We’ve already looked at the infield, the outfield, and the starting rotation.
Heath Bell
Heath Bell has taken over Trevor Hoffman’s closer role about as seamlessly as one could hope for. Acquired in late 2006 from the Mets (with Royce Ring, for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins), last year was arguably Bell’s finest season to date.
His strikeout rate rose to a career-high 11.1 per nine, while he surrendered just one home run in 70 innings of work. Bell’s career strikeout-to-walk ratio is just over three, which is terrific, but his greatest asset may be home runs allowed.
In his Padres career, Bell has allowed just 12 homers in 311.3 innings. Bell gets a grounder nearly 50% of the time and when he does allow a fly ball it only leaves the park eight percent of the time.
Bell wants to stay in San Diego long-term, and potentially at a discount. It’ll always be a bit dangerous locking up a mid-thirties reliever to a lengthy, high priced deal. But if the price is right, there’s no reason the P...
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