The Cardinals’ bullpen is still settling in, and because of the young arms the pen will remain a work in progress for a while. Recent performances have been encouraging. And it’s worth pointing out — and I know that to some analysts saves are an empty and misleading stat — that the Cardinals are the only NL team without a blown save so far. The St. Louis bullpen ERA (not counting the non-pitchers who threw three innings Saturday), is a solid 3.05. So even though there are concerns, things could be worse, much worse…. take a look at some of the early returns in the NL. The Cubs’ pen, tagged for 6 losses already, has converted only 3 of 7 save opps, and has a 6.10 ERA. The Cubs clearly miss their injured setup man designate, Angel Guzman… Milwaukee relievers have saved 3 of 8 and have a 5.77 ERA … the LA Dodgers’ pen has four losses, has saved 1 of 3, and the ERA if 5.93 … and then there’s the Cardinals’ current opponent, Arizona. The Diamondbacks have blown six saves in seven attempts and have a bullpen ERA of 6.81. So things aren’t so bad in that St. Louis bullpen …if you want a metric on this, the STL bullpen ranks 2nd in the NL (among 16 teams) in Win Probability Added. That’s outstanding.
-BM