Relief Efforts - 棒球

Relief Efforts
Take advantage of shaky bullpens around baseball

By David Young, Special to SI.com

We are less than a month into the season and already there is upheaval in ninth
innings all over the league. In the Windy City the troubles in the South Side
are eclipsed by those in the North. The White Sox are ripping through the
league, but are closing their games by a committee of Shingo Takatsu, Dustin
Hermanson and Damaso Marte. The Cubs are perhaps a few days away from declaring
a committee since LaTroy Hawkins has been good for an earned run or two. Chad
Fox has gotten into the act recently as the team waits for Joe Borowski to come
off the DL.

In Cleveland, Bob Wickman has five saves, but a 7.36 ERA. Other closers in the
"higher ERA than saves club" include Danny Kolb in Atlanta (6.38 ERA, six saves
), Takatsu (7.94, six saves), and Armando Benitez in San Francisco (6.14, four
saves). I cut the list short because an ERA under 4.00 is respectable so
members in good standing need at least four saves. However, the current pledge
class includes San Diego's Trevor Hoffman (7.71, two saves), Keith Foulke (4.00
, three saves), Hawkins (5.14, three saves), Mike Adams (4.05, one save), Chin-
Hui Tsao (5.40, two saves) and Braden Looper (5.63, two saves).



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