Quis Custodiet Ipsos Bullpen?

Nationals 3 - Marlins 1

Did you know there is no particularly good Latin transliteration for bullpen or relief pitcher? No wonder it's a dead language. Yes, NTP Dave and I saw Watchmen last week. Like most things it was neither as bad as I'd feared nor as good as I'd hoped. Taking visuals directly from a graphic novel works pretty well in most cases; directly importing dialogue... not so much.

Shawn Hill actually pitched a (reportedly pain-free) inning, J.Z. followed with a 4-inning Encore performance, and the much-maligned bullpen managed to hold it together the rest of the way. (Box Score)

Lastings Milledge went 3-4 and paced a cobbled together offensive attack that managed to turn 12 hits into just 3 runs. Anderson Hernandez had a pair of hits, as did Corey "Why is this guy taking ABs away from J-Max, Bernadina and Langerhans?" Patterson. The scare of the day came when Cristian Guzman left the game early with "a cut on his left little toe." So now you know about Guzmania's Achilles Toe.

As for the bullpen, apart from today's rousing success they've been, shall we say, less than competent. In the abstract that's worrisome, but my concern is tempered by two factors:

First, if we've actually reached the point where the bullpen is a bigger issue than the rotation, the lineup, the bench, the coaches, the front office and the owners, that represents major progress for this franchise; and

Second, I just have to believe they'll be able to assemble Hanrahan, Rivera, Colome, Bergmann, Young, Mock, Julian "J-Lo" Tavarez and one or two anonymous lefties into a servicable 6 0r 7-man bullpen. I mean, we're talking relief pitchers here, not the staff of the Manhattan Project.

Speaking of rocket scientists, Tavarez's comments were undoubtedly offensive to club-goers, BBW, Jennifer Lopez, alcoholics and a wide range of other interest groups, but as I can't disagree with him on the merits, I have nothing else to add.

Honorary 25-man roster spots go to: Blastings Thrilledge and Zimmermann (again).