Foolishness- the Brian Bruney Edition

by jscape2000 on Mar 24, 2009 6:00 AM EDT in Analysis Comment 9 comments

Eli Whitney revolutionized warfare with the development (if not the genesis) of interchangeable parts. The 2008 Yankees followed that path to bullpen success.

I looked forward to the continuation of meritocracy in 2009.

But then there's this from LoHud:

Brian Bruney, he of the 7.56 ERA in spring training, joked about whether he would make the team. Joe Girardi said that wasn’t in doubt. But Girardi was dead serious when he said Bruney needed to get himself going.

Bruney has allowed three homers in 8.1 innings.

I like Bruney a lot. He's got a good fastball, a strong work ethic, and Cash picked him off the D-back's scrap heap.

In the jscape household, that's enough to make me consider applying the 'my guy' tag to an otherwise interchangeable cog. But at the moment, my bullpen guys are minor leaguers Jonny A. and Humberto Sanchez.

I don't understand framing the discussion as one of inning roles. Why do I hear that the 8th inning belongs to Brian Bruney?

Mo, Marte, Coke, Jonny A., Edwar, David Robertson, and Tomko as long man.

Let Bruney, Veras, Melancon, and anyone else I'm forgetting start in AAA.

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I think it’s a really really bad idea to assemble a bullpen solely based on ST numbers. Past performance and experience has to account for something.

I mean, both LaTroy Hawkins and Billy Traber were outstanding last ST and it sure as hell didn’t carry over to the regular season. Both were disasters.

Check out all the hitting and pitching stats from 2008 ST via ESPN.

Many good performances didn’t carry over to the regular season (Hawkins, Traber, Cano, Giambi, Melky, Ensberg, Ohlendorf, Farnsworth, Kennedy, etc, etc) and many of the bad performances were just fine once the calendar flipped to April (Moose, Pettitte, Wang, Joba, Giese, Edwar, Veras, Damon and Jeter).

Also, I know Veras has no options left and I don’t believe Bruney does either, so neither of those guys are going to be DFA’d. They’d be picked up by someone else in a millisecond.

Bruney earned a lot of brownie points for his performance, work ethic, and total attitude change last season (statistically, he was better than Joba out of the pen) and Veras was pretty effective as well.

Both Veras and Bruney were locks to make the team pretty much from the get-go.

I’ve never been a big fan of Albaladejo. To me, he’s basically a thinner Chris Britton – doesn’t throw hard and doesn’t have any real plus pitch. He’s basically another 5th or 6th inning type of guy you wouldn’t really want to trust in high pressure situations.

Robertson has much more upside. It’s a shame Edwar has the edge on that last bullpen slot because I’d rather see Robertson get that opportunity.

But, nonetheless, the beauty of having a deep bullpen with viable options in the minors is that the pressure will remain on the big leaguers to perform all season or they can be easily replaced by the likes of Robertson, Melancon, Claggett, Jackson, Hacker, etc, etc.

by anaconda on Mar 24, 2009 6:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed on Spring Training

Let’s not forget Bruney was very, very good last season. He established himself as a quality big-league setup guy then. That carries more weight than Spring Training. Bruney never was in a position where he had to prove himself to make the team, and he still shouldn’t be. This is the same argument I make with Edwar. He also pitched very well last season, and showed he belongs in the big leagues. Regular-season history has to have more weight than Spring Training stats.

by Ed Valentine on Mar 24, 2009 7:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely

I want Girardi to think about more than ST stats. I guess I’d rather hear him say, it’s an open race and I’m going to take the guys who are throwing the best/ working the hardest/ provide the best matchup options.

I hadn’t considered the issue of options. Cbeck is right; we should try to flip the established arms for arms with options as the season wears on.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Mar 24, 2009 9:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I have my doubts about Bruney

Look at how many walks he allows. He’s posted a walk rate of 6.5 per 9 innings (or worse) in four of his five seasons so far.

Last year he “improved” to 4.2 walks per 9 innings. Whether this is the result of a changed approach, different condition, or simple dumb luck remains to be seen. However, It is absolutely statistically impossible for a pitcher to give up 6 walks per 9 innings and sustain long-term success in major league baseball.

We’ll see what happens.

by 3460kuri on Mar 24, 2009 8:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Relief pitchers

in general are almost impossible to figure out. When I look at Bruney I see the improvement he made last season, and you just have to believe that it will continue. If it doesn’t, I’m not worrying about it. The Yankees have a ton of other options, and they will just churn thru guys until they find the right combo.

by Ed Valentine on Mar 24, 2009 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

A thing to remember is relief careers are often short.

People who sign free agent relief pitchers are often disappointed. This is the position in baseball where good performance in the past projects into the future the least.

So, I am uneasy giving spots to Bruney, who’s been bad, and Edwar, who I like in a "root for the underdog " way. The good news, on the other hand is that it’s not a big deal who starts the season. The Yanks have shown themselves quiick to send ineffective arms down, or out for ‘rehab’ and bring a hotter hand from the minors.

We need to trade some of these guys so there are enough bullpen guys with options to keep doing that.

Also trading some of the senior guys out there can be thought of as selling high.

If I's known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Casey

by Cbeck3 on Mar 24, 2009 11:39 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs