Yeah history shows us relievers are much more volatile year to year than starters so probably wise to not spend money in that department until the team is truly ready to push for a playoff spot. There are always several relievers available at the deadline, too.
I still wonder how the fate of this team would have been different about a decade ago had Daniels been willing to spend on the pen just prior to then. Since we were short in the pen, Feliz came up to fill a bullpen role. How much different could things have been had Feliz been allowed to spend a whole year at AAA working on becoming a better starting pitcher? Instead that work was derailed so he could fill a hole in the pen that Daniels had failed to fill the previous offseason. In fact, several starters of ours were prematurely switched to the pen due to necessity a few years ago, because Daniels viewed the pen like Jerry Jones used to view linebackers.
Yeah history shows us relievers are much more volatile year to year than starters so probably wise to not spend money in that department until the team is truly ready to push for a playoff spot. There are always several relievers available at the deadline, too.
I still wonder how the fate of this team would have been different about a decade ago had Daniels been willing to spend on the pen just prior to then. Since we were short in the pen, Feliz came up to fill a bullpen role. How much different could things have been had Feliz been allowed to spend a whole year at AAA working on becoming a better starting pitcher? Instead that work was derailed so he could fill a hole in the pen that Daniels had failed to fill the previous offseason. In fact, several starters of ours were prematurely switched to the pen due to necessity a few years ago, because Daniels viewed the pen like Jerry Jones used to view linebackers.