Arizona Hurting on Offense, A's Bullpen Collapses
In today’s game, no matter how strong your starting pitching is, you better have a deep bullpen to get the ball to the closer.
If you pitched in the majors as late as the early eighties, it wasn’t a shock to see you as the starting pitcher go the distance.
I’ve been told by Hall of Fame pitchers that the toughest outs to get in a ballgame are 25, 26, and 27. The great starters wanted the ball in the ninth inning and got those tough outs much to the delight of the manager and the hurler’s teammates.
Wouldn’t you like to see Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and others finish their games on a regular basis.
The A’s lost Wednesday’s game because Ricardo Rincon and Chad Bradford couldn’t hold a 3-2 eighth inning lead handed to them by Barry Zito who was removed after throwing 110 pitches in seven innings.
Pitchers today just are not trained to finish what they start and even though they turn the game over to skilled specialists, who usually do OK, the starters are the ones I want in there when the going gets tough. I say give them a chance to close the deal themselves. They just might do it.
The Giants suffered with Felix Rodriguez on Monday night. The Mets fell apart with David Weathers on the mound against Philadelphia. Jose Contreras gave it up to the Red Sox. All as late inning relievers. You see it night after night unless you root for Houston and their deep effective bullpen.
For one season I’d like to see the starters pushed to the point where they throw 125- 135 pitches per game, just to see if they could get it done.
Click Below for more thoughts on the game.Minnesota is holding its own against lefties (7-6) this season after being dominated by portsiders in 2002.
Minnesota plays good baseball. Torii Hunter is on a par with the great defensive centerfielders of all time. Matt LeCroy can swing the bat. Cristian Guzman seems more focused. The Twins have five bullpen guys who alternate getting the ball every night. They are hot right now, best in the AL.
Minnesota will win the Central unless something unusual happens in Chicago. The White Sox should make up some ground over the next two weeks, while the Twins and Royals play 12 with the A’s and Mariners.
When the race is decided, the Twins will be there based on being a more complete team. Minnesota fields the ball quite well, they hit the ball and don’t rely on walks to generate their offense, I like that because that means when they face tough pitchers they don’t approach an at bat defensively, they are used to hitting the ball to get on base.
Ron Gardenhire is fully in charge of this team and is one smart manager with a fiery disposition on the bench.
Thursday Minnesota faces one of their nemises in John Halama who has owned the Twins in the past. The A’s undoubtedly will be in the bullpen since Halama’s range seems to be 5 2/3 innings before the opposition catches up to him.
With Jim Mecir limping noticeably and Bradford probably unavailable after going a couple of tough innings Wednesday, it will be interesting to see if Ken Macha gives Micah Bowie or Michael Neu a chance in a meaningful game. My guess is Keith Foulke will be summoned earlier than normal. I’m not sure what Bowie and Neu are doing on the team.
Joe Mays is 4-3 on the year and seems to be coming around lately. Minnesota has a deeper bench than the A’s and a better bullpen. The A’s have Hudson, Mulder, and Zito and neither is pitching Thursday.
Advantage Twins, even though the A’s are 17-6 at home.
By the way, when Jermaine Dye comes back he plays full time either at DH or in rightfield. The A’s aren’t paying Dye 10 million to sit on the bench as a platoon player. Plus they really need his bat in the lineup now. Eric Byrnes deserves to play everyday until he is overmatched, which may or may not happen. Terrence Long and Chris Singleton will be seeing more bench.
The Mariners are soon going to be in a panic mode over Freddy Garcia who gave up seven to KC Wednesday night. KC has all sorts of pitching trouble right now, but they did hit 6 homers in Safeco to knock the Mariners around, no small feat in that park.
Chan Ho Park will return soon and that will help Texas. At some point, Texas may have to be watched carefully because they are starting to play decent baseball.
Roger Clemens goes for 300 Monday against Boston and it looks like Pedro Martinez, the opponent in NY.
The press is all over Jason Giambi now that the slugger is blaming part of his early season hitting woes on the Yankees policy to ban Giambi’s trainer Bob Alejo from the clubhouse. They are calling Alejo a manservant and more in the latest articles.
Arizona is reeling after going 1-2 with SF in the first of their 19 games against each other. But for the Giants bullpen trouble, the Diamondbacks would have been swept in the BOB. Arizona needs a legit hitter and shouldn’t wait much longer to deal because the need is there and isn’t going away.
Not hard to see why Seattle is doing so well. They are first in defense, second in pitching, and fourth in hitting in the AL. Toronto is first in hitting and last in defense and 12th in pitching. Not a good combination.
Defense is a key stat because a bad defensive team not only makes errors, but doesn’t make a ton of other plays which don’t show up in the box score. I’m going to start paying mre attention to defensive numbers as the summer moves on.
The bottom five teams on defense in the AL are:
Toronto
Kansas City
Cleveland
Tampa Bay
Texas
NL:
Cincinnati
Chicago
New York
San Diego
Pittsburgh
Good defense helps very much, bad defense is deadly just look at the list and watch it over the next month. I’ll check it every Sunday.
Jason Bere pitches for Cleveland Thursday, don’t expect a lot, Bere is a tough pitcher who has endured all kinds of injuries, he won’t go without a fight.
Jeremy Affeldt versus Gil Meche, this could be a good game, but remember the KC defense, it affects the game and Affeldt is being moved up one day.
Let’s see if Seth McClung can pitch another good game for Tampa Bay. With Colby Lewis on the mound, he may have a chance to win.
By the way, where is Ben Grieve and what are his chances of signing a good long term deal next year?
0 comments
Marty,
Are you saying you don’t know why Bowie and Neu are on the team, or are you saying you don’t know what their roles are?
It hurts to see two bullpen spots wasted they way they are. Bradford is racking up way too many innings, and Neu could use a few more appearances. Is Beane speaking on behalf of Macha, wanting to use Bradford in every situation possible?
I’m asking why they are on the team if they aren’t given a chance to pitch in a meaningful situation. It’s all right occasionally to carry a pitcher who may not see much action, but on this team with Mecir hurting all the time, the bullpen is actually three men short. That is not good even though the big three pitch seven great innings quite often, somebody has to take the ball to the closer. I assume the manager is making this call, not the GM until there is evidence to the contrary.
Marty
wat back in the 50’s a pitcher by the name of robin roberts threw 300 plus innings, worked every 4th day and threw 25 complete games out of 39 starts. he made it to the hall of fame,. pitchers today go every 5th day and are not expected to go more than 7 innings. they do not know how to pace themselves and save their best for the late innings. managers and coaches tell them to throw as hard as they can for as long as they can and then the bullpen will pick up the rest of the way for them.
as for defense, their is an adage in baseball that says that you cannot give up 4 outs in an inning. if a team commits 3 errors in a game they will usually lose the game.
Marty: It seems to me that we have been thru this before. I recall mentioning that Marichal threw more complete games than wins. You mentioned Roberts and the number of innings he customarily threw. You can put dozens of old time pitchers in this catagory. The choir is being preached to. Has the game changed so radically that today’s pitchers cannot be expected to go more than six innings? This may be a self- fullfilling expectation. I note that a few weeks ago Russ Ortiz threw over 130 pitches, gave up two runs while pitching into the 9th. last night Schmidt threw a nine inning shutout. It is particularly discouraging to see young pitchers, such as Froppert, pulled, at the first sign of trouble in the 6th inning. Why not let him try to work his way out of it? He’s never going to reach the point of finishing what he starts if the assumption is that he will inevitably run out of steam as soon as he throws 85 or 90 pitches. It sounds as tho you are beginning to come around to this way of thinking, altho it would be more helpful if a few of the managers started thinking this way. It would, if nothing else, be interesting. Respecting your comments about defense and it’s importance I couldn’t agree more. One of the reasons for the Giants early start was their good defense and this is still an encouraging aspect of their game. It is interesting to see how important a role Perez is playing while subbing for Durham. If a player, particularly an infielder, gets hurt, it is more important to have someone move into the lineup who is strong defensively than offensively. Perez, incidentally, is getting a few good hits as well. He could play regularly for more than one team, the Mets, for instance, as he insists. Speaking about the bench, as you have done respecting the A’s, brings me to the Giants. It is beyond belief that Sabean insists on going ahead with what may be the weakest bench in the league, certainly among contenders. He hasn’t a single left handed hitter to bring up in a pinch hitting role. I read that they are anxiously awaiting the return of Bernard to once again fill that role. This despite 2 hits in 25 at bats!
Ed
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