Bullpen Red Flags, SF's Pen Is Running on Fumes

Relief pitching is a budget, and some teams have been spending like the bill never comes. From the last three days of captured box scores, here is the relief workload around the league, starters excluded.

The most-taxed arms

SF have been playing bullpen roulette, 19 relief appearances in just three games, a 6.3-per-game pace that leaves a manager short of fresh options exactly when he wants them most.

TB are right there with them at 14 relief outings in 3 games.

ARI have leaned on the pen 13 times in 3 games themselves.

The rested arms

At the other end, HOU have used just five relievers across two games. A rested pen usually means the manager gets the matchups he wants late, instead of the ones he is stuck with.

BAL are in similar shape, with just 6 relief outings across 2 games.

The spread between the busiest pen and the freshest one is 14 appearances over the same window, that is the difference between a full late-inning menu and a manager crossing his fingers at the mound.

By the numbers

The workload table, straight from the pitching lines:

Worth remembering

The tally counts appearances, not innings: each reliever who entered a captured game adds one to his team's total. Crude on purpose, and applied identically everywhere.

A taxed pen shows up late, not early: fewer trusted arms, longer leashes, fatter late innings. Watch the eighth.