9-News: 43.020 – Roster Review: The Bullpen

[RonCo]

Off Topic

As members of the Yellow Springs Nine head to Fools Gulch for Spring Training, it’s time for us baseball writers to have fun taking a look at the players in the organization and pretend like we know who it going to make a difference. In the past we’d wait until later in the year and do a prospect review, but this time we figured why not go full Monty and do it all at once, right?

Today we’re going to talk about the bullpen, focusing first on the guys we expect to see in Yellow Springs, and then a few others down deeper in the organization who could crack the lineup over the next several years.

Yellow Springs

Player	Age	T	OVR	STU/MOV/CON	Pitches
Curt Phillips	27	R	70/75	11/6/6	100 MPH. 10/10/2
Tiernan O’Macken	24	L	70/75	12/6/6	99 MPH. 11/11/1
Angel Hernandez	23	L	70/75	12/6/8	99 MPH. 11/11
Sergio Perez	24	R	60/60	9/6/7	98 MPH. 10/10/1
Roberto Ramirez	22	R	55/55	8/6/10	98 MPH. 10/8/5
Josh Henson	23	L	60/60	7/7/9	93 MPH. 10/10/2
Jose Sanchez	24	R	45/45	7/7/6	98 MPH. 9/7/6
Al Colbert	23	R	65/75	7/8/10	92 MPH. 8/8/2
Armando Duarte	23	R	65/65	9/5/9	97 MPH. 8/1/10
Ernesto Martas	21	L	45/55	5/9/9 -	94 MPH. 8/6/7/7
Alberto Contreras	23	R	50/50	6/5/10 -	94 MPH, 7/9/1

Houston, we have a problem.

And it’s a good one to have, we suppose. We’ve just got too damned many good pitchers all coming along at the right point. I should stop here and reiterate that this was the plan, really. Sometime in the early-30s, I got my trusty executive staff together and laid out a plan. Drafting deep in the process as we were wont to do meant prospect variation was going to be high. So after noodling on it a bit, I decided to go full bore on drafting good relief pitchers even if it meant taking them in the first round.

Phillips is Making
His Mark

Curt Phillips was the first, taken in 1932 at #27. We hoped he would turn into a starter, but alas, he only became the franchise’s leading save man at 243. I know, I know. Saves are so turn-of-the-century. Shrug. Sanchez was a second-round selection in 2035. Hernandez was drafted in 2036, Contreras in 2037. O’Macken and Perez came along as scout finds. Colbert, Henson and Duarte came as the third, fifth, and seventh round picks in that big 2038 draft, then developed up a bit. We bought Ramirez from Nashville for $12M in 2039. Martas came in a deal with Omaha last off-season that also brought in RHB RF Bret Powers.

The problem, of course, is that they are all here, and all are ready now.

Did I mention that the Nine’s Bullpen ERA was (I believe) the best in the Frick League last year? Or that Phillips, at age 27 is the grand-dad, grizzled veteran of the gang?

Ultimately it means we’ll probably see a trade or two, though it’s been traditionally a bit difficult to convince folks to take bullpen arms for much value—though perhaps with the modern day outbreak of 100-150 inning bullpen guys maybe that will change, we’ll see. If not, that’s what the baseball gods made options for, we suppose.

Regardless, we can say that now that Operation Bullpen Arms is in full bloom, Phillips will likely get a few less save opportunities than he was getting earlier in his career. We’ll see Hernandez and O’Macken take bigger roles, and that means guys like Perez and Duarte will also essentially step up.


BEST CASE PROJECTION: The league goes to 15 inning games and 35 man rosters, making room and innings for all these guys to be happy in the big leagues.
CONCERNS: If there’s one place on the roster we’ve got covered, this is it.


Prospects

Level	Player	Age	T	OVR	STU/MOV/CON	Pitches
AAA	Roberto Fernandez	24	R	45/45	7/5/5	95 MPH. 8/8/2
AAA	Jean Kattenberg	22	L	50/50	9/5/5	99 MPH, 10/9/1
AAA	Bartolo Gomez	24	R	45/45	6/6/7	97 MPH, 8/8
AA	Gertjan Leeuwenburgh	20	R	20/45	6/6/8	93 MPH, 9/5/1
AA	Gareth McKilligin	21	R	40/45	5/6/8	93 MPH, 7/8
AA	Lester Arundel	20	L	40/40	7/4/8	95 MPH, 5/9/8/1
AAA	Knud Calhoven	26	R	35/40	6/4/9	95 MPH, 8/9/1
AAA	Vicente Mendez	23	R	40/40	6/6/6	95 MPH, 9/8/1
AAA	Jorge Andres	22	R	40/45	9/2/6 -	99 MPH, 9/2/9

I put Fernandez and Kattenburg at the top of the list because, well, while they’ll start in AAA in 2043, they pitched with the parent club and did pretty danged well last season. Gomez slots next because he could probably pitch if the Nine needed him—which they won’t. The fact is that with the logjam ahead, barring a deal at least three and maybe four of those guys will be in AAA waiting their turns.

It’s also of note that at least three and maybe four of the guys we’re listing as SP prospects in other reports actually project better as top-end relievers. So there’s that.

Ultimately we like all these guys, though suspect a couple of them with holes need bumps to be truly useful. That’s fine. Some of them will take to coaching and some will not. We’ll sort it out in the end.

It’s perhaps noteworthy that Knud Calkhoven has fallen a bit after spending a lot of last season injured. At 26 he should probably be off the list, but I’ll leave him here as a comeback candidate.

Level	Darkhorses	Age	T	OVR	STU/MOV/CON	Pitches
-------	------------------	:---:	:-:	:-----:	:-----------:	:-----------------:

Sure, we’ve got bullpen dark horses, but we’re not going to list them. We all know what they look like, right? I mean, everyone has bullpen dark horses. Heck, a couple of the guys upstairs should probably be considered dark horses, when you come down to it.

OVERALL FARM SYSTEM STATUS: The system is I pretty good shape, though it’s just a little threadbare in the lower realms. We’ve probably got two seasons of juggling the option wire ahead of us, or maybe three. So there’s time to adjust that.