Bullpen Collapses this year

[ElviswasaBluesFan]

Stole this from someone at the Sandbox - pretty good research job

Just unbelievable...

The Beat goes On
BLOWN AGAIN..........

Here it is The Ugly Truth

April 2 - Cards lead 1-0, into 8th- Franklin blows game Cards lose 2-1

April 7 - Cards rally tie Game - Bullpen give Tejada - Game winning HR

April 17 - Cards lead 3-0 to 8th- Blow Lead - Lose in 10 to Brewers ( TWO GAME SWING in RACE with MIL)
WC or DIV

April 22 - Cards rally late Tie MIL - Bullpen loses in extra innings

April 25 - Cards lead 2-0 in 9th Behind Looper - Izzy Blows lead & Game Astros win 3-2

May 7 - Cards Lead 3-0 into bottom of the 8th - Blow 3-0 Lead & Game as izzy gives up the last of 4 runs

May 9 - Cards Lead into 9th at Mil - in bot 9 brewers wrally with one out Win game 3-2 - Izzy's Final meltdown - He breaks down -
(another 2 game Swing in the standings with MIL)

May 15 - Cards lead 5-1 in 5th, Lead 5-4 into 8th
Izzy & others gas it up for 9 Pirate runs inlast two innings - Izzy to the DL

May 25 - Cards lose in 10 in LA - Parisi - The Newest Gas Can blows game to Dodgers who avoid a sweep

June 2 - This ONE on WAINWRIGHt - But still another 8th inning loss Cards lead 4-0 with two out in 7th - give up grand slam- & lose it in the 8th..

June 5th - Mather Hits go ahead HR in 9th - FRanklin Blows the game by getting nobody out in bottom of 9th
Cards Lose again

June 13 - Cards rally in Cinn Tie game - 2-2
in bottom of 7th Gas Can groupies give up 4 runs another tough loss 6-2

June 17- Cards in tight 1-1 tie with KC - lose another 8th inning game as Mr. Villone gives it up to KC HR - in 2-1 loss

June 18 - Next night Cards Lead 2-1 with 5 outs to Go
McClellen gives up 2 home runs to the royals Cards lose 3-2

June 22 - Cards lead 2-1 in Boston looking for sweep - Ankeil falls down red sox tie game
Cards blow another 8th inning lead
Lose in 13

June 25 - cards take leads in the 7th, 8th - Blow the lead both times..... then blow the whole game in bott of 9th 8-7 loss

June 26 - Possibly the one of the worst

Cards rally take 2-1 lead in Detroit
Franklin BLOWs another game - HR to Sheffield ties it
Tigers win in 10th on two out WALK by PARISI -
PARisi- who should be released...

THAT is 17 Games LEADING in the 7th, or 8th inning
LOST

The bullpen has 18 Total Losses in the L colume
+ Wainwrights pittsburgh blown game = 19 blown losses

19

ITS HARD to believe...
If THE CARDS JUST HOLD
33% of these games...
They are
51 - 29..... In FIRST

If the hold 50 % - of these
they are 54- 26

If they hold the MAJOR LEAGUE AVERAGE of 79% of all teams leading into the 7th win the game
They would be 60 - 20

when we get to the end of this year

& if we come up even 5 games or less short of the division
or the wild card spot....
these games will remain the cause...

this list is just a Half a season...
A great bullpen wont do that in two FULL seasons

[Bleacher Creature]

I'm wondering would they be better off just to put Izzy back into the closer role and have Franklin as the eight inning setup? Lord knows they've tried other combos and they have also failed.

[Jack Adams]

That is the painful truth. This is the most frustrated that I have ever been as a fan of a team because of the way they lose. It is one thing to be decent and lose or sucks and expect to suck but to constantly come within out(s) of a win only to piss it down their leg is the worst.

The Cardinals are in almost every game. They always have a lead it seems and a chance to win. The bullpen is killing them. I just hope that Carpenter and others get healthy so that the Cards can push some of the starters into the pen to improve from within.

[Jack Adams]

I'm wondering would they be better off just to put Izzy back into the closer role and have Franklin as the eight inning setup? Lord knows they've tried other combos and they have also failed.

I never thought I would think that but I couldn't help but think that Tony will use yesterday as his reason to try it out in K.C.

Franklin fucked up yesterday but he and Perez are the ones that I actually have the most faith in, albeit dwindling too. It is the 6th (when starters can't get though 6), 7th, the lefty specialist role and extra inning guys that concern me the most. Parisi needs to go away and the Cards need better set-up men before it gets to the 8th and 9th (not that those aren't problems either).

The Cards need a new lefty and they need starters back to push some into the pen.

[ElviswasaBluesFan]

Anyone know the average number of IP for the Cards per start? Seems to me we are turning over a lot of games to the bullpen in the 6th inning. Maybe they are just overworked?

I wonder where we are compared to the rest of the league?

[Bleacher Creature]

Yesteday's game also featured some shoddy defense in the sixth inning by Ankiel. I don't know if he lost the ball of the bat, or not, but if he made those two catches on the shallow popups, we may well have seen a different outcome.

[sportschick]

The Cards also might ought to get a starter or 3 that can get beyond the 5th or 6th inning consistently...

[Donuts_For_Koharski]

Some additional info for perspective. Not excusing the performances, but when you have this many of your MLB pitchers on the DL, stuff is gong to happen

Date		Player		Injury
6/26/08		Randy Flores		Placed on the 15-day disabled list with peroneal tendonitis in the left ankle.
		Albert Pujols		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
6/19/08		Brad Thompson		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
		Anthony Reyes		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 16, with right elbow irritation.
6/14/08		Jason Isringhausen		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
6/12/08		Joel Pineiro		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
		Albert Pujols		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 11, with a strained left calf.
6/10/08		Adam Wainwright		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 8, with a sprained right middle finger.
6/6/08		Tyler Johnson		Transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list.
		Kelvin Jimenez		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 31, with a bruised right hand.
5/28/08		Joel Pineiro		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 21, due to a right groin strain.
5/16/08		Josh Kinney		Transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list.
		Jason Isringhausen		Placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right hand laceration.
4/28/08		Brad Thompson		Placed on the 15-day disabled list with right elbow inflammation, retroactive to April 23.
4/23/08		Brendan Ryan		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
4/21/08		Russ Springer		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
4/13/08		Joel Pineiro		Activated from the 15-day disabled list.
4/5/08		Russ Springer		Placed RHP on 15-day disabled list with an inflamed nerve in his right elbow.
3/30/08		Brendan Ryan		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21, with a right oblique strain.
		Juan Encarnacion		Transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list.
3/25/08		Juan Encarnacion		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Tyler Johnson		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Josh Kinney		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Joel Pineiro		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Mark Mulder		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Matt Clement		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.
		Chris Carpenter		Placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to March 21.

[Bleacher Creature]

Some additional info for perspective. Not excusing the performances, but when you have this many of your MLB pitchers on the DL, stuff is gong to happen

Good point. Also, someone posted a stat yesterday that showed how the offense tails off as the game goes on.

[backstop]

If they hold the MAJOR LEAGUE AVERAGE of 79% of all teams leading into the 7th win the game
They would be 60 - 20

This doesn't make sense. They have won 79.2 percent of the games they've led going into the 7th.

[Bleacher Creature]

If we can somehow get Soria to go Chacon on their GM, he can make the return trip east on I-70 on Sunday evening.

[Cardz82]

IMO...there are 3 reasons why the pen has struggled:

A.) Izzy being ineffective, thus changing the entire pen around. When Izzy was good the first few weeks of the season, the Pen was fine. It didn't fully collapse until after his collapse when everything changed. Getting an effective Izzy back closing games would help shape things back to normal. I'm just not sure if that's going to happen or not. One game Izzy has it, the next, he's shaky(and more so then his pre '08 self).

B.) Tyler Johnson being out for the year. Johnson made the signing of another lefty necessary and put Flores into the key lefty role, which he is not good at. While Villone is solid against lefty's he has no ability to get righty's out whatsoever anymore. Johnson has shown the ability to get lefties out(.228 career average off him) and righties as well(.237 career average off him). I just hope he can somehow recover from shoulder surgery because he was much more of an asset to this team then most realized.

C.) The Youth Movement. Perez, McClellan, Parisi, Worrell, Boggs, Jiminez. All of them have shown good stuff in AAA. But not all of them are going to equate into good major league pitchers. But if you are going to have a youth movement, you have to put these guys out there and give them a chance to sink or swim. It would appear that at the very least, Perez and McClellan have obvious major league careers ahead of them. Boggs looks like he should as well. The problem with all of them though is that, as young pitchers making their first real impact in the majors, they are going to have their ups and downs and you can't just give up on a young guy after a couple of poor outtings. I actually like Parisi's stuff, but it's obvious, he prob just isn't ready to be pitching regularly in the majors...but you have to give him some shots or you'll never find out...especially since he's pitched so well in AAA this year. Same goes, to a lesser extent, with Jiminez. Great numbers in AAA, so he's going to keep getting shots to see if he can figure it out. That's how you develop players. Again, unfortunatly, either they never figure it out(and it hurts your team) or the hit bumps in the road like McClellan and Perez have lately. That's just part of baseball though.

My god that post was 10x's longer than I wanted it to be.

[Cardz82]

Good point. Also, someone posted a stat yesterday that showed how the offense tails off as the game goes on.

++

If someone posted this could they repost it? I'd love to see the numbers, since I've def been one of the peeps complaining about the teams lack of ability to score consistant runs after the 3rd and 4th innings. Lately though, they've seemed better at it.

[Cardz82]

I'm wondering would they be better off just to put Izzy back into the closer role and have Franklin as the eight inning setup? Lord knows they've tried other combos and they have also failed.

Can't be much worse then what's going on now can it?

I'm actually surprised(and a bit impressed) that TLR hadn't thrown Izzy back into the fire yet as the closer. Give him the shot soon and if it doesn't work, try Perez.

[backstop]

Runs scored by inning

1: 59
2: 42
3: 51
4: 41
5: 37
6: 31
7: 38
8: 41
9: 26