Fire Gardy

While the Twins game continues to not start because for some reason Fenway doesn’t have a retractable roof, I figured I’d do some writing about the bullpen situation given Crain’s injury. Intelligent reader thrylos98 had this to say:

Crain did get overused so far this season. It was inexcusable for Gardy to put him in the 9th inning to close a blow out game. That is done, it cannot be corrected, but I hope that Gardenhire realizes his mistake and does not repeat it. Speaking of repeating mistakes, when Gardenhire was asked about who the set up man will be now, he answered that everyone who is rested except Morillo who is still “a project”. Wrong answer. He should select one (even pull names off a a hat) and go with him. The worse thing about a reliever is not knowing what his role is. Pitchers need to get ready to pitch.

I agree that Crain was overused and absolutely shouldn’t have been pitching in blowouts. (Though I seem to recall that none of the other relievers could get anyone out, so we kind of needed to go with Crain.)

But I absolutely don’t agree that Gardy’s “anyone who’s rested will be the setup man” is the wrong answer. Picking roles and leaning too heavily on a single go-to reliever is exactly what re-injured Crain (and put him on the surgeon’s table the first time), what wrecked Guerrier, and what killed Neshek. Many managers have this problem, and Gardy’s no exception.* Joe Torre is famous for doing this to his favorite reliever.

* Joe Maddon, apparently, is an exception, given that he named his third or fourth best reliever the “closer” and went with his good relievers in higher leverage situations that warranted it. Point is, more thought is needed, but it seems that breaking down bullpen roles could be a good thing.

My hope is that the relievers are able to step up and keep us in games for Nathan to close them out, and that this experience helps Gardy with his bullpen management in the future. If he can actually use whichever reliever is most rested (and most able to get outs), rather than finding another guy to lean on and destroy, it would unequivocally be a good thing.

My other hope is that it stops raining in Boston so we can get on the field soon.

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