Mo Rivera shutting the door on opponents. I have no idea what happend to Quantrill after the All-Star break but he hasn't been the same. I liked his fiesty Canadian temper and his willingness to pitch every day.
Along with the release of Steve Karsay in mid-May, the total cost of Yankee arms in the 'pen that aren't on our team is a staggering $12,425,000. True, it's not even the price of one Vlad or Sheff but it's still about half of the D-Rays payroll. You'd think that for that kind of money, you'd get three solid arms that could be trusted to not walk leadoff hitters, not allow walk-off homers and not come into a close game and leave it a blowout for the wrong side.
It just goes to show you how expensive it is to run a ballclub these days. Money is more expensive than ever.
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I'd modify your second-to-last sentence a tad: yes, it's expensive to run a baseball team in this day and age, but that these three guys cost $12.4 million is more a lesson in how to spend money poorly.
To be fair, prior to this year, a random baseball fan or analyst would probably think that the trio of Quantrill, Stanton and Karsay was a really nice one to have in the bullpen. But that relief pitchers can fall apart so quickly should give notice to GMs that it might not be wise to throw an average of $4m/year to a guy who might wake up the next day and decide he's, oh, LaTroy Hawkins or Joe Borowski.
The counter to this, in line with Mo's original post, is that if every team is overspending on relief pitchers, then even if you as GM know that you're risking an awful lot on a potential flame-out, you have no choice but to meet the market price.
Whichever side you're on (and I don't think the two are diametrically opposed), the one thing we should all agree on is that the reason why these guys are neither pitching 6 innings as starters nor called upon to finish up tight games in the 9th is that they're simply not as good as bonafide starters or closers. GMs should keep that in mind as they decide whether to throw $4m at a Karsay or to save a couple million for a better starter or position player.
The problem most GMs face is that while you have lesser talent of people to fill a bullpen, a bullpen is still an incrediably crucial part of a team. As the Indians learned last year(and seemingly the Red Sox more and more this year) without middle relief to get to the closer it puts pressure on the closer (ala Rivera last year) and/or the starters. As such the cost of good relievers should be high. I think the catch that Mo is alluding to is what happens to a team when they can't fill their bullpen via the farm system (its costly and risky)
That's pretty much it. A team that wants to be successful for the long term either has to nail every one of their predictions or bring up young arms for the pen. The 1996 Yanks won because Ramiro Mendoza and Mariano Rivera were the bridge to John Wetteland. Their success was sustained because of Mendoza and because of how well Jeff Nelson and Mike Stanton panned out. Since that time, the Yanks have been less and less successful with their picks for the pen.
The Red Sox are looking at the same scenario: they haven't developed a single pitcher that is currently on their major league roster. Last year, they got lucky that Embree, Myers, Timlin and Foulke all came together as well as they did. This year, not so much. While they still have the team to beat in the AL, their inability to cash in on their bullpen investment this year doesn't bode well for the future.
The Twins have shown us why young arms are so valuable. Even if they're not starter materials, guys like Romero, Crain and Rincon are good young arms that can either stay in the pen, develop as potential starters or move to the back end of the pen if/when Nathan ever gets shaky.
I agree with the need for a talented bullpen in order to win a world series. One of the reasons why the Reds swept the immortal Oakland As in 1990 was because it had the Nasty Boys in the bullpen. It also helped that a certain Ohioan who has been adopted by the city of NY was in right field at the time of their win. I am sure that Columbus is proud of their hometown man, Paul O'Neil.
Paul O'Neill is every bit the great Yankee that all of his outfield compadres were -- Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris and Jackson. I don't care about stats and Hall of Fame credentials, ask any Yankee fan and they'll tell you that we love our "Paulie" as much as, and in some cases more than, the other names on this list. Paulie was the Yanks and the Yanks were Paulie. He's more Yankee than Donnie Baseball and that's saying something.
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