Joe Beimel's Great July

Joe Beimel has had an up and down year in his 2011 return to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Through the first 2 months of the season, Beimel pitched 13.1 innings and gave up 8 earned runs, which is good for a 5.40 ERA. Opposing hitters hit .269/.345/.519 off Beimel with 3 home runs and 14 hits in that span. You can't take much from 13.1 innings, but he certainly wasn't as effective as he would have liked to be, and the fans were quickly losing confidence in him.

After his outing on May 27, Beimel didn't pitch again until July 17th due to a DL stint. But since returning from his injury, he has been very good.

Again, we're dealing with a small sample size here, but Beimel has made 6 outings and pitched 4.2 innings without surrendering a run. He has allowed only 4 hits (3 in the same outing) and struck out 5 while hitters have hit .235/.235/.471 off the lefty. If you take out the 3-hit outing (his first after returning from injury), hitters have hit .077/.077/.077 off Joe. This month, Beimel has inherited 5 base runners and stranded them all.

The bullpen has been really solid all year, and has looked especially great since the all-star break. The obvious reasons for that are Joel Hanrahan, Chris Resop, Tony Watson, and yes, even Jose Veras, but not many people are taking into account how good Joe Beimel has been since he returned from the DL. Here's hoping it continues.