Well folks, it is almost that time of the year for the baseball players to dust off their gloves, or in most of their cases, take the new glove out of the plastic and break it in. It is also that time to start looking ahead to the 2007 Major League Baseball Season. I came across something interesting in the Sporting News magazine that I get weekly. It is a look at the bullpens of the American League and the National League. The part about that I thought was cool was that they listed the guys in each bullpen with how many flame throwers (95+ MPH) they have. For example, the five guys they have listed from the Chicago White Sox are all flame throwers.
Note: The rankings may be different now for the National League as Mike Gonzalez of the Pittsburgh Pirates was traded to the Atlanta Braves.
Technorati: American League, MLB, National League
Here now I present to you the Sporting News rankings for each the American and National Leagues. The pitchers who throw over 95 mph are in orange.
| American League | National League |
|---|---|
| 1. Minnesota Twins | 1. Pittsburgh Pirates |
| Joe Nathan |
Mike Gonzalez |
| Juan Rincon | Salomon Torres |
|
Jesse Crain |
John Grabow |
| Pat Neshnek | Matt Capps |
| Dennys Reyes | Damaso Marte |
| 2. Los Angeles Angels | 2. New York Mets |
| Francisco Rodriguez | Billy Wagner |
| Scot Shields | Aaron Heilman |
| Justin Speier | Duaner Sanchez |
| Darren Oliver | Scott Schoeneweis |
| Hector Carrasco | Ambiorix Burgos |
| 3. New York Yankees | 3. San Diego Padres |
| Mariano Rivera | Trevor Hoffman |
| Kyle Farnsworth | Scott Linebrink |
| Mike Myers | Cla Meredith |
| Luis Vizcaino | Heath Bell |
| Scott Proctor | Royce Ring |
| 4.Chicago White Sox | 4. Los Angeles Dodgers |
| Bobby Jenks | Takashi Saito |
| Mike MacDougal | Jonathan Broxton |
| Matt Thornton | Brett Tomko |
| David Aardsma | Elmer Dessens |
| Andrew Sisco | Joe Beimel |
| 5. Detroit Tigers | 5. Milwaukee Brewers |
| Todd Jones | Francisco Cordero |
| Joel Zumaya | Derrick Turnbow |
| Francisco Rodney | Jose Capellan |
| Jose Mesa | Matt Wise |
| Wilfredo Ledezma | Brian Shouse |
| 6. Toronto Blue Jays | 6. St. Louis Cardinals |
| B.J. Ryan | Jason Isringhausen |
| Brandon League | Braden Looper |
| Jason Frasor | John Kinney |
| Jeremy Accardo | Randy Flores |
| Scott Downs | Tyler Johnson |
| 7. Oakland Athletics | 7. Houston Astros |
| Huston Street | Brad Lidge |
| Justin Duchscherer | Dan Wheeler |
| Kiko Calero | Chad Qualls |
| Chad Guadin | Dave Borkowski |
| Alan Embree | Trever Miller |
| 8. Baltimore Orioles | 8. Atlanta Braves |
| Chris Ray | Bob Wickman |
| Danys Baez | Rafael Soriano |
| Jaime Walker | Tyler Yates |
| Chad Bradford | Macay McBride |
| Scott Williamson | Chad Paronto |
| 9. Texas Rangers | 9. Chicago Cubs |
| Eric Gagne | Ryan Dempster |
| Akinori Otsuka | Bob Howry |
| Rick Bauer | Scott Eyre |
| C.J. Wilson | Neal Cotts |
| Ron Mahay | Will Ohman |
| 10. Boston Red Sox | 10. Washington Nationals |
| Joel Pinero | Chad Cordero |
| Mike Timlin | Jon Rauch |
| Brendan Donnelly | Luis Ayala |
| Julian Tavarez | Ryan Wagner |
| J.C. Romero | Ray King |
| 11. Cleveland Indians | 11. Colorado Rockies |
| Keith Foulke | Brian Fuentes |
| Joe Borowski | LaTroy Hawkins |
| Roberto Hernandez | Jeremy Affeldt |
| Rafael Betancourt | Ramon Ramirez |
| Aaron Fultz | Manny Corpas |
| 12. Seattle Mariners | 12. Philadelphia Phillies |
| J.J. Putz | Tom Gordon |
| Chris Reitsma | Geoff Geary |
| George Sherill | Ryan Madson |
| Julio Mateo | Matt Smith |
| Jon Huber | Fabio Castro |
| 13. Kansas City Royals | 13. Arizona Diamondbacks |
| Octavio Dotel | Jose Valverde |
| David Riske | Brandon Lyon |
| Jimmy Gobble | Tony Pena |
| John Bale | Jorge Julio |
| Joel Peralta | Doug Slaten |
| 14. Tampa Bay Devil Rays | 14. San Francisco Giants |
| Seth McClung | Armando Benitez |
| Dan Miceli | Brian Wilson |
| Ruddy Lugo | Steve Kline |
| Shawn Camp | Kevin Correia |
| Tim Corcoran | Jack Taschner |
| 15. Cincinnati Reds | |
| David Weathers | |
| Todd Coffey | |
| Mike Stanton | |
| Gary Majewski | |
| Bill Bray | |
| 16. Florida Marlins | |
| Taylor Tankersley | |
| Matt Lindstrom | |
| Renyel Pinto | |
| Kevin Gregg | |
| Sergio Mitre |
