About a month ago (on May 6th) the White
Sox' bullpen pitched four shutout innings, enabling them
to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 against the
Los Angeles Angels in 10 innings. At that point the
ChiSox' bullpen had a 3.29 ERA, third best in the
American League. What has happened since then? Here are
the teams with the worst relief ERAs in baseball since
May 7th.
|
Team
|
Relief ERA since 5/7
|
|
Chicago White Sox |
9.11 |
|
Detroit Tigers |
6.78 |
|
Baltimore Orioles |
6.14 |
|
Houston Astros |
5.83 |
|
Colorado Rockies |
5.80 |
Yes, a 9.11
ERA. That's an emergency, and Kenny Williams has placed
the call. He just sent down David Aardsma (6.18 ERA for
the full season) and Mike MacDougal (7.13). Andy Sisco
(8.36) lost his job a week ago. Their ERAs on May 6th?
Aardsma: 1.53. MacDougal: 3.09. Sisco: 3.24.
The White Sox
have gone from third best in the American League to the
worst bullpen ERA in baseball at 5.61.
Here's the
surprising thing: Their victory on May 6th gave the Sox
a 14-14 record. Since then, with the incredibly anemic
bullpen, they've gone 12-13. Not as bad as you would
expect, especially given that the Pale Hose remain the
lowest scoring team in the American League.
The Detroit
Tigers have the second-worst bullpen ERA in baseball in
the past month (6.78) and are now the second worst in
baseball for the season (5.46). But they have a 32-24
record and are only two-and-a-half games out of first
place.
The theory
might be that you can still play OK despite a bad
bullpen in the short run, but it's sure not much of a
recipe for longterm success.
