May 31, 2012
Like an offensive line in football or a bench in basketball, the bullpen on a baseball team is comprised of mostly faceless individuals you probably know little about, and, frankly, their quiet presence is just fine with them. They fill the unglamorous blue collar role on a team and their notoriety most often comes from their failures rather than their successes.
A good bullpen will not sell any tickets at the gate and little leaguers don’t grow up wishing to one day become a middle reliever, but the importance of a bullpen is measured by much more than a popularity contest.
Take last year for example.
As Vanderbilt made a historical march through the postseason with the road ending in Omaha, it was the team’s explosive offense and star-studded starting rotation that received the most headlines. Overlooked during Vanderbilt’s run was the outstanding play of the team’s bullpen.
In baseball lingo, managers discuss the importance of “shortening the game” with a strong bullpen, and nobody did it better than the Commodores last season. Vanderbilt’s bullpen tossed 22.2 innings during the 2011 NCAA Tournament, surrendering just 10 hits and one earned run. In baseball lingo, that would be described as “plain filthy.”
No other word more aptly describes Vanderbilt’s bullpen from a year ago. If the starters could work into the sixth or even just the fifth inning, it was almost a foregone conclusion that the bullpen would slam the door shut the rest of the way.
Of course, that was last year, and in February and March, memories from 2011 were buried deeply in one’s cerebrum as the Commodores stumbled out of the starting blocks.
Vanderbilt’s lineup was cold, the starting pitching was up and down, the defense was kicking the ball around and the bullpen was unreliable. However as the season progressed, each of these four facets improved.
As a team, the Commodores were hit hard by graduation and the MLB Draft, and the bullpen was not spared. Gone were Jack Armstrong, Mark Lamm, Navery Moore and Corey Williams.
The only returning parts to the bullpen that saw time in the NCAA Tournament last season were sophomore Kevin Ziomek and redshirt junior Will Clinard. Ziomek was moved to the starting rotation this season and Clinard has helped anchor the bullpen throughout the year. It should be noted that Ziomek is being used a swing starter in the postseason and is available to help in the pen or as a starter.
For the the most part, Vanderbilt’s bullpen was now filled with fresh faces. Replacing Vanderbilt’s late-inning arms from last year were a number of unknown commodities: junior college transfer Drew VerHagen, redshirt sophomore Keenan Kolinsky, sophomore Steven Rice, freshmen Brian and Jared Miller (no relation) and Philip Pfeifer.
At first, the unit battled consistency issues as they adapted to the college level, but over time, the bullpen has quietly become a strength of this year’s team.
Now as Vanderbilt prepares to open the NCAA Tournament at 1 p.m. CT on Friday against UNC-Wilmington, the bullpen is playing its best baseball of the season, and it couldn’t come at a better time. “Very impressive; really because there are a lot of young guys that are holding down those positions as relievers,” Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin said of the bullpen’s growth.
Despite the youth, Corbin hasn’t been afraid to pass the ball around between his arsenal of bullpen arms. Six of Vanderbilt’s relievers have made no fewer than 10 appearances and seven have thrown at least 16.1 innings of work.
“It is a lot of different hands, but I think that is our strength right there,” Corbin said. “I like our starting pitching, but we also feel like we can go to the bullpen and hold people down. We don’t really skip a beat too much.”
Last week at the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt’s bullpen flexed its muscle for all to see. In 21.2 innings of relief, the bullpen surrendered just three earned runs and all three came in the same game against Florida.
Save for that uncharacteristically shaky performance against Florida, Vanderbilt’s bullpen was lights out. In 15.1 innings of work in Vanderbilt’s four other tournament games, the bullpen scattered six hits and did not allow a run.
The play of the bullpen is starting to show shades of last season, and every solid performance is having a positive effect on the team’s confidence.
“Just the way they are pitching the ball, I think we are going to do a great job,” outfielder Tony Kemp said. “As we continue to do that, I think we are going to continue to keep winning.”
By no coincidence, that added confidence in the bullpen has translated into an improved offensive and defensive team.
“When you don’t have guys shut people down, it is almost like an added pressure offensively to score more runs,” Corbin began.
“We were in the dugout (Tuesday) and Jared Miller spoke out and he said, ‘I feel so confident as a relief pitcher on this team because if I throw a pitch and it gets hit, I know it is going to get caught.’ The defense and the pitching are synchronized mentally in terms of how they feel about one another, and that is a great element to have on your team.”
In the bullpen, the dramatic improvement can be traced back to all the usual factors such as maturity, coaching and familiarity. But what about trust?
For left-handed reliever Jared Miller, trusting the process and trusting one another has gone a long way toward solidifying the bullpen.
“I just think we trust each other,” Miller said. “When somebody goes in the game, we trust that he is going to do his job and the next guy that goes in is going to do his as well. It’s just been a big growing process because we are so young, and now we trust the process and trust each other.”
They trust each other so much so that the the unit is performing freely without pressure, absent of any possible anxiety from the big stage.
“It isn’t hard to do well with the defense we play,” Miller said. “The balls that are hit, I trust that they are going to catch them so it is pretty easy for me to do my job.”
The stardom of Vanderbilt’s young relievers helped pave the way to the NCAA Tournament, and as long as the bullpen continues to shut down opponents in the coming days, you can expect to hear very little about this group, but they wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
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