I am not happy he’s a reliever. I’m still waiting on them to make Abreu a starter. At any rate I’m excited to see it and I’d put him into the 8th inning role (or 7th leverage if it’s a pocket of all RHH) and see what happens. And to piggyback on @Buck Turgidson, throw strikes *******.
King is settled and effective as the setup man. They need a leverage righty to complement Hader and King and it’s possible they think Ullola can meet the moment, especially since De Los Santos appears to be waning and Blubaugh seems more fit for multi inning middle relief than single inning leverage. But it could also just be that they want to reward Ullola for taking so smoothly/quickly to relief and need a fresh arm because they burned the pen today.
Sure. I was saying 8th because we could go LRL which seems valuable with it being 7th if it’s all RHH but we are on the same page I think.
I have always thought he belonged in the pen. I would start him out as a sixth inning guy and try to get two, maybe three innings out of him.
Thank God we need backup. De Los Santos and Teng are both trending in the wrong direction. Both of their ERAs are going to be approaching 5.0 soon which is not tenable for this lineup.
Please just use him for an inning at a time. He will focus better and he can dial up his fastball another 2-3 mph. I know everyone dreams of getting more than an inning out of guys in the pen, but when you have someone with high end stuff use him for an inning unless it’s a playoff scenario.
As a starter he was generally in the 92-95 range topping out at 96.8. As a reliever he's generally been in the 95-97 range topping out at 98.7. His fastball velo was down in his last appearance though. Just click on his name and you will see every 4 seamer he has thrown. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast-search-minors?hfPT=FF|&hfGT=R|&hfSea=2026|&player_type=pitcher&hfTeam=5434|&hfFlag=is\.\.tracked|&group_by=name&min_pitches=0&min_results=0&min_pas=0&sort_col=pitches&sort_order=desc&chk_is..tracked=on#results
This sounds like the definition of a once through the order pitcher. Sometimes it's the first three innings. Sometimes it's a long reliever.
I hope Ullola and Santa (along with Blubaugh) can somehow give the front office enough confidence to keep them up for the 2nd half. Hader, King, Okert, Blubaugh, Teng, Ullola, Santa leaves 1 bullpen spot. Find someone to just take Abreu's salary in exchange for a Hail Mary that he may he good for the stretch run. Trade De Los Santos and Pearson for lottery tickets. Brown, Imai, and Lambert are in rotation. Javier and McCullers are in rotation or long relief if/when healthy. That leaves 1 spot from Arrighetti, Blanco, and Burrows who all have options. The other two join Gordon and VanWey in AAA as injury or fresh arm insurance. * Sousa's injury was not to his arm. The timetable is right for a rehab and last report he was throwing. It is very likely he is back before August.
