Bullpen'd: Recent Episodes
Russ Berreth
A bi-weekly thought experiment looking back at baseball teams from the era of big benches and small bullpens, and imagining how they would look in the modern era.
This episode of Bullpen'd takes a look at the best of times (for Cincinnati in 1990) and the worst of times (1988 for Baltimore) in terms of starts to the season. Would modern roster trends still work in Cincinnati, or would they have made a bad situation in Baltimore worse?
This episode of bullpen'd looks back at the teams that brought World Series titles to both halves of Pennsylvania, the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies. How would they put a team together with only three bench spots and a lot of relievers? Spoiler alert: it would suck to be Greg Gross in this era.
After a week off (sorry about that...had some family business come up) it's time again to reconfigure some old rosters to the modern model. The 1988 Atlanta Braves offer a look at when young pitching goes according to plan (Tom Glavine, John Smoltz) at least for the most part (Pete Smith, Kevin Coffman). The flip side is provided by the Generation K arms of the 1995 New York Mets, which never quite worked out in the Mets' favor.
This week Bullpen'd goes a bit further back than usual. It's time to shrink down the bench and enlarge the bullpen for the new tenants of the California Bay area, the 1968 Oakland A's and the 1958 San Francisco Giants. Some decisions were easy, while other ones were harder than expected.
This week on Bullpen'd it's time to look at Carlton Fisk's final seasons in Boston and Chicago. Making a tiny bench in Boston was easy, but the 1993 White Sox left me with one really hard decision.
This episode of Bullpen'd looks back at the last year in the American League for the Milwaukee Brewers (1997) and the last year for the Houston Astros in the National League (2012). How would these teams look in the light bench/big bullpen era of 2019? Listen in and find out.
Since there was no expansion in the 1980s, this week goes back to the swingin' 1970s to see how the first drafts of the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners might be different if they had to carry 14 pitchers at once, rather than the 15 pitchers Toronto used all of 1977 (Seattle went through a few more).
This week I look at the actual Cleveland teams that were on the field while "Major League' and 'Major League II' were in theaters nationwide (1989 and 1994) . While almost everyone agrees the first is better than the second, in real life things were a bit different (and in just five years, the teams were completely different as well).
This week Bullpen'd looks at the inaugural seasons for the last two teams to make major moves to new cities. The 1972 Texas Rangers continued the futility of the 1971 Washington Senators, while the 2005 Washington Nationals improved on the poor record of the 2004 Montreal Expos. How would both teams look in 2019?
This week on Bullpen'd, it's the late 90s all over again as the Arizona Diamondbacks (in their teal and purple glory) and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (before the exorcism) get a look at bench contraction and bullpen expansion.
This week the inaugural teams of Florida and Colorado get their rosters redone for the era of seven pitchers a game and a hope that your backup catcher can learn other positions.
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This week Bullpen'd looks at the first and last teams of arguably the greatest Yankee to never play in a World Series, Don Mattingly. Which Yankee benchwarmers are cast aside, and what relievers make the leap?
On this episode of Bullpen'd, I not only imagine a 1984 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs, I also imagine it if the Cubs had to only have one backup outfielder instead of three. Plus, does Buddy Biancalana make the cut for the Royals, and what 21 year old at AA might have gotten a call in the 13 pitchers at a time era?
On the first episode of Bullpen'd, I look back at a World Series near and dear to many of my Minnesota friends, the 1987 match between the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins. How might the teams have looked if we had seen these teams tangle in the era of three person benches and twelve-thirteen member bullpens?