Beyond the Boxscore celebrates the San Diego Padres cheap and effective bullpen. The graphs impress, however, in showing how poorly bullpen performance correlates with money spent. As individual relievers pitch less and less, it becomes more difficult to value them, as their statistics are based on small sample sizes. I’m not surprised that the Padres, with Paul DePodesta working in the back ground, were able to find value in that group of pitchers. With Paul in the background from 1999-2003, the Athletics posted a .592 winning percentage, the third best in the majors. Since he left, the A’s are .511 team, 11th in the majors. If the Padres continue to play .595 ball, they will have improved 33 games in two seasons. That’s a pretty fast rebuild.