25 Brewers in 25 Days : Todd Coffey

At 6'4" and 240 pounds, pitcher Todd Coffey is a big guy. Which makes it that much more impressive that he sprints out of the bullpen to the mound when he enters the game., like he did in this video I took when I was at the Brewers/Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. Coffey started sprinting towards the mound when he was with AA Chattanooga in 2004. He was the next reliever scheduled to go in the game, and just as he finished his warmup, his team rallied and scored 8 runs. Coffey still went in the game, but after getting amped up then cooled down, he sprinted out to the mound to get amped up again. And he's been doing it ever since. At Miller Park they play the theme song used by former WWF wrestler The Ultimate Warrior, who also would sprint out of the warmup room and onto the stage. Then they started displaying a stopwatch clock (which looks oddly similar to the Starbucks Logo) that says "Coffey Time" on the video screen to record his time. The fastest I remember him getting to the mound was something like 12.86 seconds. Like I said, an incredible feat for a big guy. Coffey has become one of the most beloved players on the team, and when he enters the game, everyone stands and cheers. People used to only get this excited for the Klement's Sausage Races.

The Brewers claimed Coffey off of waivers from the Cincinnati Reds in September 2008, and he was instrumental in their playoff push. He gave up 0 runs in a little over 7 relief innings during the final weeks of the year, but since he was claimed off waivers in September he was not eligible for the postseason roster. So he couldn't help the Brewers in the playoffs. In retrospect that didn’t matter, because aside from Jeff Suppan, pitching wasn’t the problem in the NLDS, the offense (or lack thereof) was. But in 2009 Coffey was one of the most stable forces on the pitching staff, and he ended up pitching 83.2 innings in 78 games, had a 2.90 ERA, 4-4 record with 65 strikeouts. Coffey jokingly once said that he intended to pitch in all 162 games, but that is a physical impossibility. I don’t think even Superman’s arm could handle that kind of stress. But Todd Coffey did lead the entire NL in innings pitched by a reliever, and although he tired a little at the end, he was the most valuable member of that bullpen. Yes, even more valuable than Trevor Hoffman.

Todd Coffey was brought into so many situations. Since he is a groundball pitcher, there were a lot of times when he was brought in when there were 2 men on base and only 1 out. The thinking in this is to pitch to contact and hope the batter hits it to an infielder so they can turn the double play and get out of the inning. More times than not, this worked in the Brewers favor because Coffey always got the job done. He didn’t know how not to. He was also brought in earlier in the game to start an inning if the starter failed to go deep in the game. And then he sometimes served as the setup man to Trevor Hoffman. So on any given day you’d see Coffey pitching in the 5th-8th inning. And then when Hoffman was on the DL, he was closing out the 9th. It’s such a huge bonus to have a guy that versatile who is also effective, because like it or not, not every pitcher has the mentality to do that. It sounds easy, but I have seen with my own eyes countless examples where pitchers need stability in their given role.

In my opinion, Todd Coffey was the 2009 bullpen MVP, and I might even go so far as to give him the MVP of all Brewers pitchers. Yovani Gallardo takes that award for reasons already mentioned a few days ago. But Coffey finished 2nd. Unfortunately I think relievers don’t get the credit that they deserve. Relievers are expected to come into the game and not give up any runs, and the only time that you usually do notice them is when they struggle and give up runs. So that means that relievers have to be perfect or else they’ll be the fodder of talk radio and internet message boards, get booed in their own stadium and eventually might find themselves being run out of town. Life's tough as a reliever, which is why you see so many guys jumping from team to team year after year.

You never realize just how important a bullpen pitcher is until you desperately need them, such as least year when the starting rotation floundered and went belly-up. This year I hope that same thing doesn't happen, but if it does Todd Coffey will be ready and waiting to pitch as many innings as Ken Macha and Rick Peterson allows him to. But at least this year (at the start of the season at least) he will be surrounded by a couple of veteran arms and starters (like Dave Bush or Chris Narveson that are shuffled to the bullpen for depth) that he shouldn't have to sacrifice his right arm to the please the Baseball Gods. But I still expect Coffey to get more than his fair share of innings, especially if he puts up numbers like this:

2.75 ERA, 3-3 record, 78.2 innings pitched, 57 strikeouts, 11.95 seconds fastest sprint time to the mound and millions of fans knowing when it's Coffey Time.

Todd Coffey will have the most innings pitched among the relievers, but this next bullpen pitcher should have the fewest innings pitched (excluding players up for a short stint or September call-ups) because he is the lefty specialist Mitch Stetter. Stetter mainly faces lefties because he himself is a lefty and his sidearm delivery makes the ball sweep across the strike zone and out of the reach of the batter. When he's on, he can be devastating and a huge asset to the relieving corps. When he's off he gets rocked. The key for Stetter is whether or not he can be as effective against right-handers as well, but that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turnin' Up the Heat!

- pookon -

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