Random Thoughts on MLB Playoff Openers (Part II)

How do you determine, define, or plan out a “good” bullpen anyway? Aside from your closer, middle relievers are a strange (but common) requirement. First of all, no little kids dream that when they grow up that they could be a middle reliever and hold a lead for two-thirds of an inning before being taken out for somebody because he throws with a different arm than you. Any pitcher who’s worth his salt from day one will be made either a starter or a closer right away. Therefore, in order to become a middle-reliever, you have to be maligned by some organization in the first place. And yet a team needs to collect a bunch of “solid, consistent” middle relievers in order to win championships?

This whole process just seems maddening and almost purely luck/chance/timing driven. Take the champion 1996 Yankees for example. They had a dreadful middle relief core of Graeme Lloyd, Brian Boehringer, David Weathers, and Jeff Nelson. None of those pitchers had what you’d call a good year in 96; in fact Lloyd was downright awful. Then the playoffs started and magically, randomly even, these four guys are getting people out as if Wade Boggs had put a gun to their heads (and I wouldn’t put it past him). Add Rivera (then just a rookie phenom) and Wetteland (heart-attack type closer who had had a shaky season the year before) and voila, you have one of the greatest bullpens of all time. Maddening, I tell you!

Anyways, Scott Proctor, Mike Myers, Ron Villone, Kyle Farnsworth, and Brian Brunei could be a strength of the Yankees or a weakness, just as relievers Tom Gordon/Tanyon Sturtze/Paul Quantrill of the 04-05 Yankees at times were seen as both a strength and in the final tally, a weakness.

Jeter bailed out the sagging bullpen with a big CLUTCH homerun to make it 8-4. If A-Rod had hit this homerun in the same situation, he’d be criticized because he only hit it with the Yankees already three runs ahead and never in big spots. (I’m not saying Jeter isn’t clutch, and I’m not saying that A-Rod is either). When Jeter hit this though, the crowd went nuts as if it was a walk-off shot. In his defense, he just went 5-for-5 in a playoff game. That’s a very tough feat by any standard, although by my watch that was easy to overlook in favor of the more obvious (at that time) storyline of the Yankees’ incredible shrinking lead.

Predictably, the Yanks hung on to win. That jagged caveman’s club worked like a charm in the hands of the Yankee lineup.

Tomorrow it’s on to Queens just a few miles away to see if the Mets pitching staff can piece together any semblance of a start against team Destiny or if the Dodgers will just start doing that whole consecutive homeruns thing again until the homeplate umpire begs them to stop. If not, then maybe at least we can hope to see the first truly memorable game of the 06 playoffs, because none of today’s games reached that level. If and when that does happen, maybe then I’ll have a good reason to send you readers a more conventional, more formalized column. You know, one with an actual point to it. Until then fellow baseball fans, farewell.

Published 2006-10-04 for Sports-Central.org and English.OhMyNews.com

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