Asking The Bullpen To Do Too Much

Between known commodities like Nate Jones and David Robertson, as well as the effective-but-brittle Zach Putnam, the White Sox bullpen got off to a dominant start this season when Anthony Swarzak and Tommy Kahnle vaulted into the stratosphere as well.  The bullpen was going so well that even Chris Beck has posted quality innings since his call up as a fallback option.  The disabled list has reclaimed Putnam and Jones for some time now, and Swarzak’s scoreless start to the year ended in a flurry of weak contact falling in and a Mike Trout bomb–which somehow feels like it shouldn’t count.

But the problem isn’t that this group isn’t all posting sub-2.00 ERAs at once as much as it is that they’re getting ground down into a nub in recent weeks.  And granted, Dylan Covey was already a regular tax on the relief core before his injury, but now with David Holmberg maxing out at four innings, Mike Pelfrey averaging just under five innings per start, as soon as any of the other starters have a short outing it winds up being brutal on the rest of the staff.

Derek Holland had by far his worst game of the year on Friday, failing to make it out of the third, two days after Jose Quintana got knocked out in the third as well.  True, any staff will struggle if its better starters are getting shelled in close proximity to each other.  But, even with Pelfrey posting some of the best run prevention results of his career–with the same bad peripherals–the absolute most he can give is six.

The bullpen threw just short of 13 innings in a 3-game road series where they got blown out of the first two, and 26.67 innings in the last six.  In other words, the relievers have shifted to throwing more than half of the team’s innings in the last week.

Given how Miguel Gonzalez and Holland started the year, the White Sox still somehow rank in the bottom third of the majors in terms of innings thrown by the bullpen.  But Holmberg’s continued presence is clearly not tenable and oddly not because he’s taking them out of position to win games.

Carlos Rodon has progressed to the point where he’s throwing a rehab start on Tuesday in the low minors, and James Shields threw a rehab start on Saturday in Charlotte.  Before the season it may have seemed unlikely that the White Sox would be desperate for Shields’ services in June of a rebuilding year, but the bullpen personnel generally represent players who either: a) Should be allowed to rest enough to remain effective so they can be traded for maximum value, e.g. Swarzak, Robertson; or b) Could be pieces you want to keep around for the next good White Sox team, like Kahnle.

Unfortunately, after an excellent first seven games, Carson Fulmer has stumbled considerably in AAA, with an ERA approaching 9.00 and more walks than strikeouts since May 12.  Reynaldo Lopez similarly surrendered 8 runs on May 26, although he rebounded for a strong outing his next turn through.  Beyond scouting the stat line, the organization certainly has their own goals for these two and will want to be certain they’ve hit them before jumping them to the bigs.

Which means it’s Holmberg and Pelfrey until Rodon and Shields come back, unless they give Tyler Danish another try.

Rebuilding–catch the feeling.

Lead Photo credit: Rick Osentoski–USA Today Sports Images