The state of the staff
Viva El Birdos — ... Related to the bullpen, perhaps someone out there can help me understand this. On Friday, we DFA’d Blaine Boyer – a guy we traded ...

Diamondbacks claim Blaine Boyer off waivers
AZ Snakepit — ... Catherine Herman reports [confirmed by Nick Piecoro] that the Diamondbacks have claimed pitcher Blaine Boyer off waivers from the Cardinals. He's nothing special - an ERA of 5.33 (ERA+ of 80) in 133.1 innings pitched for the Braves and Cardinals since his debut in 2005. Boyer started off the year with Atlanta, but was traded to St. Louis just a couple of weeks into the season - they designated him for assignment on June 4. I am wondering if this is just a short-term move, designed to tide the ...

Gameday Thread, #59: 6/9 vs. Giants
AZ Snakepit — ... Couple of roster moves to report in time for tonight's contest, both affecting the bullpen. As expected, Blaine Boyer arrived off waivers from the ...

Diamondbacks 4, Giants 9: Misery Loves Company
AZ Snakepit — ... was unscored upon in his first eighteen games for the Diamondbacks, in 2006-07. Given the hardly auspicious way Slaten's career has gone since that season, let's hope Zavada does a little better. We also got two innings from noobie Blaine Boyer, though his own fielding error led to an unearned run. ...

Diamondbacks 3, Astros 8: Billy Buckner is Yusmeiro Petit in disguise
AZ Snakepit — ... . A couple of those came in the sixth inning, as he loaded the bases with no-one out before getting pulled. Blaine Boyer came in to replace him, and allowed all three inherited runners to score. That has certainly been part of the problem for the Diamondbacks' bullpen: they have allowed 44% of them to cross home-plate, the worst figure in the NL [league average is only 32%]. ...

Diamondbacks 3, Mariners 7: Arizona are sub-Mariners once again
AZ Snakepit — ... really took control. scoring three more runs. Blaine Boyer allowed the first four batters he faced to reach base, albeit helped by an error from ...

Diamondbacks 3, Angels 12: Buckner puts AZ behind the eight-ball
AZ Snakepit — ... pitched 1.2 shutout innings, even stranding a couple of runners inherited from Blaine Boyer in the fifth. That extended his career-opening streak of games without an earned run to fifteen, covering 14.1 innings - the games, as noted by 'charmer yesterday, are now the sixth-best streak of all time. #5 is ...

Might these sorry looking snakes sport hidden venom?
Purple Row — ... regardless.  Their bullpen has the 28th worst ERA at 4.91, but that's a bit misleading, according to their 3.99 FIP and 4.11 tRA.  Do note, however, that closer Chad Qualls has blown three of his last five save opportunities, including one yesterday, part of a June with a 5.59 ERA.  Fangraphs claims Arizona pitchers are the 10th most valuable in the league, so they are indeed a threat. AJ Hinch's bullpen includes Qualls, Jon Rauch, Tony Pena, Blaine Boyer, Esmerling Vazquez, Juan Gutierrez, and lefties ...

Diamondbacks 0, Rockies 5: Arizona, good for whatever ails the opposition
AZ Snakepit — ... Max Scherzer pitched six innings, allowed six hits and a walk, and gave up five runs, though as noted above, two of those were unearned. The errors no doubt also contributed to him taking 101 pitches to get through the sixth. Of course, the bullpen were effective, Blaine Boyer and ...

Diamondbacks 11, Rockies 7: What a difference a day makes
AZ Snakepit — ... he walked two, both of which ended up scoring: that's eleven in only 19.1 innings, not what you want from a reliever. That cut the lead to two, and with Tony Peña ineffective, AJ Hinch had to turn to Chad Qualls for a four-out save. He ended the threat and got some more breathing room with a two-RBI hit from Lopez in the top of the ninth, then retired the Rockies 1-2-3 for his first save in more than three weeks. Mention should be made of the middle-inning relief: Blaine Boyer, Juan Gutierrez and Scott Schoeneweis ...

Diamondbacks Mid-Term Report Card
AZ Snakepit — ... we expect more out of Drew than Ojeda, say. If the overall marks seem somewhat high, this is because a number of players, some of whom had significant impact on team performance, could not be assigned grades. I'm being somewhat generous there, since in certain educational establishments, these would be automatic F's...   Sick notes: Conor Jackson, Brandon Webb.   Incomplete: Bryan Augenstein, Blaine Boyer, Alex Romero, Doug Slaten, Josh Whitesell. ...

Rox set to avenge pre-ASG series loss to Snakes
Purple Row — ... - 4.99/3.95/4.11.  Their pen has the greatest ERA/FIP split in the majors by a large margin.  We miss Haren, one of their only two starters worth fearing.  We do draw Scherzer, whom we beat July 3, as well as the reliably mediocre to below average Doug Davis and Jon Garland. After going through a rough patch, blowing three saves in five chances, Chad Qualls has converted four straight saves.  The large bullpen for AJ Hinch otherwise includes Blaine Boyer, Juan Gutierrez, Jon Rauch, Leo Rosales, ...

Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 10: No Magic for Doug 'Houdini' Davis Tonight
AZ Snakepit — ... The B-bullpen performed admirably tonight, giving up only two earned runs in their 5.2 innings of work - one from Blaine Boyer in the fourth, and a solo home run by Chris Ianetta off of ...

Diamondbacks 11, Pirates 4: Capt. Invincible Takes the Night Off
AZ Snakepit — ... Three hits and a walk for Reynolds. Two hit and a walk apiece for Drew and Upton - the former is 9-for-17 since returning to the lead-off spot, so seems quite happy there. A hit and two walks for Augie, a hit and a walk for Parra and Whitesell. The only position player who didn't score or drive in a run was Chris Young, who had a miserable night at the plate, going 0-for-5 with an ugly strikeout. Credit also goes to the bullpen: Blaine Boyer, ...

Diamondbacks 9 - Pirates 0: Yes, even the accidental emoticon formed in this title feels shocked for the absolute travesty that is the Pirates organization
AZ Snakepit — ... Up 5-0, most teams might relax a bit, but the Diamondbacks wisely poured it on to score two additional runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Blaine Boyer, to his credit, was brilliant and retired every batter he faced with out much effort. He scooped up a weak grounder from Pearce, and the game was over. Four game series won. ...

Part 4 of the D-Backs Deadline Possibilities: The Chad Qualls/Jon Rauch Trade Market
AZ Snakepit — ... has been solid, and Trevor Miller is an above-average LOOGY.  But for a team that put Blaine Boyer on waivers, the rest of their 'pen could really use some work, especially after also giving up ...

Diamondbacks 6, Mets 9 - Citi of Angels
AZ Snakepit — ... Blaine Boyer pitched two innings, giving up an "unearned" run, the result of his own throwing error. As IHSB pointed out, Boyer has now allowed twelve runs in 18.1 innings of work for us - however, only five of those have actually been earned. Allowing more unearned runs than earned is an impressive feat, given that overall in the league this year, 93% of runs have been earned. ...

That was the month that was: the Diamondbacks in July
AZ Snakepit — ... and Blaine Boyer combined for 41.1 innings at a 1.74 ERA clip in July - any of them deserve consideration. While Vasquez had the lowest ERA (1.08), Qualls gets it for a better WHIP, more innings and less reliance on BABIP. Five of his six saves were one-run games or had the tying run aboard when he entered. ...

Washington Nationals Win Seventh Straight, Beat Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2.
Federal Baseball — ... grounds to Adam Dunn at first, to Burnett covering. Stephen Drew grounds out too and it’s 5-2 DC at the stretch...Blaine Boyer, the old Braves’ reliever is on in relief. Sean Burnett K’s swinging when forced to bat. Nyjer Morgan grounds to first, and tries to get away from Josh Whitesell’s tag. Cristian Guzman grounds out to second to end the seventh.  ...

Washington Nationals Win Eighth-Straight, 9-2 Over Arizona Diamondback. PLUS: Cristian Guzman Claimed Off Waivers By Boston Red Sox.
Federal Baseball — ... takes over for Arizona. Alberto Gonzalez goes the other way with a line drive single to right. Mark Reynolds takes the out at first on a grounder from Guzman. Nyjer Morgan rips a single through second, Gonzalez scores to make it 6-2. Cristian Guzman pops up to center, and it’s falling fast. Morgan scores when it drops, 7-2 DC. Ryan Zimmerman singles to center, Guzman to second. Jorge Sosa gets down a sac bunt. Schoeneweis is done. Josh Willingham will face Blaine Boyer. The Hammer walks to load’em up for Dukes. Elijah Dukes ...

Game 118 Recap: Braves 9, Diamondbacks 4
Sports Page Atlanta — ... 1.  Blaine Boyer made his first appearance against Atlanta since being traded in early April.  He pitched one inning of scoreless relief, only allowing a walk, and striking out ...

Diamondbacks 4, Braves 9: Arizona has a case of the Mondays
AZ Snakepit — ... - and Reynolds still has more than a full quarter of this one left. At his current pace, Special K would hit 52 by the end of the year. That'd be a significant feat these days; since the introduction of mandatory random steroid testing in 2004, only three players in baseball have reached that total: Ryan Howard (58 in 2006), Alex Rodriguez (56, 2007) and David Ortiz (54, 2006). The bullpen pitched three hitless innings, in the form of Clay Zavada, Blaine Boyer and Esmerling Vasquez. Boyer has been a decent ...

Diamondbacks 11, Giants 0: "These go to eleven"
AZ Snakepit — ... and Blaine Boyer combined to allow only one base-runner, a single in the seventh, and Vasquez stranded that man at third after he reached there with one out. That was the closest the Giants came to scoring, though Petit left them loaded in the fourth, striking out Aaron Roward on three straight pitches, when the score was only 4-0. ...

Bud Norris gets shelled again, Astros shutout in process
The Crawfish Boxes — ... Absurd. Absurd. For some reason, as Blaine Boyer was closing the door in the ninth inning this song came to mind:   I don't think it really has any connection to the Astros, or baseball in general, although the melancholy lyrics and deliberate rhythms do sort of parallel our team's slide towards an irrelevant finish of the 2009 season.  

Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 3: Augie Ojeda puts out LA's fire
AZ Snakepit — ... It was around this point that the trade rumblings surrounding Garland began to surface, and I think most of our attention was focused on these through the seventh. It was until Upton got his 23rd home-run of the year, another no-doubter to left-center, that we noticed the game was still on. Fortunately, the bullpen had not been distracted by such trifles, with Blaine Boyer, ...

Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 4: More an AZ loss than an LA win
AZ Snakepit — ... Enter Clay Zavada, who walked in the go-ahead run. Aargh. that's been his Achilles heel all year, with 19 walks in 39.2 innings. However, Blaine Boyer continued his impressive run: coming in with the bases still loaded, he struck out Mandy on three straight fastballs [we enjoyed that!], and got a fly-ball for the final out. In 30.2 innings, his ERA is down to 2.05, and one wonders why the ...

August Rush: the Diamondbacks Heroes and Villains
AZ Snakepit — ... The B-bullpen [Esmerling Vasquez, Blaine Boyer, Juan Gutierrez] - 30.2 IP, 25 H, 10 BB, 19 K, 1.76 ERA ...

Arizona could be a tricky hurdle for Rox
Purple Row — ... Gutierrez is joined in the pen by lefties Daniel Schlereth and Clay Zavada as well as right handers Blaine Boyer, Bryan Augenstein, Daniel Cabrera, Kevin Mulvey, Leo Rosales and Esmerling Vasquez.  Despite the lack of name recognition there, only Vasquez has really been a negative in the pen.  The D:  C+ Arizona has been 2nd in MLB in errors for most of the season, and their 111 is no fluke.  However, their range is above average, at least by UZR, and ...

Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 5: ...and then the bullpen's shoe fell off.
AZ Snakepit — ... and Blaine Boyer combining to allow six hits and two walks in only two innings, leading to three earned runs. Vasquez was particularly poor: his long run of success ended abruptly after getting the first out, the next three hitters faced getting a walk, single and two-RBI double. That sound you hear was the ...

Gameday Thread, #141: 9/9 vs. Dodgers
AZ Snakepit — ... I'll be quite happy to see an L by his name tonight. I can't help feeling that we aren't necessarily trying too hard to "win" right now; things like the pattern of bullpen usage suggests we're trying out people to see how they cope with an eye to 2010, rather than who might give us the best chance of winning a game in 2009. Normally, a 'save situation' in the eighth would probably be turned over to Juan Gutierrez, but he never appeared - instead, the unholy cocktail of Blaine Boyer, Daniel Schlereth and Esmerling Vasquez got to ...

That's not a rattler - it's just a little garter snake
Purple Row — ... Gutierrez is joined in the pen by lefties Daniel Schlereth, Scott Schoeneweis and Clay Zavada as well as right handers Blaine Boyer, Bryan Augenstein, Daniel Cabrera, Leo Rosales, Yusmeiro Petit and Esmerling Vasquez.    The D:  C+ Arizona has been 2nd in MLB in errors for most of the season, and they sit eight behind Washington's league high 124.  UZR-wise, their season-long range marks grade out above average, as they are ...

Diamondbacks 4, Giants 5: Another One Gets Thrown Away
AZ Snakepit — ... into tied games. However, tonight, his confidence in both men proved justified: they posted scoreless sixth and seventh innings, and were joined on the zero front by Blaine Boyer's ninth. Young had two hits and a walk from the leadoff spot, while Roberts had a pair of hits before his unfortunate departure from the game [fortunately, it's only a mild ankle-sprain, and he's day-to-day]. Reynolds had a walk in addition to his homer, and ...

Diamondbacks 2, Giant Pandas 5: Alright that's the season
AZ Snakepit — ... With the score now 3-2 going into the top of the seventh, a comeback seemed attainable. The Giants, Blaine Boyer, and Ryal all had different plans, however. Boyer would trade two outs with a single to ...

Max Scherzer - Starter or Closer?
AZ Snakepit — ... a significant factor in his 1BABIP being 21 points higher than his BABIP not including the first-innings of each of his starts.  Given the overall small number of starts for 1ERA to be affected, the fact that he had such a significant streak of bad luck resulting in a very bad month of first-innings had a significant impact on the overall outlook of his numbers.  And even with this going against him, Scherzer's 1ERA+ of 131 is lower than all but, surprisingly enough, Blaine Boyer's 159 ERA+ (since his arrival in Arizona, overall on the ...

Cubs, Gorzelanny Lose Ugly To Diamondbacks, 12-3
Bleed Cubbie Blue — ... and reliever Blaine Boyer in the seventh, but that was all on a day when some off-and-on showers that didn't even show up on radar screens dotted the ballpark. It seemed a fitting way to say farewell to a rainy season. ...

Diamondbacks 12, Cubs 3: Can we play Chicago every day?
AZ Snakepit — ... A walk to load the bases with one out signalled the end of Buckner, and it was still a quality start, even though his replacement Blaine Boyer gave up an RBI single and RBI groundout. Buckner's final line was a credible 6.1 innings of work, resulting in three earned runs on six hits and four walks, with five K's. Behind him, Boyer, ...

The 2009 Diamondbacks Season, Part IV: The Eighth-inning Retch
AZ Snakepit — ... and Peña were the main workhorses, combining for 38.2% of the plate-appearances. Rauch was substantially the least effective of the trio, with an .820 OPS against, compared to .744 for Gutierrez and a very-impressive line from Vasquez, .181/ .298/.236. That's a .534 OPS, with no home-runs and three extra-base hits in 72 at-bats. At the other end of the spectrum, two whose numbers stood out in a bad way: Blaine Boyer and ...

Your 2010 Diamondbacks: The First Projections
AZ Snakepit — ... IP W-L ERA 2009 Blaine Boyer 57 3-4 4.74 4.12 Billy Buckner 94 ...

This Week in AZ Baseball: prospects injury news, winter ball report and a "to-do" list.
AZ Snakepit — ... , we have the makings of a fairly-solid bullpen, and you can add Blaine Boyer, who was very impressive in his time with us, or possibly even ...

The 2009 Diamondbacks Season, Part V: The Bullpen
AZ Snakepit — ... (FIP 3.92) and Blaine Boyer (3.34), both of which make sense. Zavada certainly benefited from the lucky scoreless streak which opened his career - his ERA the rest of the way was 5.34. And Boyer is obviously not the 2.68 ERA pitcher he was with Arizona: if he was anything like that, the ...

The 2009 Diamondbacks Season, Part VI: Defense
AZ Snakepit — ... was just behind, committing four, but especially notable was Blaine Boyer, who had three errors in only nine chances. At the other end, ...

This Week (and a bit) in Diamondbacks Baseball: Silver Sluggers, relevance and we back Buckner
AZ Snakepit — ... in the ranks of supporters of this splendid reference site, alongside a couple of other posters here. But who should we pick? The ones available were somewhat limited, especially among the position players - we could get John Hester for $15, and that was about it. Fortunately, things were a little more open on the pitching side. Though all the big names were locked up, we could still get Kevin Mulvey ($10), Bryan Augenstein ($5), Leo Rosales ($5), Blaine Boyer ($10) or Esmerling Vasquez ($5). However, in the end, ...

Rule 5: You do talk about the Rule 5 draft
Viva El Birdos — ... or Blaine Boyer; and most of the time it would be completely absurd to spend time thinking about this. Fangraphs won't return my calls, but according to my new WARP/seconds-in-your-limited-lifespan converter most of these guys peak around fifteen, twenty seconds. ( ...

Braves 2009 Season in Review: Middle Relief
Sports Page Atlanta — ... The most striking thing about the 2009 middle relief crew was how fast the team was to make a change early in the year. The Braves hadn't broke camp a week when they released Blaine Boyer after two (out of three) disastrous outings. Blaine bounced around the rest of the season, ultimately finding some success (or luck) in Arizona. The Braves were also quick to cut ties with ...

Braves 2009 Season in Review: Middle Relief
Talking Chop — ... The most striking thing about the 2009 middle relief crew was how fast the team was to make a change early in the year. The Braves hadn't broke camp a week when they released Blaine Boyer after two (out of three) disastrous outings. Blaine bounced around the rest of the season, ultimately finding some success (or luck) in Arizona. The Braves were also quick to cut ties with ...

Braves Add Five Players to 40-Man Roster
Talking Chop — ... Lee Hyde and Jeff Lyman will be reviewed today and tomorrow respectively here as Talking Chop presents our top-10 Braves minor league relievers. I'm a personal fan of Hyde, and I think he'll be a solid bullpen contributor in a year or so. Lyman seems to be following the Blaine Boyer track, and Coffield and Venters could be on that starter to reliever track as well. Ortegano was ranked last week as the Braves third-best left-handed starting pitching prospect, and you can read a review ...

Braves Add Five Players to 40-Man Roster
Sports Page Atlanta — ... Lee Hyde and Jeff Lyman will be reviewed today and tomorrow respectively here as Talking Chop presents our top-10 Braves minor league relievers. I'm a personal fan of Hyde, and I think he'll be a solid bullpen contributor in a year or so. Lyman seems to be following the Blaine Boyer track, and Coffield and Venters could be on that starter to reliever track as well. Ortegano was ranked last week as the Braves third-best left-handed starting pitching prospect, and you can read a review ...