The Cleveland Indians’ bullpen has been a bit of a problem this year. While its collective earned run average of 3.28 puts it as the seventh best in baseball, ERA estimators view it as being a lot more average. This is a bullpen that is fairly good at preventing runners from reaching base but routinely lucks out with unsustainable batted ball rates. A closer inspection yields a glaring fact: some of the relievers have pitched terribly and others simply should not be in the major leagues.
Take Bryan Shaw for example. Formerly a mainstay of the ‘pen’s backend, he currently has an ERA up around five and a FIP above that mark.