SB Nation - Aquilino Lopez

Bullpen Options on the Free Agent Market

Jesse — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:15 -0000

7 months ago: Minnesota Twins' pitcher Joe Nathan points to catcher Joe Mauer as he celebrates the final out as the Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 in a baseball game Friday, May 1, 2009 in Minneapolis. Nathan picked up the save. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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A short list, examining a few pitchers who are without homes.

While starting pitching hasn't exactly been stellar, the difference in talent available between the rotation and the bullpen is something more than marginal. With the exception of Joe Nathan, there are no irreplaceable parts; and only Matt Guerrier owns the only other acceptable bullpen performance. Jose Mirjares may join those ranks, but after just 4.2 innings with the Twins so far I'm not counting any chickens.

Going into Tuesday night's game with the Tigers, the Twins bullpen had thrown 72.1 innings...or just over 31% of the staff's innings. This means that for every nine-inning game, the bullpen is picking up about 2.2 innings with the starters responsible for 6.1. For how much flack this rotation has had in regards to not going long enough, to this point on the whole they haven't been horribly short either. Could they go longer? Absolutely. But they aren't forcing Ron Gardenhire to stretch his bullpen too much. Only two bullpens in the American League, Kansas City (a much better bullpen than ours) and Los Angeles (a much worse bullpen than ours), have thrown fewer innings.

In spite of what I'd call a manageable workload, the Twins 2009 bullpen has posted a 5.72 ERA in those 72.1 innings. They're fairly middle of the road in terms of strikeout rates, walk rates, base runners and opponent OPS (giving a reason why the traditional ERA is so much higher than FIP, at 4.88), but they're clearly struggling in terms of run prevention. Only four bullpens in all of baseball strand fewer base runners than the Twins.

There are internal options to consider. But who is still on the market, and is there anyone that could lend a bit of credibility, reliability and an air of confidence to our relief corps?

The Intriguing Bullpen Free Agents

Ambiorix Burgos

We'll start with the positives. Burgos is 25, throws heat in the mid-90's, has a penchant for strikeouts and has stranded three quarters of his base runners in his MLB experience. That's the good news.

The bad news is that, like everyone else on this list, there are reasons these guys are still free agents. Burgos has had issues with control in the past, and I'm not just talking about being inconsistent around the strike zone. He was arrested and later convicted of assaulting his girlfriend late in 2008, just one month into a rehab stint following some time off for Tommy John surgery. There's a reason this guy hasn't been tendered a contract, and I'm not comfortable with the Twins being the team who gives him a second chance.

Keith Foulke

Didn't he retire? He's not listed as retired. Foulke had an alright year in Oakland in 2008, but he was king of the gopherball. Besides, a marginal 36-year old whose fastball may or may not win a race to the plate in competition with a fastball from Livan Hernandez isn't the answer.

Aquilino Lopez

Lopez is a 34-year old right-hander with a 3.78 ERA in 270.1 innings. He'll strike a few guys out while walking a few. Good history of stranding base runners, does a fairly good job of keeping the ball in the park and for the most part doesn't profile as a horrible pitcher. The Korean Baseball Organization realized this and the Kia Tigers signed him back in January.

Converting A Starter?

Those were aren't all of the free agent bullpen arms, but there really aren't any truly good options. If the Twins want to improve their bullpen via free agents, perhaps their best option is to convert a starter?

Pedro Martinez

Sure, Pedro wants $5 million. But it's not like teams are lining up to sweep him off his expensive feet. He's an injury risk, possibly a character risk if he feels he isn't being used appropriately and obviously a financial risk, but what if he's not opposed to a few months audition as a set-up man? Being able to let it all go for an inning may give him a bit more pop, and a strikeout threat in the bullpen is always a good thing. Unfortunately, even if he would be willing to step into a bullpen role as a way to get back onto a roster, he'd want to play for a contender. Right now, that label excludes the Twins.

Conclusions

With Jesse Crain back back and Mijares showing good signs of life, coupling them with Guerrier and Nathan make for the beginnings of a decent bullpen. Getting Craig Breslow's confidence back would be another boost. But it doesn't matter how we look at it, right now this is a bullpen in a state of 9-1-1.

Free agent options are available, but right now the more feasible and realistic options are all in Rochester. Even once those options are considered and exhausted, a trade would be more likely than the signing of a Martinez or a Burgos.

Of course in a happy world, the guys we have just get it together. It's hard to be as bad as the Twins have been, and to continue to be as bad as they've been, even with the collection of arms they've assembled.

Adios, Lopez; ¡Que Lastima, Skelton!

Ian Casselberry — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:45:05 -0000

So let me see if I have this straight: The Detroit Tigers left James Skelton off their 40-man roster, leaving him to be snatched up in the Rule 5 Draft - which he was - then subsequently decide against tendering a contract to Aquilino Lopez, thus clearing a spot that could've been used to protect Skelton. Why wasn't Lopez just left off the 40-man roster in the first place?

Well, as it turns out, the Tigers tried to reach a contract agreement with Lopez by Friday's deadline, as they did with Ramon Santiago, but couldn't work anything out. But Detroit probably also needed to open up a spot on the roster anyway, for whichever reliever that the team hopefully signs in the near future. There are currently two spots free, but one will go to Adam Everett, who will likely officially sign his contract this coming week.

But the question of why Lopez was protected in the first place is still an itchy one. He pitched a lot of innings for the Tigers this season, compiling a 3.55 ERA in the process, but those numbers are deceiving. Lopez was called upon to pitch so often because of the starters' frequently being unable to stay in the game past the fifth or sixth inning. And because the Tigers' late-inning relief constantly put men on base, failed to get key outs, and blew games out of reach, Jim Leyland would also have no other choice but to bring another pitcher in. That guy was often Lopez.

Unfortunately, when Lopez came in with men on base, he was usually really bad at preventing them from scoring. But because those runs were typically charged to the pitcher who preceded him, his ERA still looked pretty good. Of the 57 runners that Lopez inherited when he entered the game, 29 of them scored. That's nearly 51%. With runners in scoring position, batters hit .289/.342/.381. In "high leverage" situations, they hit .276/.324/.310.

When Leyland says, "I think we were asking some people to do things they weren't capable of doing," Lopez is one of the players he's talking about. And if Lopez is to return to the Tigers for the 2009 season, which is a possibility if he doesn't get a better offer elsewhere, he should be restricted to the mop-up duty he's best suited to. If he's asked to do more, the Tigers' bullpen is in a lot of trouble.

Fold 'Em: Angels 7, Tigers 1

Ian Casselberry — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:30:04 -0000

I think I've run out of disaster and wreckage photos to post as representation of yet another awful effort from the Detroit Tigers. It's also possible that I've just tapped the Google image archives clear out. I've had to go there too many times this year.

So instead we'll go with the frustrated look on Kenny Rogers' face, and how it reflects not only a terrible performance, but a season that's doing the dead man's walk toward September 28, the last game on the schedule. Last night's victory over the Angels was exciting, yet also aggravating because it reminded us what the Tigers are capable of and the promise that they've failed so terribly to fulfill. But today, the home team gave their fans a different, far more painful reminder. This isn't a very good baseball team, and the 2008 season has been a horribly cruel tease.

Rogers looks just about finished as a major league pitcher, one getting increasingly worse with each start. And today may have been hovering over rock bottom. He lasted just two innings, giving up six runs (two of which Aquilino Lopez couldn't keep from scoring) and eight hits - four of which began the third inning and knocked him out of the game.

Between today's performance, along with losing seven of his last eight starts, Rogers now admits he may see the end in sight.

"Trying to deal with that after a game like today is probably not the best way to decide those things," Rogers said. "Coming off the mound, though, it's hard not to think about it."

The decline is difficult to watch because his 2006 season - the postseason, especially - is still relatively fresh in our minds and could take on legendary status in the years to come. But Rogers' downturn underlines just how delicately this team's chances were from the very beginning. The Tigers needed that 2006 Rogers to compete for a playoff spot this season. Hell, even the limited-use 2007 version might have been enough. But he hasn't even been close. And, of course, neither have the Tigers.