Just Don’t Give Up a Grand-Slam-And-A-Half!
Well, the mystery of the Disappearing Bullpen Help may have been solved. As recently discussed in the comments over on our last post, Gardenhire claims that he’s looking for a spot to put Mijares into a game, but can’t find one.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is trying to find a spot to get a look at lefthander Jose Mijares. The ninth inning last night seemed to be a good time, but the manager - with memories of several blown leads this season fresh in his mind - didn’t want a situation where Mijares gave up a couple runs and force him to warm up Joe Nathan. “Six runs is not that big of a lead in this league,” he said.
Oh, that’s right. Six runs ahead just isn’t enough of a lead. He might give up a few runs, in which case we’d have to use one of our better relievers who are all overworked. We wouldn’t want to do that. Instead, we’ll just use our better relievers who are all overworked. Problem solved!
So. Six runs ahead is too close. Obviously, Mijares and Humber aren’t coming into a game closer than that. That leaves the only possibility of these young relievers getting any work is if we’re being blown out. And if we’re losing by a lot, it stands to reason that we wouldn’t want to prevent the other team from scoring — oh no, we wouldn’t want to attempt a comeback and actually try to win a game! It’s much more important to just give up and prepare for the next day!
I can understand why Gardy would only want to bring these guys in in a blowout. That’s fine. (At first, until they demonstrate what they can do against big league hitters.) But … I don’t understand why we have to be losing big in order to see what they’ve got. Are we afraid he’ll give up the rare Grand-Slam-and-a-Half?
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Did you guys agree with bringing Nathan in for the ninth in KC 2-2 game?
Definitely. Bringing in the closer in the ninth in a tie game at home is the proper usage — from that point on there can never be a save situation, and there’s no point in bringing in lesser relievers to possibly lose the game earlier. Once this situation comes up, the relievers should be used in descending order of ability until they’ve all been exhausted … or we actually manage to score a run.
It was especially the right move because Nathan was so well rested. He hadn’t been used since Sunday when he threw just 9 pitches.
The only questionable decision was taking him out after only 15 pitches — and I don’t have a problem with that. If he’d thrown another 15-20 pitches in the 10th, that’s too many pitches. (That said, I just noticed that he threw 45 pitches in Toronto during one of his two inning blown saves. Maybe that’s what Gardy was remembering. It was the last time he came out for a second inning, and it didn’t go well.)
Ok, I’ll buy that…so if every reliever had 5 days off, who do you throw out there after Nathan?
Heh. Tough call. Until someone starts to actually step up, they’re all bunched together in the second-to-lowest tier — except of course for Reyes, who should have his pants nailed to the bench out in the bullpen to prevent him from ever being able to stand up.
Over the past couple of days Gardy seems to be trying to rebuild Crain and Boof. But I don’t think they’re there yet. I might actually rank the bullpen thusly:
Nathan
Breslow
Boof
Crain
Guerrier
Korecky
Humber
Mijares
Punto
Reyes
I assume Punto would love to get to try to pitch, and that Gardy would love to throw him out there to “have the game in his hands.” I’d support that if it’d keep Reyes OUT OF THE GAME WHERE HE BELONGS.
By the way, Korecky and Humber are set to shoot right up this list, but they need to actually come into games and start to prove themselves before I just say they’re good to go. I was clamoring loudly for Korecky to get the call all of August (I thought he’d be the 2nd best pitcher in the pen after Nathan), and now that he’s here he’s not being used at all. It’s not encouraging.
Excellent list. Here’s my hindsight moment of the day, and maybe you saw this coming. What if Gardy would have done what seems plainly obvious…use a young guy in a blowout! Breslow and/or Boof might have been available to follow Nathan after his stint in the ninth, yesterday’s outcome might have been different. Hindsight is great and being an armchair manager is folly, but come on. A sweep was within grasp, the club is in a tight race and that makes it all the more frustrating. Maybe it’s better that I don’t have DIRECTV.
What’s the Vegas line that Korecky, Humber or Mijares get into a game this season? Time is running out.
I’m beginning to think you have it in for Punto and Reyes…
Well sure it looks like hindsight now — except that I’ve been complaining about the fact that the rookies are being left out of blowouts while we continue to ride the “reliable” arms in unnecessary situations … and my point all along has been that eventually a game like this will come along and we’ll actually NEED those “reliable” arms.
I’m sure the odds are good. Technically, apparently, Korecky and Humber have both made it into games in September. Korecky took the 8th inning of our 9-0 loss in Toronto on Sep 4, and gave up 4 ER in a third of an inning. He faced 5 batters and 4 of them scored. Humber actually followed him in that inning, getting 2 outs and only giving up 1 run. (Of course, Humber allowed 2 of the runners he inherited from Korecky to score.)
It’s a good thing we supported their confidence by immediately stashing them on the bench for a week. (What is it with Gardy treating rookies like crap? They both probably needed to get into another game within 2-3 days to get their feet back under them.)