Baseball’s best bullpens: Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers

Last night the Yankees paired the best closer of all time with the best closer in baseball last year. Only one other team has a comparable one-two punch: the Red Sox.

I’d also add the Tigers to this best bullpen in the game discussion with their addition of Joaquin Benoit, who posted a 1.34 ERA for the Rays last season.

Yankees	Red Sox	Tigers
Mariano Rivera	Jonathan Papelbon	Jose Valverde
Rafael Soriano	Daniel Bard	Joaquin Benoit
David Robertson	Dan Wheeler	Joel Zumaya
Pedro Feliciano	Hideki Okajima	Daniel Schlereth
Joba Chamberlain	Bobby Jenks	Ryan Perry

Yankees lose tight one to Tigers, A-Rod & Swish exit early

It was not a positive way to start the week for the Yankees, as they lost a heartbreaker to the Tigers, 3-1, as well as their All-Star third baseman and right fielder.

Best of All: Not much here. The run they scored in the ninth was gift-wrapped by Detroit closer Jose Valverde. He walked four in the inning but escaped when Derek Jeter grounded into a game-ending, 6-4-3 double play.

Oh! Excuse me, Curtis Granderson gave you a reason to smile. He had three of the Yankees’ six hits, including a single in the ninth and a double off lefty, ex-Yank Phil Coke in the seventh.

Worst of All: Where did the Yankee bats go? They were a couple outs away from getting shut out twice in a row.

Javier Vazquez worked his way out of a lot of trouble, but had to leave after four innings because of a high pitch count.

Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher left the game early and both are day-to-day.

Coming Up: There is a great matchup in the Bronx Tuesday night with two tall flamethrowers dueling. Justin Verlander vs. CC Sabathia.

Reviewing today's notable deals

One of the least talented and slowest moving free agent markets in a long while saw a few deals get done today. Most should interest Yankees fans.

• Melky Cabrera avoided arbitration with the Braves and agreed to a one-year, $3.1 million deal - more than double what he made with the Yankees last year. The Braves could be starting an all '09 Yankees outfield this season. That's Eric Hinske in right, Cabrera in center and Johnny Damon in left.
  
• Jose Valverde finally signed with the Tigers. He'll make $14MM over two years with a $9MM option. Some Yankees fans speculated he could be Mariano Rivera's setup man this year. He certainly would have helped the Yankees' bullpen, but the Yankees seem to have Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes chalked up for that role.
• Josh Johnson of the Marlins got a big payday. Four years, $39 million, to be exact. And that's after Major League Baseball and the players' union encouraged them to spend more revenue-sharing money. Johnson was discussed in a lot of Yankees forums/comment sections as possibly the next big move for the Yanks. He's one of baseball's premier pitchers and he's about to turn 26.
• Hideki Okajima avoided arbitration with the Red Sox and will earn $2.75 million plus bonuses in 2010. The Yankees have hit him pretty hard in the past (14 ER in 22-1/3 IP).
• Adam LaRoche agreed to a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks worth $4.5 million. He briefly saw some time with the Red Sox last season and then was traded back to the Braves to finish out the year. LaRoche is a very durable player who averages 26 homers and 91 RBIs in 162 games.