Felipe Paulino OffTo A Surprising Start

Unless you were a fan of the Royals or Rockies, the news that the Royals had traded setup man Robinson Tejeda to the Rockies for reliever Felipe Paulino probably fell off your radar. That's reasonable given that Tejeda has spent essentially the entirety of 2011 either ineffective or on the disabled list. Still, that the Royals were willing to part with someone who provided 2.1 WAR out of the bullpen the past two seasons came as a bit of a surprise to me. That they were willing to give him up for someone with a career 5.53 ERA perhaps was more surprising still.

Paulino however, was an extremely interesting acquisition. A live arm who has averaged 95.4mph with his fastball since reaching the Majors at 24 years old back in 2007 with the Astros, he pairs that exceptional heat with a very good slider, a curve and a change. Beyond the raw stuff, he's posted solid peripherals, with a career K rate of 8.00 and a GB rate just shy of 45%. However like many power pitchers, he's struggled with his command, walking 3.73 per nine innings. In all, that's a solid package of raw stuff and strong rate metrics.

Robinson Tejeda Loses His Setup Role

Entering this season, Robinson Tejeda figured to be one of the few known quantities in a Royals bullpen that had gotten shelled in 2010. The team figured to look to some young arms to help round out it's bullpen and it was expected that Tejada would continue to provide a steady, reliable bridge to closer Joakim Soria.

It was a fair expectation. Over the past two seasons Tejeda has thrown at least 61 innings while posting identical 3.54 ERAs since Dayton Moore plucked the hard throwing righty off waivers from the Rangers. After providing 2.1 WAR in relief the past two seasons, the move stands as a highly successful waiver claim, and one of Moore's better overall acquisitions.

Royals Rookie Relievers On A Roll

How's that for a little early morning alliteration?

The Royals are off to a great 3-1 start after stringing together back-to-back-to-back walk off wins after dropping the first game of their set to the Angels. Certainly that'll be the talk of most fans, Royals or otherwise. But to me the biggest point of emphasis to take away from the first Royals series of the year were the performances of Aaron Crow and Tim Collins.

An Early Look At The Royals Bullpen

Almost every team heads into a season with one or two bullpen positions up for grabs, and in the Royals case, that number is probably closer to four. The teams used a total of 19 relievers in 2010, and racked up the worst bullpen ERA in the American League last year. In short, the unit was a disaster.

Obviously the bullpen will be anchored by Joakim Soria who is one of baseballs five best - and probably it's most unheralded - closers. Setting him up will be Robinson Tejada, a solid if unspectacular middle reliever with swing and miss stuff and control issues. Also likely to be in the bullpen is Blake Wood who had a solid showing in his rookie campaign last year and profiles as a ground ball, pitch to contact middle reliever.

Two More Arbitration Deals

Yesterday we discussed arbitration deals recently handed out to Alexi Casilla, Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, and Asdrubal Cabrera. But they aren't the only ones to have locked in new deals. The Tigers came to terms yesterday with Armando Galarraga and the the Royals brought back Robinson Tejada.

- I spent some time discussing Galarraga's future with the Tigers in the wake of the recent signing of Brad Penny. I had projected Galarraga at 1.5m in my most recent Tigers Payroll Estimate, so to see him sign for 2.3m has to be considered a win for him and his agent. It's a tad surprising given the signing of Penny that GM Dave Dombrowski wasn't able to utilize that leverage a bit better in negotiations.

Galarraga contributed 144 innings for the Tigers in 2010 with a 4.49 ERA that bested his FIP projections by about half a run. He's thrown at least 143 innings in each of the past three seasons but with the presence of Penny likely pushing him out of the rotation at the beginning of the year, there's a good chance he wont meet that mark in 2011.

- Tejada will be entering his seventh season in the league and in this, his final arbitration season is set to earn 1.55m, essentially identical to the 1.5m I had him projected for in the most recent Royals Payroll Estimate.

He's been the picture of consistency the last two seasons with the Royals, posting identical 3.54 ERAs and FIP marks of 3.59 and 3.60 respectively, and they're certainly hoping for more of the same. Tejada has the ability to miss bats, averaging almost exactly a strikeout per inning the last two years but can also get himself into trouble with walks with a career 5.03 walk rate. It should be noted however that he posted his best walk rate of his career in 2010 with a 3.84 mark. Unfortunately, the fly-ball prone pitcher was at his worst in that department, getting inducing ground balls on just 27.8% of balls in play.

As long as Tejada can keep missing bats at a high rate and either limit his walks or keep the ball in the yard, neither of which are a sure thing given his career track record, he'll be successful. But despite the strength of his past two seasons, there is always the possibility those two areas of concern could pair up and he could struggle as a result. If he can prevent that however, he'll once again be a useful option for the Royals in the 7th and 8th innings.