By Peter Valentino

A lot of Mets fans were disappointed in the returns on the trades made in July and August of this year. Essentially every trade return was some level of relieving prospect and while most Mets fans were underwhelmed with this, and I’m more annoyed with the Mets going with the main way that most of the actually awful teams stay competitive. There’s a reason why the Angels were in the wild card conversation until this week. There’s no real way to define this term for how to make an average team good for about one year, but my friend was telling me last year how the Orioles were good last year, and he used the phrase “Bombs and Bullpen.” This “Bombs and Bullpen” method is a quick way for small market teams to be good for one year, but it’s not entirely successful in the entirety of the rebuild.

There are some perks to the “Bombs and Bullpen” method. The main concept behind it is to pick up guys who can hit a lot of home runs and spend some money on good bullpen pieces, along with hoping that the rotation is competent. So essentially, there is no money spent on ace relievers and the team is able to hold leads while getting runs often. Teams that did this were the 2016 Orioles, relying on the power in their lineup and Brad Brach and Zach Britton in the bullpen, and this year the Angels. There were a few others that tried, and weren’t as successful.

Another aspect to this is the increase in home runs across the league, beating the record from last year halfway through September. It’s become easier to hit home runs, so the power isn’t entirely at a premium as it is in past season. That’s even less money being spent. The team can still tank, but can have a season of promise in the middle of it.

The problem with this lies in the concept of tanking. Take the Orioles, for example. The team’s rotation has been awful for a long time, and while the team is small market, they haven’t spent a dime on an ace in years. So while the team has been meddling in mediocrity since winning the AL East in 2014, the team stays relevant by hitting bombs occasionally and having the bullpen hold the lead when they have it. It’s kept them in contention for three years and got them in the playoffs in 2016, but the team clearly isn’t in the World Series conversation. Looking at the Angels this year, the team has the best player in baseball in Trout, but have an even worse rotation than Baltimore and have a pretty no-name bullpen. Overall, having good seasons stunts the growth of the team by screwing up their rebuild. The team’s draft position falls and the fan base is given false hope in how far the team has come. It’s generally the team’s lazy way of being successful for usually one year to put butts in the seats to watch a team win that doesn’t have a chance of winning the World Series.

Some small market teams use it when they need to, but overall, it’s not the best way to be successful long-term.