The Tigers' bullpen was possibly the biggest cause of their difficult path to the AL Central championship in 2014, and to their ultimate flop in 2013. Mr Dombrowski, however, seems to have concluded that new faces aren't going to change much, so the Tigers go into 2015 with largely the same cast that proved wanting in 2014. One major change is the addition of
Tom Gorzelanny. Given the comment about
Brad Ausmus' trusting his veterans in
this article, it seems likely that Gorzelanny is going to be given the first crack at being the premier left-hander.
For the purpose of measuring relative strengths in the bullpen, I have selected four relievers to represent each team, guessing at which four will pitch the highest-leverage innings. Using the same method I used in the post on rotations, here are the respective quartets:
In neither of the
first two in this series did any team have such an advantage over the others as the Kansas City Royals have over their AL Central rivals in the bullpen.
Kelvin Herrera, ranked third behind
Greg Holland and
Wade Davis, is as good as the best of any of the other bullpens save the White Sox'
David Robertson.
The Tigers' problem is that no lead looks safe with Joe Nathan as the closer. He has been booed in Florida, which is not going to help matters, either. However, taking the Tigers' bullpen as a unit, the righty set-up men, Al Alburquerque and Joakim Soria, look a bit more solid than their equivalents on the Cleveland Indians, the Royals and the Minnesota Twins. It looks as if the Tigers' fate is going to depend a lot on how many left-handed hitters they are going to face in high-leverage situations.
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