I do pay attention- at least most of the time. I guess my point was more that Bell was getting out of options at that point in the game, and some of that self served because we continue to insist that pitchers only pitch one inning. From about mid June to early August, Brach gave us some great performances. If you recall, Tejay Antone went down about mid June and it was doom and gloom as Lorenzen wasn't back yet. Brach really became one of the most utilized pieces in the bullpen. He had 4 holds and a save in June, and 5 holds, a win, a loss and two blown saves in July when he simply was on fumes by early August.
Now a guy trending the wrong way but one we are hanging our hat on is Lorenzen. Well, he's not exactly fooled alot of people the last few outings. He's given up 3 runs in his last two outings, and 7 runs over his last 5 outings.
This is probably something I'll write more about during the off season. I think many Reds fans are going to jump on the "fix the bullpen" bandwagon during the offseason and it's simply not that easy. First of all, most teams go on the cheap with the bullpen. It's just the way to put baseball teams together. Starting pitchers get paid, relief pitchers do not. If you get a really really good one, then yes, you pay them but the Reds have not had that guy since Chapman. So my guess is we'll go into next season with a questionable bullpen and hope and pray they work out. You can't go spend a collective $20-$30 mill in bullpen arms. Now IF Michael Lorenzen Is healthy, and can be that back end of the bullpen guy that we think he can, I'm ok with paying him. But alot of our guys, he's not proven to me that he can be relied upon and entire season.