Galaxy Gas 2060.23 – The Power of the Pen

[DugoutDesperado]

As the free agency signing period was coming to a close, the Valencia front office realized that the big name starters were going to be too rich for their financially anemic blood as players like Adam Hines, Dirk Bessi and Steve Clayton were getting contracts going between $16M and $19M per year. At that point, the GM decided to go with what they had and to pick up Peter Dean along the way.

Having a pitching rotation with a dime store budget, the Stars will be counting on the bullpen to keep them in a lot of games and likely work more innings than in the past. Valencia picked up Jeff Doane on a two-year contract along with free agent pickup Hao-hing Huang on a minor league contract from last year and Nobuhito Kan from the waiver wire last year to help beef up the pen a little bit. The Stars also picked up lefty Theron Muscouri in case some extra innings from the pen are needed.

One test on this theory came in the 13 inning contest where Valencia walked away with a 3-2 win over the Long Beach Surfers. Juan Garcia made it into the 6th inning only giving up 1 run along the way but was pulled after giving up a leadoff single. Although Dana Pualani allowed the inherited runner to score, he went the rest of the next 3 innings without allowing a run.

Siua Hooheno then came in and pitched a perfect 9th inning to force the game into extras. At this point closer Lindsay Barber pitched the next 4 shut out innings to help the Stars outlast the Surfers until Luis Gonzales hit a two-out double in the top of the 13th to drive in the winning run.

All-in-all the Valencia bullpen stat line was 8 innings pitched, 0 runs, on 4 hits and a walk while striking out 7. A pretty good testament for one night anyway. Now the question is how long can that last and will the bullpen be consistent enough to keep Valencia in the close games?

[JRamirez]

Doane was a real ass refusing to re-up with DM.

[DugoutDesperado]

Doane was a real ass refusing to re-up with DM.

LOL - I know the feeling with a couple of mine from last year. Not sure how much more Doane got out of my deal but at least Hines got $7M more per year out of it.