Time again to check in on how Manager Ned Yost is deploying his bullpen by projecting out both games pitched and innings over the course of a 162 game regular season based on current use. You can look back  here to see where they were a couple of weeks ago.

Player Games/Innings Pitched

Eric Gagne 86.8 G / 79.3 IP

Guillermo Mota 63.6 G / 75.2 IP

Salomon Torres 75.2 G / 105.9 IP

David Riske 75.2 G / 82.7 IP

Brian Shouse 86.8 G / 56.1 IP

Seth McClung 34.7 G / 67.7 IP

Derrick Turnbow^ 46.3 G / 36.5 IP

Mitch Stetter* 79.8 G / 85.2 IP

* Combined major and minor league projections

^ Useage projection before being sent down

So we can see that Yost has eased off of Riske and Torres somewhat, and they are back into passable usage range. Shouse is getting into a lot of games but his innings are just fine, and should be able to continue to be effective against LHB with that kind of workload. Yost has found a new horse to ride in Stetter, which is probably smart. Might as well use him heavily while he is going well. McClung will probably get into a few more games once the team stops playing so many nail biters and extra inning games.

The one major area of concern that I have is that Gagne is being relied on very heavily. He cannot continue to play over half of the teams games and 86 innings is a lot of innings for a closer, especially one with his injury history. Some of this can be attributed to playing so many close games, but Yost also has used him several times in tie games in the 9th. That would be fine, if he wasn't getting into a lot of games to close, but that isn't the case. Yost would be well advised to hold off the temptation to use him in those situations, at least for a while until the offense starts hitting.

Finally, it is really clear that Turnbow wasn't pulling his share of the workload, becuase he simply could not be trusted to do so. The obvious solution was to get him off the 25 man roster one way or another, and the team finally came around to that realization.