The Indians seem to have played a lot of extra-inning games lately, and by lately I mean "ever since that four-game series with the Twins in which three of the games went into extras". Last night they beat San Diego with two dinky runs in the top of the 11th. This got me to wondering just how much extra work the bullpen has had to endure. So here's a summary of the team's innings pitched over the last fourteen games (IP will have to suffice since I don't have the patience to add up pitch counts):

• 5/23 - Elarton 5.1, bullpen 3.2
• 5/24 - Westbrook 6.0, bullpen 5.0 (extra innings)
• 5/25 - Millwood 4.2, bullpen 5.1 (extra innings)
• 5/26 - Sabathia 8.2, bullpen 2.1 (extra innings)
• 5/27 - Lee 6.0, bullpen 3.0
• 5/28 - Elarton 6.0, bullpen 3.0
• 5/29 - Westbrook 7.0, bullpen 2.0
• 5/30 - DAY OF REST
• 5/31 - Sabathia 7.2, bullpen 1.1
• 6/01 - Lee 5.0, bullpen 3.0
• 6/02 - Elarton 7.0, bullpen 5.2 (extra innings)
• 6/03 - Westbrook 7.0, bullpen 1.0
• 6/04 - Davis 4.2, bullpen 3.1
• 6/05 - Sabathia 6.2, bullpen 5.1 (extra innings)
• 6/06 - DAY OF REST
• 6/07 - Lee 7.0, bullpen 4.0 (extra innings)

Now, I don't particularly have a point, but what we can learn from this information is that in spite of all the extra innings, the bullpen has not necessarily been overworked. Well, maybe just a little. They've covered 48 innings in 14 days, or about 3.5 innings per day. That's counting off days, though, which have helped. Basically, each reliever is being asked to pitch 3 innings a week. Is that normal? It seems reasonable to me.

One point I do want to make is that, when you have the best bullpen in all baseball, as the Indians do, perhaps you want your bullpen to carry a higher-than-usual percentage of the workload. I suspect that with today's "convential wisdom", bullpens that shoulder higher workloads do so because their starting pitchers are bad, not because the bullpens themselves are good. In other words, it's blasphemy for a manager to go to the bullpen early without needing to. The Indians' starting pitchers are good, for the most part. But does that mean they must be left in the game for the requisite 100 or so pitches every time out? I'm just asking; not suggesting one way or the other. By getting into a lot of extra-inning games lately the Indians have made it a moot point anyway.

A quick note about the MLB draft. I can't pretend to know anything about any of the individuals players the Indians selected yesterday. I can't even pretend to be able to infer anything about them from their statistics. And there are very few sources whose analysis I trust--certainly not MLB.com. Just about the only thing I can judge about the Indians' draft picks is the type of player they are (college vs. high school, pitcher vs. hitter, tools vs. performance, etc.). That and whether or not they have a cool, obscure, or hilarious name. In the first regard, I feel the Indians did a good job, and I'm excited to see they targeted a lot of slugging types. In the second regard, I'm slightly disappointed, as the Indians nabbed only Nicholas Weglarz (from Canada) and a few borderline guys, while the rest of the teams scooped up the likes of Thomas Italiano (A's), William Startup (Braves), Zachary Zuercher (Cardinals) and so on.

12:45 PM post script: If you are a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, read Nate Silver's column today for the most level-headed and insightful analysis of the 2005 Indians I have yet seen.