Mulliniks’ Moustache #8 – The Bench; The Bullpen

A baseball team’s bench and bullpen are inexplicably and intrinsically linked. Backup position players and (in essence) backup pitchers. In many people’s brains, the bench and bullpen are mere afterthoughts. In reality, though, they play a large part in the fortunes of baseball teams.

Hell, even when a manager throws in the towel and calls on a position player to pitch an inning of mop-up duty during particularly terrible blowouts, he usually calls on a bench player (Jose Canseco notwithstanding) to ply his new trade and float batting-practice-perfected knuckleballs at seasoned major league hitters.

A major league baseball team’s bench is a motley crew of three to five not-quite-everyday-players that spend most of the season seated on – you guessed it – the bench, just waiting for a slow runner to get on base late in the game, or for an everyday player to require a sporadic day off.

We’re motoring towards the end of Spring Training, so as of this point, the 2014 Blue Jays version of The Bench is looking as such:

1. Back-up catcher (RA Dickey’s best friend Eric Kratz)
2. Back-up infielder (the Blue Jays $3-million man Maicer Izturis)
3. Back-up outfielder (out-of-options Moises Sierra)

Mulliniks’ Moustache #5 – Munenori Kawasaki

A lot of things changed for the Blue Jays on April 12, 2013.

Some will look at it as the unofficial end of the Blue Jays 2013 season, and some will see the start of a beautiful friendship. Or you can look at it as both.

The Blue Jays were struggling, sitting at 3-6. Sure, it was incredibly early in the marathon we call a professional baseball season, but given the expectations, 3-6 was woeful. I think 8-1 would have been a cause for concern for some. One of the few bright spots early in the season was the play of Jose Reyes. He came from the Florida Marlins in the huge off-season trade exactly as advertised – a prototypical leadoff man who played above-average defense.

On April 12, 2013, it happened. After driving in two runners with a base hit to put the Jays up by four runs, Reyes attempted an ill-advised steal of second base. He slid feet-first and rolled his ankle on an awkward-looking slide, immediately crumpled to the field at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City. The broadcast cut to commercial with Reyes in tears, being carted off the field. Out for three months. Poof. Season, in essence, over.

The next day, the Blue Jays called up everyone’s soon-to-be favourite Japanese backup middle infielder – The Diminutive Dynamo™, Munenori Kawasaki. And the rest, as they say, is history. The love affair had begun.