The manager’s life is tough: Nine bullpen options, five you want to avoid.
Right now, Chris Woodward is trying to find out who he can trust in the bullpen. It’s like a Russian spy novel.
He is too deep into the season to think his Bottom Three starters are going to give him any sort of length. He can expect four innings, at most, from them. Yes, he might get a more every once in a while. But he’s more likely to get less.
So, he needs to rely on his bullpen to get him five or six innings, three out of five games.
Available parts as of today (this will be fluid throughout the season and will most likely change by time they play again Friday evening):
Jesse Chavez
Kyle Dowdy
Jeanmar Gomez
Wei-Chieh Huang
Ariel Jurado
Shawn Kelley
Jose Leclerc
Brett Martin
Chris Martin
He knows where he stands with Leclerc right now. After Tuesday night’s meltdown, he is on the Can’t Trust list, or at least Can’t Trust In The Ninth Innings list. He can’t trust Jesse Chavez either. Tuesday night was just the last in a line of repeated offenses.
Jesse Chavez
Kyle Dowdy
Jeanmar Gomez
Wei-Chieh Huang
Ariel Jurado
Shawn Kelley
Jose Leclerc
Brett Martin
Chris Martin
Kyle Dowdy will stick around longer than he might since he has the Rule 5 draft pick advantage. If they send him down, they have to send him back. Of his seven relief appearances, he’s allowed earned runs in five. That’s not the definition of trustworthiness for reliever. With the three runs he allowed yesterday in just four outs of work, that’s eleven earned runs in fifteen innings.
Jeanmar Gomez has appeared in nine games. Most recently the 14-2 beatdown in Seattle. That tells you right there what kind of confidence Woodward has in him. He’s a ten-up/ten-down guy. A guy you feel safe coming into a game that you are either so far ahead you can’t lose or so far behind it doesn’t matter. In nine relief appearances, Gomez has given up more earned runs than innings pitched. His ERA is 9.58.
Huang has pitched in only two games. He was ineffective in his first appearance, allowing three hits and two walks in the thirteen batters he faced, but giving up only one run. Yesterday he gave up a double to the first batter he faced, then got out of the inning. It’s hard to say whether he is reliable, which in relief pitcher land is the definition of unreliable.
Jesse Chavez
Kyle Dowdy
Jeanmar Gomez
Wei-Chieh Huang
Ariel Jurado
Shawn Kelley
Jose Leclerc
Brett Martin
Chris Martin
That leaves four relievers that Woodward can truly rely on.
Chris Martin has pitched in eleven games. In only four has he been scored upon. His first game, he gave up two in one inning. Since then, he’s been pretty reliable. He has five holds (the weak baby brother of the save, made up so middle relievers’ parents could have something to brag about). His ERA is 3.97. That’s very nice for a reliever.
The other Martin, Brett, closed out the game yesterday for Woodward, getting the last five outs without allowing run. That’s four of his six games he has been unscored upon.
Ariel Jurado has been perfect through the four innings he’s throw in three appearances, including 1.2 yesterday directly after Miller. He retired all five Pirates he faced yesterday, the only Pirate he faced Tuesday, and all six Mariners he faced last week. That’s 12-for-12. Perfect. And that’s what a manager would call reliable.
Shawn Kelly has appeared in twelve games. His ERA is 1.50, sparkling for any pitcher, much less a middle-reliever. He has inherited nine baserunners. None have scored. In fact, only two earned runs have scored off him. Kelley would appear to be the one to step into the ninth inning.
So, here are the two lists:
CANNOT TRUST WITH CAN TRUST WITH
THE GAME ON THE LINE: THE GAME ON THE LINE:
Jesse Chavez Ariel Jurado
Kyle Dowdy Shawn Kelley
Jeanmar Gomez Brett Marin
Wei-Chieh Huang Chris Martin
Jose Lecerc
And therein lies the problem. Too many innings for too few guys he can trust.
It’s simple math, really. Rangers starters are averaging only 4.2 innings, or 14 outs, per game. That forces Chris Woodward to have to rely on his relievers for 4.1 innings, or 13 outs, per game. That means he needs to get 22 innings out of his bullpen every five games, or every one trip through the rotation.
That is a lot of work to pile on a bullpen.
So, he can either dramatically overwork the few pitchers he can rely on for four innings per game and just wait for disaster, which was a complaint with the previous guy, or he can expect everyone to step up and pull his weight when called upon since that person is, officially, a major league baseball player.
In other words, Chris Woodward is screwed.
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