Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen has been above average, despite a sour end to April

The Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen has been a top ten staff despite slowing down and blowing saves as April ended.

The Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen blew 3 saves in April all after the tenth of the month. That isn’t too awful considering about one blown save every 10 days in the norm in the majors. What is disappointing is that the blown saves were spread across three relievers and none of them was Raisel Iglesias, the closer.

Drew Storen was one of two in save opportunities. He was able to close the first win of the season of year against the Philadelphia Phillies. Then on the first trip to Pittsburgh this season, Storen gave up an unearned running, costing the Reds the lead, but giving Storen the eventual win. He was signed to be the closer, but has bounced all over the game.

Blake Wood’s blown save wasn’t as glorious. He surrendered 3 runs in the sixth inning of a game against Milwaukee. He only got two outs before Wandy Peralta had to come into the game before to end the inning.

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MIchael Lorenzen, though, had the classic blown save. He was in his second inning of relief against the Cubs on April 21. After giving up a hit and walk, he surrendered a three-run homer to Anthony Rizzo, allowing the game to go to extra innings. This is Lorenzen’s first full year in the big leagues after getting chances in the rotation and the bullpen the past two seasons.

Despite having differing types of blown saves, the Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen had a much better April than in 2016.

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The Reds’ bullpen has pitched the most innings in all of baseball. At the same time they are leading the National League in WHIP. That WHIP is even more impressive when you consider that the Reds have walked the third most batters in the NL.

Part of the reason this has happened is the Reds’ ability to strike batters out. They have more than more 20 strikeouts than the next bullpen in MLB. This is partly caused by Bryan Price’s near refusal to use pitchers in back-to-back games.

Despite the existence of advanced statistics, ERA and batting average against are still the two most often used pitching stat. The Reds’ bullpen is ranked in the top ten in all of MLB in both. It isn’t all peaches and cream, though.

The bullpen is still allowing too many home runs and not collecting enough holds. They are ranked 20th in holds over the course of the month of April. Worse than that, they are 18th in home runs allowed.

Next: The Cincinnati Reds lean on Tim Adleman, again

The bullpen could very well continue to be a strength of the team. The extra pitchers have all been sent to the minors. Now the pitchers left need to stay strong and focus every game out.

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