San Francisco Giants Series against the Nationals: Three Takeaways

The Giants Bullpen Is Quite Formidable at the Moment

Look. Yesterday’s game wasn’t fun. But the first two were, and so were the three games over the weekend. The Giants were back to playing good ball. They scored enough runs, and pitched really well, especially with the bullpen in the latter innings.

Let’s take a look though at what the bullpen has been doing during their solid stretch of play recently. So far this season, the Giants Bullpen is actually on pace to do what they did in 2012.

In 2012 they had around a 1.30 WHIP with a mid three’s ERA. That’s exactly where they’re at this year. A middle average bullpen is nice. But what is big here their LOB % is in the top half of the league. That’s better than it was in 2012. They’ve had better bullpens in the past, but the early returns on a bullpen that’s missing two gigantic pieces have been nice.

Hunter Strickland has been good in the closer role, Sam Dyson figured his stuff out this week, and Tony Watson has been lights out all season. With Will Smith coming back potentially next week, and Mark Melancon‘s recovery coming along, we’ll start seeing some of the “problem pieces” in the bullpen, hit the road.

Corey Gearrin and Josh Osich are candidates to be dropped when they come back, while Reyes Moronta and Pierce Johnson have solidified their state in this staff.

Moronta might be my cult favorite reliever at the moment. In 14 innings of work, he’s struck out 14, walked 8, and holds a 0.64 ERA. As long as he can do his best to limit the walks, his stuff is nasty enough to strike people. Being effectively wild is what’s been working with him.

The bullpen hasn’t been the Giants biggest issue, and has actually helped them in multiple games so far this season, and they were huge in the first two games of this series. Here’s to hoping they keep up this trend.