2012 was a year to remember for the Baltimore Orioles, especially the stout performance by the bullpen.
The strength of the bullpen played a huge role in the success of the Birds, and is arguably one of the reasons the O’s broke their 15 year playoff drought.
The 2012 Orioles bullpen finished second-best in the MLB with an overall 3.00 ERA, holding a record of 32-11. The bullpen accounted for about 1/3 of the Orioles 95 wins, but the most impressively they held a 29-9 record in one run games.
Everybody remembers being on the edge of their seats, holding their breath, and crossing their fingers going into the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead. It was enough to give every fan an anxiety attack, but eventually it became so routine and so normal.
O’day would trot out of the pen to polish off the 7th, Strop would mow down the 8th, and Jim Johnson would slam the door in the 9th.
One run games were the 2012 Orioles’ forte. It became a part of the team, and added to the suspense and excitement of the BUCKle Up Birds.
So with the bulk of the bullpen cast returning, will they be able to put up another stellar performance?
Based on Bleacher Report’s MLB power rankings, it looks like the 2013 Orioles pen is in line for an encore. Bleacher Report has the Orioles bullpen ranked 5th out of the 30 MLB teams. With the majority of the bullpen returning to OPACY and the excitement level of the club, organization, and the fans there is no reason why the Birds’ pen wouldn’t land on top of the power rankings.
The Orioles have the best closer in baseball in Jim Johnson, who last year set a club record with 51 saves during the regular season. Some say that JJ is lucky based on the amount of the balls that he allowed to be put in play, but I dare say he’d have to be pretty lucky to only get burned on three out of 54 attempted saves. Johnson is poised to have another career year, and will have settled in to his role as closer.
Not only do the O’s have the best closer in the game, they also boast two of the best setup men in the league: Darren O’Day and Pedro Strop.
O’day had no problem getting into the heads of opposing batters with his unorthodox delivery and nasty repertoire of pitches last year (.202 Opp BA & 4.92 SO/BB), so we can assume Darren will build on his success in 2013. Strop, who had a down end to the year, rebounded this spring in a strong performance for the Dominican Republic that help lead them to a World Baseball Classic Championship. Pedro is a guy who will play a huge role in this year’s success, and the O’s can hope that he will mirror his dominance in the WBC.
With the one-two-three punch of O’Day, Strop, and Johnson the Orioles should be able to build on their 74-0 winning streak when leading after the 7th inning from last year.
The Birds also have great long relief pitchers and lefty specialists like Troy Patton, Tommy Hunter, Luis Ayala (for now), possibly Brian Matusz, T.J. McFarland, and Mark Hendrickson.
However you draw it up the Orioles are going to have a strong core of relievers behind O’Day, Strop, and Johnson. Each reliever is going to play an important role for the Orioles, and with the amount of starter-potential talent in the pen there will be plenty of depth.
Though all seems bright for the 2013 Orioles bullpen, there are those who say otherwise. The biggest knock on the O’s bullpen last year was the amount of innings they racked up (545.1 IP, which was 4th most in MLB). They say that the Orioles bullpen was overused and because of that batters will have had more looks and the pitcher’s arms would get fatigued.
Apparently they must not have paid attention to the extensive measures Showalter took in managing his arms. He came to every game knowing who was available and who wasn’t; and when a pitcher was penciled in as “unavailable”, he meant it.
The Orioles bullpen may have thrown a lot of innings last year, but not in a way that would damage their productivity. Buck made sure that each reliever got the amount of rest they needed in order to come out 100% the next time he called on them. Just watch every time Show makes a trip out onto the mound. He is always patting his back pocket where you can see a white card sticking out.
That white index card has the formula for the Orioles success, and you can bet Buck already has this years plan drawn out.
