Dodger Blue Bullpen: Part II

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Mike MacDougal and Matt Guerrier rated after the jump.

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Mike MacDougal, RHP
Grade: B+
Age: 34 IP: 57
Pitching WAR: 1.4

A lot of Dodger fans gave MacDougal a lot of ...crap for his performance in 2011. If you ask me, most of it is not deserved. He came in as a non-roster invitee and tied for the bullpen WAR lead. In addition, not only was his wily ability to induce ground balls tops on the Dodgers, but his line drive percentage was lowest on the Dodgers at 14%, one point lower than Kershaw. So he wasn't giving up a bunch of ground balls punctuated by a lot of easily hit pitches. And he did it all in high leverage situations. Now, increasing age will be a factor in 2012, and hopefully he doesn't fall to injury, but to me his 2012 contract looks very reasonable. Oh, and the inherited runner thing? Yes, he allowed a lot of inherited runners in, which is why many in the Dodger fan community remember him for this. But the real reason behind it was because MacDougal came into games so many times with runners in scoring position (1st on the Dodgers). His actual percentage of runners allowed to score was near league average, and looks much better when put next to the atrocious numbers of Blake Hawksworth and ...

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Matt Guerrier, RHP
Grade: C-
Age: 32 IP: 66 & 1/3
Pitching WAR: .3

Ned Colletti did it again; he gave a big contract to a guy who pitched with his nose barely above replacement level. Needless to say, while we all hope Guerrier bounces back, it's the countless signings that have gone like this or far worse that makes most of us want Colletti out when McCourt goes (As a digression, why do Ned's free agent contracts seem to get worse the bigger they are and the better the smaller they are?). Anyway, not only did Guerrier allow almost half of his inherited runners to score(league average is slightly less than a third), but he had the combo which I personally dislike: low strikeout rate, high fly ball rate. I think that you can get away with an unspectacular K/BB ratio if you kill worms (see MacDougal) but not if you kill birds. Guerrier didn't totally look like a bad pitcher, though. His line drive ratio was low, his walk ratio was good, and his home runs per fly ball was well below league average. And to top it off Guerrier led the Dodger bullpen in innings workload, and had the second toughest situational assignments on the team, behind name-brother Guerra. I definitely think Guerrier belongs in the Dodger bullpen in 2012 regardless of his contract, though I wish it wasn't so large.

Next: "Homer" Simpson Hawksworth, and our favorite lefty, Bullpen Edition (No, not Kuo).