I like these choices. I never understood the love for Phillips. Phelps can't be worse with the glove, and has much more power.

For the non-Yankees fans, what is the Yankees bullpen? The guys competing for jobs weren't exactly household names.

Assuming Henn sticks, I think the pen will be:

Rivera (Closer, obviously)
Farnsworth (#1 set-up man)
Proctor (#1a set-up man)
Myers (LOOGY)
Luis Vizcaino (#2 set-up)
Brian Bruney (#3 set-up)
Sean Henn (#2 lefty)

In the first month, there will also probably be some sort of combination fifth starter/mop-up man, possible Darrell Rasner.

Chris Britton had a terrible spring and got sent down, Colter Bean had a brilliant spring but also got sent down. Britton is probably the first guy up if someone gets hurt/sucks. No idea what might become of Bean

Good choices overall. Torre "learned" these tricks b/c Cashman convinced him of the need to be younger and cheaper.

"For the non-Yankees fans, what is the Yankees bullpen?"

Bruney, Proctor, Farnsworth, Henn, Britton, Vizcaino, Myers and Mo. Bruney is filthy, throws 97, Proctor throws 95, struggles with control, Farnsworth is pretty well known, Henn is a lefty that throws 92ish and sucked hard starting, but could be a decent reliever, Britton was on the O's last year, I'm not really sold on him, but he put up good numbers, throws in the low 90s with a lower then usual release IIRC, Vizcaino came over from the D-backs I think, I don't know much about him other then he's been useful, Myers sucked last year so hopefully he rebounds and can get lefties out again, really low release, typical loogy. It's a pretty deep bullpen this year with some serious upside with Bruney, Britton, Vizcaino, and Proctor all having the capability of being setup men. Henn probably has some upside too. I realize that's 8 guys, I'm not sure which one didn't make it or if they're going with 8 because there is no 5th starter right now.

I'm no fan of Bean's. Bean is just a solid AAA reliever. I hope Britton gets another chance. The pen looks excellent, IMHO; lots of solid interchangeable parts.

"Chris Britton had a terrible spring and got sent down"

Ah, that's what happened.

"I hope Britton gets another chance."

The reason I'm not sold on Britton is that alot of his success at the beginning of the year was because of his deception (if I am paraphasing O's fan correctly) and once the league saw him once, they owned him. IIRC, the splits bear this out.

Rivera (Closer, obviously)
Farnsworth (#1 set-up man)
Proctor (#1a set-up man)
Myers (LOOGY)
Luis Vizcaino (#2 set-up)
Brian Bruney (#3 set-up)
Sean Henn (#2 lefty)

Are there any other teams besides the White Sox who consistently take just six relievers north? I usually get angry when some Sox beat writer even brings up the thought of seven relievers over the extra bench player. Are the Yanks just bringing seven because of their fifth starter situation, or is this par for the course?

Myers sucked last year so hopefully he rebounds and can get lefties out again

Is it fair to say that?

Granted, he didn't pitch much but he did seem to get the guys he did face out at a reasonable rate.

Are the Yanks just bringing seven because of their fifth starter situation, or is this par for the course?

I think seven is getting to be the standard, because if you don't have that second or third lefty in the bullpen, all your other pitchers' arms will fall off.

Are the Yanks just bringing seven because of their fifth starter situation, or is this par for the course?

I can't speak for other teams but the Yankees are carrying that many relievers in large part because of Myers. He absolutely has his uses, but you can't really count on him to face more than a couple of batters in an inning, if that.

"Granted, he didn't pitch much but he did seem to get the guys he did face out at a reasonable rate."

He got them out fine, but he also gave up alot more XBHs then I would have liked to have seen. He absolutely shut down lefties for the Sox in 05, and even though he turned out to be a more balanced pitcher last year, he was much worse at what his primary purpose is. I guess it's kind of harsh to say he sucked, but he was less useful strategically last year then he had been in the past.

Pavano is officially announced to be the opening day starter
MLB.com

I can't speak for other teams but the Yankees are carrying that many relievers in large part because of Myers. He absolutely has his uses, but you can't really count on him to face more than a couple of batters in an inning, if that.

And the other six guys will rarely if ever be worked for more than an inning.

The current manager paradigm of "never bring out a reliever for a second inning of work" is the reason behind the seven-man bullpen. The White Sox are rare in that they look for guys who can work multiple innings out of the pen.

Compared to last season, the bullpen depth has been improved dramatically. This time back in ‘06, TANYON STURTZE was viewed as set-up man 1A in the eyes of Torre. Look, the Pavano thing is what it is, but I haven't been this excited about the direction of the organization in a long, long time, especially with T-Clip, Ohlendorf, and Hughes lurking at Scranton. And you have to just hope Sanchez's arm problems aren't chronic.

But, honestly, a few days before the Opener, I couldn't be more hyped to watch this team.

The question now becomes: when will Phelps overtake Eye Chart?

The current manager paradigm of "never bring out a reliever for a second inning of work" is the reason behind the seven-man bullpen. The White Sox are rare in that they look for guys who can work multiple innings out of the pen.

The Angels do that too, I believe. I want to say they were lefty-less for a few years and still had one of the best bullpens in the game.

I was surprised about Britton. His ERA by month:

April: 5.79
May: 0.00
June: 3.29
July: 2.57
August: 11.12
September: 1.42

Take out his 2/3 IP, 4 ER August 15 performance against the Red Sox, and his Aug. ERA is 5.4, his second half ERA goes from 5.14 to 3.54.

Granted, every outing is part of the larger picture. But it's hard not to think the guy just had a bad night (two really, right before against the Yankees on 8/12). He allowed one earned run in 11 appearances the rest of the way- didn't seem to me that the league figured him out.

When exactly did Phillips become a Torre favorite? Torre absolutely buried him back when he actually was a young player who deserved a chance to show if he could hit in the bigs.

I want to say they were lefty-less for a few years and still had one of the best bullpens in the game.

The 2004 Angels had exactly two innings pitched by a lefty reliever, and yes, they probably had the best bullpen in the game that year.

Somehow nobody picked up on this.

Besides Pavano starting on Opening Day, this looks to be the best starting rotation since 2003. Not the highest bar, but still.

The current manager paradigm of "never bring out a reliever for a second inning of work" is the reason behind the seven-man bullpen.

This may be true in general, but it certainly isn't true of Torre. I believe that the idea that he wrecked Sturtze's arm in 2005, or Proctor's and Villone's last year is way overblown. Still, the fact remains that he will settle on one or two guys that he trusts and will not hesitate to use them for more than an inning, or several days in a row. He insists on carrying seven relievers even though he'll only use four.

I used to hate the seven man bullpen, but I am slowly being won over to its merits for a team like the Yankees.

They are in the AL and thus don't need several pinch hitters to hit for the pitcher. Also they have solid to great hitters at every starting position so won't need to pinch hit for any of their starting nine (except to gain the platoon advantage between their crappy 1B). The only time a pinch hitter would be used is in a situation where a bench guy started and then the starter from that position could be used. The backup infielder and/or outfielder can serve as the primary pinch runner.

Basically their bench needs a backup C, a backup infielder (who can play 2b/ss/3b) and a backup outfielder (who can play lf/cf/rf). Add in the half of the first base platoon not starting and the Yankees really only need 4 bench players. If they were to add a 5th bench player it would likely be a 5th OF which would be less tactically useful to this particular team then a seventh reliever to mop up innings.

I am not advocating a seven man 'pen in general but in certain situations it makes sense: in the AL, no weak-hitting starting position players that need to be pinch hit for in important situations and one or fewer platoons.

The 2004 Angels had exactly two innings pitched by a lefty reliever, and yes, they probably had the best bullpen in the game that year.

Somehow nobody picked up on this.

The causality runs exactly the other way, I think. It's not that the Angels pen was good because they didn't carry a lefty, it's that the Angels pen was already so good that they didn't need to carry a lefty.

When you have Percival, Donnelly, Weber, Rodriguez, Shields at or around their peaks, you have pitchers who are so good that even against LHB, they're better than a mediocre lefty. This sort of situation will only happen very rarely - most teams have a bunch of not very good pitchers in their bullpen, and so instead of letting some league average RHP become well below average by putting him in there against LHB in important situations, they carry a lefty or two for tactical reasons. When your righties are as crazy good as the 2004 Angels bullpen, you don't need to worry about tactics - you just send your crazy good relievers out there against everyone. When you're 95% of the teams in baseball, you are better off with at least one lefty in the pen.

Does Ron VIllone have anything left? Is he a free agent or is sent down to the minors?

I believe that the idea that he wrecked Sturtze's arm in 2005, or Proctor's and Villone's last year is way overblown.

The idea that Tanyon Sturtze became, for several months, a great relief pitcher, and then was ruined by Joe Torre, seems profoundly unlikely. We;re talking about Tanyon Sturtze. Isn't it a lot simpler to just assume that whatever Sturtze had going for him was never sustainable?

On the subject of Proctor, I'm less sure, because he actually seems to have some of the characteristics of a good MLB pitcher, and his usage last year was as heavy as any in baseball over the last several years. But that's still open - maybe Proctor can come out and get hte job done again, and no one will be complaining.

We;re talking about Tanyon Sturtze. Isn't it a lot simpler to just assume that whatever Sturtze had going for him was never sustainable?

Well, the effectiveness is one issue, and a valid one. But Sturtze did have to rotator cuff surgrey. That probably wasn't all Torre, but it also hardly seems unfair to describe him as a "wrecking" Sturtze's arm.

I'm kind of sad that Pratt didn't get the call. He's been a good backup for a long time, and I'd like to see him end up with another shot at a ring.

The current manager paradigm of "never bring out a reliever for a second inning of work" is the reason behind the seven-man bullpen. The White Sox are rare in that they look for guys who can work multiple innings out of the pen.

Is there evidence of this? Last year the Sox relievers broke down this way:

Jenks 70 IP/ 67 g
Cotts 54/70 (Loogy)
Thornton 54/63
Riske 34/33
Pollitte 30/30
McDougal 25/25
Logan 21/21

The only exceptions were long relievers McCarthy and Haeger.

2005 was pretty much the same:

Hermanson 57/57
Cotts 60/69
Pollitte 67/68
Marte 45/66 (Loogy)
Vizcaino 70/65
Jenks 39/32
Takatsu 29/31

The reason the Sox have been able to carry an 11 man staff (most of) the last two seasons is because their starters have been healthy and durable. In 2006, the fewest IP by a Sox starter was 198! They had just 407 relief innings, lowest in the majors (the median was 500 ... that's about 1.5 fewer reliever-seasons for the Sox). In 2005 they had 401, 2nd fewest in the majors (though the median that year was 465 so that's 1 fewer reliever-season).

If you get over 1,000 innings out of your starters, you can certainly carry a 6-man pen. Otherwise you really have little choice these days but to carry a 7-man pen or change the way starters and relievers are used.

Median (approx.) relief IP, 2000-2006:

2006 500
2005 465
2004 495
2003 487
2002 490
2001 475
2000 480

Number of relievers with 70+ IP:

2006 53
2005 52
2004 56
2003 54
2002 51
2001 54
2000 60

Both sets of numbers have really been remarkably consistent the last 7 seasons. And so you need to prepare for 480-500 relief IP and probably only 1-2 relievers who will stay healthy and effective enough to throw 70+ IP. I didn't go through every year, but in 2006, 6 teams had 3 relievers top 70 IP and Houston had 4. If you have enough players with options, you can do some AAA shuttling to get more than 70-80 IP out of a roster spot or two even if none of those pitchers comes close to 70 IP. But whatever advantage you gain there is usually lost by having a Loogy who throws only about 40-45 IP.

Given current starter usage, you have to expect 480-500 relief IP. Given current reliever usage, you can't count on many of them throwing more than 70 IP. Therefore you have virtually no choice but to have a 7-man pen.