Zen & the Art of Bullpen Maintenance
By The Yawkey Way Philosopher
I'm not a betting man. I work hard for the money I make and I derive no joy from giving it away to a corporation that makes games for me to play with odds
rigged in their favor. If I was a betting man though, I'd be the type to study the numbers and try to make bets based on the best possible information available.
Having watched baseball and playoff baseball since I developed the cognizance to understand what exactly I was watching, I've believed in one key factor that
inevitably determined the outcome of many a series: the bullpen. Not really the bullpen itself though, the true science is in the maintenance of your bullpen.
Any stooge with a clipboard and a laptop can manage their way through an 162 game season properly assigning starting pitchers in to an effective rotation and utilizing the proper relief pitchers in the correct situations, that is not impressive.
The true art of bullpen maintenance comes through in October. Managers earn their merits finding a way to get maximum efficiency out of the exhausted and
overworked warriors that reside behind the outfield fence. Many a manager has failed the test of the postseason and been left with the stinging memory of a
singular moment when they left a pitcher in one pitch or one inning too long.
Never more important is the art of bullpen maintenance than in tonight's Game Six between the Sox and The Enemy. Three games in Boston left both teams at the brink of collapse after two extra inning marathons and one of the longest nine inning games in playoff history. There is no fresh body at either's team disposal, but proper decisions by a manager and a little bit of sac from a pitcher will make all the difference in tonight's game.
So who has the advantage? Well on pure managerial skills you've got to give the nod to Joe Torre, but last night's box score holds a nifty little bit of information. Torre took a tremendous risk and threw his ace closer Rivera for two full innings of work. He played the cards correctly, hoping Rivera could finish off the Sox. The risk failed as Rivera blew his second save on the way to the Red Sox win in Game Five. The somewhat maligned Terry Francona on the other hand did an apparent marvelous job of not overextending any one pitcher and hopefully leaving something in the gas tank for the final two games of the season. Call me
nuts, but if tonight's grudge match comes down to the wire, it's all about which Zen manager mastered the art of bullpen maintenance.
