Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Mike Matheny walks into a bar. “Bartender,” he says. “Give me a Matt Bowman.” The bartender is confused. “Is that some fancy cocktail? I don’t know it.” Matheny just looks at him, confused. “Look guy,” he says. “I order a Matt Bowman everywhere I go. I don’t see why this situation would be any different.”
While the above is a joke, it’s not really that funny, and it has informed the way the Cardinals bullpen is built for the last few years. We often talk about Matheny-proofing a roster, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the bullpen.