Huston Street had a rough first outing. Chalk it up to the sushi!

Major league regular season play officially started last week with Boston and Oakland facing off in Daisuke Matsuzaka’s homeland, giving me my first chance to actually evaluate bullpens.  While relievers do work in the preseason, it is never in pressure situations, and they are never used strategically as they are in the regular season, forcing me to talk about Freddy Dolsi ad nauseam. 

Boston & Oakland Pens

Anyway, getting to the games, over the first two days, the bullpen heroes so far were the set-up men.  Tuesday, Hideki Okajima earned a hold, and struck out one, while surrendering no runs in his inning of work. Meanwhile, Keith Foulke struck out two and earned two holds, making appearances in both games, and maintained a perfect 0.00 ERA.  The closers themselves did not fare quite as well.  Jonathan Papelbon got the save Tuesday, but allowed an earned run on three hits in the process.  His Oakland counterpart, Huston Street, did even worse, allowing three runs in 1.2 innings for a nasty 16.2 ERA.   It is still far too early to jump to any conclusions about these players, especially considering the confounding Japan factor, but this was not an optimal sign for two of the best closers in the business last season. 

Atlanta Pen

Following a nasty bout with the flu, and some elbow soreness that caused him to miss two weeks of spring training, Rafael Soriano is ready to start the year as Atlanta's closer.  The 28-year-old from the Dominican Republic, has never been a full time closer, but has filthy stuff, and more importantly, has the mental fortitude necessary to close. Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution said of Soriano,  “He has dominant stuff, a closer's panache, and serious desire. Ever since he was traded to Atlanta from Seattle before last season, Soriano has been talking about wanting the closer role.”

It is also in Atlanta's best interests to have Soriano close, as the ninth is his best inning, by far, as the following table indicates:

Strange as it may seem, over the course of his career, Soriano improves as the situation becomes more critical.  As the data shows, opposing hitter's batting average drops nearly 100 points from the eighth inning to the ninth.  He also keeps them from getting on base and hurting him in other ways, opposing hitters OPS in the ninth inning, is less than half of that in the sixth.  Clearly, it is in both Soriano’s and Atlanta's best interests to have him finish games.

Percival the Guru

Though it didn't garner any major headlines, Troy Percival may have a greater effect on his new team than any other free agent signed this past winter.  He was brought in primarily to close games for one of the worst bullpens in major league history, but he has become an “advice guru and clubhouse gadfly”, according to Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.   A role that includes lightening the atmosphere and “punking” teammates.   Percival reportedly shrink-wrapped an enormous photo of himself on the hood of the BMW belonging to top pitching prospect, David Price, and convinced him it couldn't be removed for days, for example.  According to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, even though no games have been played yet, Percival has been saying all the right things so far.

“Guys didn't know how to come out and attack hitters, throw strikes,“ Percival said. “That's what you've got to have. You've got to give yourself an opportunity of not giving up too many free bases,“ he added.

Off-the field advice is only heard, however, if it is backed up by on-field performance.  Who knows what will happen this season?  Last year, Percival had a renaissance season with a 1.80 ERA and .85 WHIP for the Cardinals, his best summer since 2002 with the Angels.

Setting up for Percival will be 33-year-old Trevor Miller, and 36-year-old Al Reyes.  Both had solid 2006 seasons.  Miller had a 3.02 ERA and 1.086 WHIP, while Reyes was even better with a 2.15 ERA and .926 WHIP.  Of course, last season, Miller’s 4.86 ERA and 1.468 WHIP, and Reyes’ 4.90 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, were not quite as impressive.  Hopefully, for Tampa's sake, Percival can lead them to the fountain of youth he found last season. 

Wood Officially Named Closer

The book has finally closed on the most interesting bullpen story of Spring Training.  Kerry Wood has been named the Cubs closer over Carlos Marmol and Bobby Howry.  Lou Pinella says Wood deserves the job.  “He's got experience, and he's earned it.  Kerry has thrown the ball really well, I mean really well,” Pinella told reporters.  The pessimist would say Wood's 3.86 spring ERA and lack of closing experience spell doom.  The optimist would argue he once struck out 20 in a game.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out.  One thing I give Wood credit for is taking a step away from the clichéd closer routine and shunning a theme song.  “I don't think Wrigley is that type of ballpark,“ Wood said. “That's more of a generational thing for closers— Trevor Hoffman started it with 'Hells Bells,' and [Mariano] Rivera and Billy Wagner and so on and so on,”  Wood added.

Cleveland Pen

Taking a cue from the excellent reporting of Tony Lastoria, I will briefly evaluate the Cleveland bullpen heading into the season.  For more in-depth coverage check out his column, which is an example of where I hope to be someday.  His research indicates that, amongst other things, over the past three seasons the Cleveland Pen has had the 5th best average ERA and 2nd best K/BB rate in the majors. 

Though I am not a Cubs fan, I have always disliked Joe Borowski, simply because I felt he was a bum; but thought he thought he was sweet.  Then, of course, he goes out and gets 45 saves last season, leading the AL.

Despite this fact, I still say Borowski will stink this year, simply because he is not talented enough to be the closer of a playoff level ball club, regardless of his save totals.  His spring performance certainly foreshadows that, as he allowed 8 hits and 4 runs in just five innings of work.

Any day now, Rafael Betancourt, who is far more talented, and had a better spring with a 1.50 ERA, will surpass him, moving Borowski one step closer to the beer leagues where he belongs.