The Minnesota Twins Bullpen Has Been Very Good and Very Bad

You mean relief pitchers are volatile? Really?  I did not know that.

The good bullpen numbers are weighted by mop-up guys coming in and pitching well.  Take them out of the equation and this group has not been overly effective.  Kind of a broken record right now...

Interesting way to gauge bullpen performance with different metrics, but the WPA would be much higher if the offence were able to able to score more than 2 runs per game. All of those scoreless frames would have been worth more WPA if there were more runs to protect. As it is, almost every bullpen run scored can be the difference between winning 2-1 or losing 1-2. The isolated Sands and Jax performances aside, I'd say the pitching is looking pretty good.  Bob Gibson and Mariano Rivera would have losing records and terrible WPAs on this team. 

This offense is leaving no margin for error for the pitchers and defense. Ugly baseball right now and hard to see a path out of it. There’s no calvary coming on the offensive side in the short term. 

The metrics are largely fictitious to me. Why? Because there are many instances when I am watching a game where a routine ground ball or an easy pop up or a fly ball drop which results in runs. The official scorer rules "no play" if it was in foul territory and most commonly awards a base hit if the ball is in fair territory. This has most often gone well beyond what would be a normal play for an MLB player. Since this occurs with such frequency in games I actually witness, it makes it difficult to know what goes on in the games I don't see. I get the fascination with numbers and this is just my response to what seems like an unfair tilt against pitchers and in favor of poor defenders. 

There was some conversation related to how often balls drop in the outfield with an adequate fielder versus a poor one just before the season started this year. Some people suggested it occurred once or twice a week at most. Just for kicks, I charted a few games. A couple were Twins games and three were other games not involving the Twins. It was in the first week, so weather may be seen as an excuse but 3-5 hits were awarded in each game. I gave up keeping track. Even in minor league games you can see some obvious doubles that should have been F9 (fly out to right fielder). I understand others see plays differently but pitchers must tear their hair out at times. Maybe not the Twins pitchers though because they throw the ball around pretty commonly.

Oh well, let's get those bats going and score 6-10 runs per night.

To summarize, we're good...when we're not busy being terribly horrible.😉

As a unit...which is how they should be judged in relationship to their benefit to the team.... just bad. 

You should talk to Cody though... you are both in the bargaining phase of grief... you could be good for each other!

Good article. 

Many Bullpen pen stats in MLB are totally jacked. 

A reliever can enter a game with a 6-1 lead. He gets two outs, surrenders 4 runs and gets credited with a HOLD. 

A stat system should reward relievers who actually protect leads, not just those who pitch during them.

Stats are great. They make baseball the ultimate numbers game. The fact of the matter is though did you hold the lead or lose the lead. The eye test/ traditional scouting tells you exactly what happened. Our “Aces” have been giving up leads and the lower end guys have been preserving leads/keeping them in the game. Plain and simple. No stats needed. Your eyes tell you the whole story.

Throw Paddack in the pen. Throw Alcala away. Then put Festa and Matthews in the starting rotation.  
 

bring up Headrick, oh wait. He is a yankee with 0.00 era and a 0.56 whip in 5.1 innings. Yeah small sample size….

I'm not saying Saves are everything, but after 15 games our bullpen is 0-3 in Save situations & that is last in MLB. The only other team without a Save are the White Sox - 0-2. Like Nick mentioned the hitting has been terrible & deserves plenty of blame for the 4-11 start, but the bullpen hasn't helped at all.