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Bullpen of Hate




Today, we're bringing you my bullpen of hate. This one is tough because for me bad relievers tend to be more forgettable than hated. I don't have a burning Manny Lee-type of loathing for dudes in the arm barn. That being said, we need a full hateable roster so we're going to do this.

One caveat to the bullpen of hate. We're not going with a modern-day 8-9 man bullpen. Like I said, I don't hate most of these guys enough and I want a nice deep bench full of hateable guys. Since I'm still stuck in the 90s most of the time anyway, let's go with a nice manageable 6-man bullpen. That gives us 11 pitchers total and if we go with a 25 man roster, a 5 man bench. Let's get hatin'!

Closer: Randy Myers. We got the sad late career Myers who was a total dumpster fire. I loved the Cincinatti Reds Nasty Boys in 1990 (mostly because they beat the Oakland "Bash Brothers" A's) but the Randy Myers we got was not the one from Cincinnati. Yet again, another Gord Ash signature bonehead move to pick up this guy, but his placing him on waivers to get him claimed by the Padres was almost a stroke of genius from old Gord.

LHP setup man: This one is going to be a total shock for any of you who know my brand. You would think I would love a LHP named Dan and normally you would be right. This dirty dog, however, breaks all my rules. I present to you Dan Plesac. Plesac was an effective reliever, for the Milwaukee Brewers. For some of youngsters around here who don't remember the 80s-early 90s Brewers, the Brew Crew were like the Tampa Bay Rays of that time. A perennial thorn in the side of the Jays and Plesac was one of their main culprits. However, the Plesac we got was not the Brewers Plesac. We got a significantly reduced version. This guy I truly hated. Fun bonus hate fact: The 1997 cursed team had one bright spot, its bullpen. Guess who the least effective regular in that pen was? Yep, good old Danny Boy.

RHP setup man: Kevin Gregg. This goofy looking guy was a pure terror to watch. The underlying numbers don't look so bad, but he was a top-stepper of the highest order. A top-stepper is a guy who has everyone on the top step of the dugout because they're watching nervously afraid their pitcher is going to blow it. Watching Gregggg tiptoe between the raindrops was horrible. At least AA turned his one terror-inducing season into a comp pick. What's that? The comp pick was Kevin Comer? Son of a ....................

RHP middle reliever: Let's turn to some relievers of a more recent vintage. First I present the Human Rain Delay, Rafael Dolis. Dolis pitched so slow, he made Jason Frasor look like Mark Beuhrle. In addition to his slow pace, Dolis loved to rack up full counts. I would deliberately go do other stuff during Dolis' innings because I knew I wouldn't miss much. I swear I made a full dinner once and he only got through two batters.

Swingman: Every good Bullpen of Hate needs a guy who is neither good at starting nor relieving. An Anti-Ross Stripling if you will. For this role, I present to you, Shun Yamaguchi. Woof, the 2020 pen was bad. For all the smack talk of Atkins' bullpen building at least he's made improvement since then.

One last RHP middle reliever: Shawn Camp. Don't ask me why because I can't really explain it but I hated Camp. I don't know if it was his huge ears or clueless expression but I hated watching this guy. He was usually ok but I think I also saw a lot of his worst outings.

Next time: The Bench of Hate

Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.