I ended up taking the day off. Mostly due to the fact that I hated the slate, good move though as I feel refreshed after the mental break. I should probably do this a little more often. Also, I got a ton of stuff done, errands and chores that I've been putting off, some bull pen work and an early start to Sun.
I don't have a lot of time to get into this now but thought I'd share the early phase of my bull pen project. Sorted by innings pitched, stats through 5/13.
Red dot- attack situationally. These are mostly bad pens that pitch in extreme pitchers parks when at home. So like SF's pen isn't very good, but it's projected to have a better ERA than the much better AL East pen's, why? Extreme pitchers park in SF vs launching pads in the AL East. Of course this doesn't matter when they're on the road, then the true colors come out.
X- Always in play. Some of these teams play in pitcher friendly parks as well (LAA, Min, Atl, Mia) but the starting rotations and/or pens are even worse than the Dot squad. A pitchers park can't help Jared Weaver or Phil Hughes at this point, and the fact that their pens suck as well is a bonus.
XX- Attack! 4 of the best hitters parks in the league, 4 of the worst rotations in the league, 4 of the worst, most overworked pens in the league. What's not to like? Injury or extreme overuse can move any pen in the league into this group temporarily, but these 4 dwell here all the time.
I could see how this might look contradictory as I'm talking about weak rotations and hitters parks and not mentioning a lot of teams that have both, like basically all of the AL East minus Tampa. I target the **** out of those situations, it's just that it has nothing to do with bull pens. In fact these teams have good enough pens that it's a slight negative in what is often otherwise perfect hitting opportunities. I'm just mostly focusing in on this one variable with these posts.