New York Yankees – They’re still publicly looked at as a bad relief corps aside from Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera. Perhaps some even recognize Brian Bruney as a quality set-up man but the average fan or bettor does not likely do so. Sure the Yankees’ 21st-ranked bullpen ERA could be used to back that opinion and the seven blown saves already this season could be interpreted as a chink in the almost 40-year old Rivera’s armor but I’m looking at this as a bullpen now on the rise. A lot of overall statistical categories in MLB become skewed by the poor performances of a few and bullpen numbers are no different. For New York, there are now four solid arms stepping to the forefront in Alfredo Aceves, Phil Hughes, Brian Bruney and of course Rivera.  The past 15 days, this quartet has been nearly untouchable. All tolled, since the 14th of June, they have made a combined 18 appearances and worked 21.2 innings. During this span, they’ve recorded a 23-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing only 14 base runners and one run for a WHIP of 0.65 and an ERA of 0.42. Certainly helping this relief corps turn around its poor start to the season is the starting rotation, which has recorded eight quality starts in their 13 games beginning June 14th. As the summer progresses, if high dollar free agents C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett gain seven-inning consistency, Andy Pettitte stays steady and Chien-Ming Wang keeps improving, the bullpen will be a force. It’s a fact of baseball that strong starting pitching can make a bullpen a couple notches better than it really is. No team drove that point home more than the Oakland A’s during the early to middle part of the decade. As for the current Yankees situation, they look like a team with a bullpen that can now be considered formidable. In their upcoming pair of series this week against the quality pens of Seattle and Toronto, figure New York to hold their own. A month ago this bullpen would have been handicapped as a solid underdog against these teams in innings seven through nine but the Yanks should now be looked at as a slight favorite in that situation over both the Mariners and Blue Jays.

Arizona – There is no bullpen in baseball right now that is a larger detriment to their team than this Diamondbacks group. Even the miserable relief units of Washington and Cleveland show more promise right now than Arizona. It’s almost unbelievable to know that this team has notched just one hold and one save over the past three weeks. Yes, they’ve only had five wins during that frame and yes only one of those wins was a situation where a save could be achieved but this group has lost four games and blown a pair of saves during this time frame. They are not in a position to turn things around anytime soon so continue to acknowledge them as a substantial underdog in the late innings of any contest where you may handicap the score being close after six this week against Cincinnati and Colorado.