The art of bullpen management.

OK, bit bored here, so time for some PB discussion.

Game 4 of my recent series in K17 saw KRod go 4 innings in relief getting the win. Hated to use him that many innings, but only had two other relievers with BFA's of 2, so I kept him in there. Won the game, but KRod is at -2 BFA, my bullpen is tired, and usage is up to 125.

So I know that KRod is going the minors after this series as his usage is up there. Go into game 6th inning of 5 with a two run lead. The opposing manager has 3 righties and 6 lefties in a row. 6th inning sees a righty specialist take care of 2 RH's, then one in the 7th. 7th and 8th inning sees Aquino(going to the minors after this series as well) take care of 5 lefties in a row. He then gets the first guy in the 9th, a lefty. Now I have two RH's to face, with no real good guy to get them.

So what do I do? I bring in KRod, who K's both righties that he faces. I don't care that he'll be at -4 after the game, he dominates righties, and many years of playing this game tell me he will still be dominate even though he comes into the game at -2. I've use my dominate closer many times in the past to get one or two hitters in the 9th, and they do the job at least 90% of the time.

Average relievers that dominate vs. one side of the plate play very important roles in bullpens, even more so in a 24 team league where depth is a problem. Dropping a guy to the minors when on the road works wonders keeping that lefty/righty balance. So next time you can draft that 650/900 split guy(w/ that 5 PB rating), just remember that he is very valuable at home, usually getting his full innings in a season even though he occasionally sits in the minors.