{"id":720782,"date":"2017-07-29T12:26:06","date_gmt":"2017-07-29T16:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=720782"},"modified":"2017-07-29T12:26:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-29T16:26:06","slug":"the-trade-deadline-and-clevelands-unexpected-bullpen-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/the-trade-deadline-and-clevelands-unexpected-bullpen-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trade Deadline, and Cleveland’s Unexpected Bullpen Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of 2017, the Cleveland Indians’ bullpen was the class of Major League Baseball. Featuring Andrew Miller<\/a><\/strong> (arguably the best reliever in baseball) and Cody Allen<\/a><\/strong> (a Top-10 reliever in baseball), along with Bryan Shaw<\/a><\/strong> (career 3.39 FIP vs. right-handed hitters) and Boone Logan<\/a><\/strong> (career 3.05 FIP against left-handed hitters), the Indians looked to have innings 7-9 locked down. If they needed help in the 6th inning, they also could turn to Dan Otero<\/a><\/strong>, who put up a 2.33 FIP in 70.2 innings of work 2016.<\/p>\n

On a Cleveland team with plenty of talent, you would have found little argument that the bullpen was the team’s biggest strength.<\/p>\n

However, the 2017 season hasn’t exactly gone to plan for the Tribe’s relief arms.<\/p>\n

The most prominent issue to date has been the decline in performance from Cody Allen, especially in July.\u00a0Mike Hattery of WaitingForNextYear took a look at Allen’s numbers recently<\/a>, and speculated that Allen was some combination of injured, fatigued, or mechanically out of sync. Whatever the cause is, Allen’s results from the past month are a concern, especially his drop in strikeouts and velocity.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The one positive from that table, Allen’s 2017 BB% being better than his 2016 mark, is a mirage: As Hattery pointed out in his article, Allen’s zone% on pitches is down 3.5% in 2017.<\/p>\n

It’s possible Allen is just going through a rough patch, or dealing with a “dead arm” that can be fixed by rest, but the there is no way of knowing how soon the issues will be fixed, if at all.<\/p>\n

However, what many fans may not have realized is that star reliever Andrew Miller has been dealing with many of the same issues as Allen. Observe the table below, with the same variables as the Cody Allen table above.\u00a0\"The<\/p>\n

Just like Allen, Miller has lost 1.5 mph off his fastball from 2016, and is struggling with control and strikeouts. It could even be argued that Miller’s continued decline from last season is an even bigger issue than Allen’s.<\/p>\n

The fact is, both Miller and Allen have been continually overworked as they have been asked to get Cleveland out of any tight situation that arises. Since the start of 2016, Miller has pitched 148 innings between regular season play, the postseason, and the World Baseball Classic. In the previous three seasons combined (including playoffs) Miller pitched 158 innings.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Allen’s usage increase isn’t as severe, but still shows a slight bump: He’s pitched 123.1 innings since 2016 started, when he had pitched 139 innings in the previous two seasons combined (which was already 6th in baseball). ZIPS projects him to pitch 25 more innings in the 2017 regular season, which without even getting into the postseason, would put him well past his previous usage numbers.<\/p>\n

As if the Indians’ two best relievers showing serious signs of overwork wasn’t bad enough, the team’s already weakened bullpen suffered another blow recently: Boone Logan appeared to seriously injure his shoulder on July 19, on this play.<\/p>\n[protected-iframe id=”96020a35c61f571c1b01799c7211cc19-114320562-73584916″ info=”https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/video\/share\/logan-exits-the-game\/c-1624330383?tid=6479266″ width=”540″ height=”360″]\n

The prognosis for Logan isn’t good, and yesterday, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reported that surgery is on the table.<\/p>\n

\n

Francona: Boone Logan (lat) currently weighing options — one being surgery — after getting a 2nd opinion.<\/p>\n

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) July 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n