The Bullpen Thread

chawson

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Aug 1, 2006
4,660
No to Chapman.

Signing EE and forfeiting the pick means there's extra incentive to sign Jansen, but I doubt he'd want to be a set-up man in Boston, and they won't bump Kimbrel.

Ziegler walks (if he wants to) and Taz walks. I'd go after Brett Cecil, with Mike Dunn and Boone Logan as fallback plans. See if an NL team bites on Heath Hembree, maybe send him to Arizona for Daniel Hudson's final arbitration year. Otherwise he and Barnes are fairly redundant. Sign Ryan Webb or Jordan Walden to a minor league contract to see if they're healthy. I don't know what to do with Abad.

Kimbrel
Uehara
Kelly
Cecil/Dunn/Logan
Ross
Hudson
Barnes

Minors:
Abad
Scott
Webb/Walden
Kyle Martin
Owens
Workman

DL:
Smith (August?)
 

nvalvo

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Jul 16, 2005
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Rogers Park
Any interest in ex-Giants' closer Santiago Casilla? He's an FA, has superlative stuff (95 MPH 4-seamer; four pitch mix) and postseason experience, and has been good quite recently.

He had a *terrible* second half, and eventually lost the closer's role, but his rate stats look great (10.1 K/9; 2.9 BB/9), other than a spike in HR rate. (Another victim of the juiced ball?) I don't see anything in his numbers that tells me he's done.

He's also 35. But I think he could be had on a short deal, and he could be a useful guy in a late inning role.
 

HangingW/ScottCooper

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Nov 10, 2006
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Scituate, MA
I agree with all of this. Chapman is something of a loose cannon and I don't know if he can be trusted not to have another incident after getting a huge-money long-term deal. If he were to sign a 1 year deal I'd be fine with it, but anything longer than that would make me get all gunchy about it. Dude's nuts.
I understand that mentality as well as the off the field stigma. If not Chapman though, who? The same bullpen crew is not championship caliber. It's the one area of the current roster that doesn't have the capability to be championship caliber with the current cast of players.

If the answer is Jansen, fine. Just know that he and really any other available option isn't Chapman. Speaking exclusively of baseball decisions, Chapman would be the single biggest improvement that costs you the least (only money) to this roster over anyone else that would be available. Sale would obviously be a bigger piece, but I find it very hard to believe he's available without it significantly hurting other areas of the team.
 

simplicio

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Apr 11, 2012
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Beyond Chapman being a hard pass for me on the domestic violence front, I wonder about how much longer he can throw 102+, and what he looks like as a pitcher once he can't anymore. Totally fine with the Yankees giving him 6/90.

Watching Jansen in the post season, it seems like the Dodgers would have to be criminally stupid to let him walk. Too bad.