Lost this one in the shuffle yesterday, but Joey Devine signed a one-year deal with the A’s yesterday. He lost all of 2009 following elbow surgery, but had a stellar 2008. The deal is a single year for $560,000.
If Devine comes back close to where he was and Andrew Bailey keeps on keepin’ on, the Athletics are going to have a damn fine bullpen in 2010.
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- scatterbrian - Dec 3, 2009 at 12:34 PM
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The A’s bullpen was ridiculously good last season, and likely will be again. They led the majors in K/BB and FIP last season, for those into that stuff, and a healthy Devine just makes them deeper. Bailey was great but Wuertz was maybe better (led ML relievers in Ks), and Ziegler is a groundball machine with closer experience. That’s four guys who can handle the ninth, plus some solid under-the-radar guys in the back end [Breslow, Kilby, Blevins, Gray]. They’ll likely be sending 2-3 quality relievers to Sacramento after Spring Training.
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- APBA Guy - Dec 3, 2009 at 12:47 PM
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Scatterbrain is right. The A’s bullpen was ridiculously good last year. And for a losing team they were used very intelligently. Each guy had a role. The roles were regularly observed by Geren, but he did make reasonable exceptions (more than 3 out saves for Bailey, and a key reliever might come in early out-of-role to shut down a threat).
With a couple other guys not mentioned above (like Casilla, Edgar Gonzalez, and Hernandez), the A’s figure to be 10 deep in relievers that other teams would call MLB quality. So 3 will go to the River Cats after April 1 but will keep their bags packed. The A’s run a virtual shuttle from Oakland to and from Sacramento. As guys get injured and fatigued, including starters, somebody will come up who’s nearly as good.
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- free computers - Jan 16, 2010 at 12:49 PM
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