How do you fix this bullpen?

[jhiller21]

First of all, Narron made a mockery of this team bringing Hammond/Weathers in for the 8th, especially after saying publicly that Belisle and Standridge were the new setup guys.

Narron aside, we're not stuck with these old farts, so what would you do to improve this pen?

First move, DFA Hammond, and make Shackelford the lefty specialist.

DFA Mercker, and replace him with the best option at AAA

Put Weathers on the 15 day DL again, and call up Germano. Weathers had a good year in 2005, so he deserves another shot.

[Razor Shines]

I would prefer you not use the term "bullpen", when refering to them, but I do like the idea of calling up younger guys. What can it hurt, until Kriv makes a deal?

[919191]

Put Weathers on the 15 day DL again, and call up Germano. Weathers had a good year in 2005, so he deserves another shot.

I agree that something must be wrong with weathers- he got awfully bad awfully fast, but if he isn't injured, DL'ing him is a grievable under the Agreement, i think.

[TeamSelig]

Hopefully Dumatrait can come up here soon

[Jharb74]

The bigger question, I think is, how fair is it to pitchers like Arroyo when the bullpen constantly blows your wins? You know the starters have to be hacked.

[Benny-Distefano]

Send Hammond back to AAA. Send Tackleberry back to Police Academy.

[Redus]

im gonna steal a line from John Mckay:

How Do I feel about the execution of our bullpen? IM ALL FOR IT!

[UK Reds Fan]

For what we've got to work with just squeeze what you can out of the decent pitchers in the pen.

1. Keep using Coffee in the important situations instead of just putting him in "Closer" role and never getting him in there for anything by 9th inning. If it is the 8th inning that is the vital one, get Coffee in there. If it is 9th, then get Coffee in for th 9th.

2. Use Belisle alot more. He is heads and shoulder better than Weathers/Hammond/Merk at this point. Why Narron hasn't given the kid more shots this year when healthy is beyond me? Last nights game was an obvious showing of why Narron choose not only Hammond but also Weathers before giving Belisle a chance as to Narron's bias towards certain players until it becomes obvious.

3. Use Standridge alot more instead of Weathers/Hammond/Merk. See #2.

4. Call up Shackelford and only use him against lefties. Never righties, just lefties...Shack's splits on lefties is just fine.

5. Use Weathers/Hammond/Merk only when Reds are behind in late inning games. Keep them in back of pen for mop up duty or when the aforementioned guys are out of gas. No problem, every team has 1-2 BP fodder guys. And possibly one of them will pitch their way out of their funk.

The final 3 give us a much better shot at success especially when leading or in tie games coming down the stretch. It isn't much, but to those who say we have no other options, aren't looking at the stats. Also, this is why it was stupid to be so stubborn with Hancock to just release him for weight issues. We could really use him at this point and to boot, he is pitching for the team that is 1 game ahead of us.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

1. If you are a buyer (which I'm not suggesting) you acquire a closer before the deadline (Gordon-Philly?), moving Coffey and Belisle as set-up men, DFA Yan, Hammond and Weathers, and call up Shafer (if healthy), Guevara, and Alvarado.

or

2. Move Milton to the pen when Claussen comes back, but only if Mays is pitching decent in the rotation. Still DFA Yan, Hammond, and Weathers and call up the youngsters from AA (as also mentioned in #1.).

or

3. Do nothing and hope everything works out. DanO would be proud.

[dfs]

The first thing the reds need to do in order to fix the bullpen is to sit Jerry Narron down with a run expectancy chart and explain the notion of leverage to him.

The reds will not have a decent pen when the only pitchers Narron will call on are Hammond, Weathers and Coffey. All three are overexposed and I'll be shocked if Weathers doesn't go injured in the next few weeks. He's burnt those guys out and he doesn't trust the rest of the pen. He'll have a 5 run lead and send one of those three in there. You just can't do that and succeed all year long.

Hopefully Belisle and Yan will start getting some innings.
Brad Salmon is probably the best relief candidate at AAA.
Mercker.....Mercker looks done. I hope I'm wrong about that, but he simply has not been effective against anybody all year long.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

Brad Salmon is probably the best relief candidate at AAA.

Good call on Salmon. I forgot about him.

I just can't force myself to agree with you on Mercker.

[Reds-aholic]

Here's a thought. Set up one of those speed-pitch machines at the front gates. The fans who throw the hardest, get to be in the bullpen that evening! There is as good of a chance for them to succeed as with this bullpen. Plus this might actually increase attendance!!

[Reds1]

Pray!

[Red Rover]

Right now bullpen management is key. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Only pitch Hammond after Harang, Yan or Coffee. You never want to bring this soft tosser in unless he follows someone who throws gas.

2. On same note, never pitch Coffee, Belise and Yan back to back.

3. Bring up Shack and use him as a LOOGY.

4. Use R-R and L-L matchup in late situations. Use all 7 relief pitchers to face 1 or 2 batters a night if you have too.

5. You eventually have to aquire some help. Bringing someone up may not be worse, but I'm not confident that they will/can do much better.

Narron's, in my opinion, use of the pitching staff is terrible. Granted he has little to work with, but use it correctly.

[flyer85]

I know one answer that won't work and that is to do nothing.