It's no longer true that pitchers are in the pen because they are not good enough to start. That was true years ago, but
today players are groomed for the pen starting in high school.
It is true that pens have to constantly be reworked but to say AA has never been good with the pen is a bit confusing considering we had one
of the best pens in baseball last season.
The mistakes that were made with the pen were mainly on the right hander side, and trusting Smith as a closer when he had been so shaky in
2020. AA trusted those 34 saves he had in SF, and assumed 20's issues were late start/COVID anomalies. The biggest mistake though was
made on the right hander side. We lost two solid right handers in O'Day and Melancon, and replaced them with..... nothing. Other than Luke,
the RH pen was a joke from day 1, and that caused an over reliance on the left handers: Newcomb with a history of control issues, Minter with
a history of inconsistency, and Smith. Even under the best circumstances, Newk and Minter are basically the same pitcher. Matzek was over-worked
early, and Smith has been Smith.
The lack of anything other than Luke from the right side has been the killer. No variety out of the pen.. just a parade of lefties with similar stuff
thrown out there time and time again. O'Day's delivery and Melancon gave our pen the diversity required to be effective. Only two losses, but
two huge losses that completely changed the outlook of our pen.
Some of us called it from day 1, before the 1st pitch was thrown. The weakness of the right handed side of the pen was going to be the teams
biggest issue.