D-backs bullpen is good but needs to get deeper
Jun 8, 2011, 9:54 PM | Updated: 11:09 pm
The Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen may have looked like the 2010 version for the first time this season on Tuesday in Pittsburgh but that doesn’t mean it’s time to panic.
As a matter of fact, fans still should be celebrating what they’ve accomplished so far this year.
“The Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen, dare I say Kevin Towers bravo, you’ve made it one of the best in the game,” Dave Burns said on Sports 620 KTAR’s Sports Interactive Wednesday. “When it comes to holding leads after the sixth and seventh inning, you go through an entire two months and this is the first time you lose a game that you lead after the seventh inning? Bravo, that’s impressive.”
While Burns was more than complimentary of the club’s relievers, his co-host Paul Calvisi wondered if the lack of depth in the bullpen will cost the D-backs eventually.
“That’s where you don’t match well with the Giants,” Calvisi said of the bullpen. “I know their starting rotation is formidable but they are darn deep in the bullpen. That’s where the D-backs have to be real careful where early in June you can’t keep running guys out there. That’s why I didn’t want to see Hernandez out there in the first place.”
Paulie Pine Tar isn’t the only one concerned about the number of quality arms that Kirk Gibson and his staff can turn to in the late innings of games. General manager Kevin Towers has made it clear that he is in search of arms on the trade market that can help further fortify the team’s bullpen.
Whether Towers adds an arm or not before the deadline, it’s clear that he has vastly improved a corps of relievers that was one of the worst in baseball history just a one short year ago.
