I know the bullpen is bad. You know the bullpen is bad. We all do. We don't need to go to thesaurus.com for other adjectives. Bad! No! Bad bullpen!
Others know the bullpen is bad. Brian Sabean knows his bullpen is bad. He's rolling up a newspaper for a whack on the bullpen nose right now. My reaction to a bad bullpen is to grimace, scream, throw things, and mutter under my breath at the bus stop in front of the middle school. The usual things. Sabean's reaction to a bad bullpen in the past has been to do something about it. And that gives me the fear.
My bullpen:
CL - Armando Benitez
SU - Jeremy Accardo
SU - Jonathan Sanchez
MR - Brian Wilson
MR - Tim Worrell
MR - Kevin Correia
LR - Brad Hennessey
I am not of the opinion this bullpen would be an automatic improvement. It might even be worse, impossible as that may seem. But this team needs pitchers who can strike people out, and it needs guys I'm not absolutely sick of. Sanchez would be rushed, but I don't see why he wouldn't be able to hold his own. Wilson is given every chance to succeed, and Accardo is rewarded for his impressive post-Fresno pitching.
I can be convinced to keep Kline on in favor of Hennessey's spot, but I'm not a fan of Kline's right now. While it still might be too early to judge him, I'll fairly convinced he's just riding on his reputation. Worrell is kept only because of his ill-advised two-year contract, which would be tough to eat or trade.
Basically, this would be a panic bullpen; hasty decisions made in-house, and made strictly out of curiosity and desperation. It wouldn't be the smartest thing to do in May. But here's what I see our bullpen looking like in July if it continues to struggle:
CL - Benitez
SU - Joe Borowski (acquired for Merkin Valdez and Dan Ortmeier)
SU - Steve Kline
MR - Russ Springer (acquired for Jonathan Sanchez and Mike Mooney)
MR - Jeremy Accardo
MR - Tim Worrell
LR - Brad Hennessey
Like I wrote above, I have the fear. I fear transactions to bring in relievers with service time, regardless of how well they can pitch. I fear overreaction when it involves young talent leaving the organization, and I especially fear it without even attempting to see which young arms can sink or swim during June and July.
I'm just tired of watching such a bad bullpen, and want to do anything to see an immediate change. Merkin Valdez? Michael Tejera? Alfredo Simon? Justin Hedrick? Whatever. Get them on the roster, just so I can see someone different get whacked around the late innings.