quote:
Originally posted by jafabian:
Don't fault Moyer for having the better bullpen. There were several games he could have completed but the bullpen needed work. But that is an interesting stat.
Better bullpen, maybe, but by no means a spectacular one. Sasaki was hurt and missed a lot of time, Jeff Nelson was traded, his replacement Armando Benitez had his share of troubles, and even the usually lights out Arthur Rhodes struggled and had an off-season. Were it not for the breakout years of Shigetoshi Hasegawa(who was fabulous in his brief period as the closer) and Rafael Soriano(who will almost certainly be in the starting rotation next year), it would be hard to classify the bullpen as anything but poor.

The point is, you help your bullpen by going that extra mile. Part of it is up to the manager, but in the end if you're pitching well enough you're usually going to get that chance. Joel Piniero and Ryan Franklin both have more complete games this year, despite not having better overall numbers.