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First Pitch: Breaking Down the Problems With the Pirates’ Bullpen

The entire Pirates pitching staff has been a problem this year. I’ve written about this a few times over the last week. But tonight, I wanted to take a deeper look at the bullpen, specifically the middle relief.

Neal Huntington has received plenty of criticism for his approach to building the pitching staff this off-season. But one area where the pitching looked like a strength was the bullpen. He decided to keep Mark Melancon, returning a late inning relief combo of Melancon and Tony Watson that had been one of the best bullpen combos in baseball in recent years.