I was SO happy Hinch made the call to send him back out in the 9th. Several other bullpen arms might have closed that game out, but I had every confidence in the world that Lance would do it. So beautiful.
Morton pitched almost as well, he just had some absolute trash luck in that game 3 start. LMJ has already shown he can come out of the pen. I say you pencil him in to start game 4, but have him available in games 2 and 3 if we need to save a lead for 2-4 innings. I'm OK risking game 4 on Peacock and McHugh if it means we have carte blanche to use Verlander,DK,Morton and McCullers for the other 6.
LMJ will pitch gm 3 as he's shown he's extremely tough at home and he's pitching with a great deal of confidence right now. If it goes 7 gms he gets the ball in that one as well. Morton pitched damn good as well, but I'd go with LMJ over him
Our bullpen is terrible. If his arm can do it they need to move him to the pen. Baseball has changed. Its not about the starters anymore. You need a good bp.
It's just so great that he had the magazine cover on SI about the curveball and he comes out throwing 28 straight curveballs. It makes the article all the more special because the proof is in the pudding. He dominated with it! You can't eat your meat if you don't have any pudding!
where we're going we don't need bullpens. We'll call them extended starting pitchers =ESPs. Peacock, Mchugh.
I’ve said it a lot of times. Rotation should be: Keuchel - Verlander - Morton - McHugh Peacock and LMJ should be ready to go if any of the above falter or in innings 4/5-9 of Morton/McHugh games. McHugh pitched a gem out of the bullpen as well. I truly think this is the best scenario. You can swap McHugh and Lance if you want.
I still want Morton in game 3 and 7. You don't penalize a guy for 5 scoreless in a game 7 ALCS! Lance can be either his tandem closer, or the game 4 starter/game 7 closer. I'm fine with either. McHugh/Peacock as a game 4 tandem also sound pretty deadly.
McHugh is clearly at the bottom of the pecking order - he was on full rest as the previous tandem guy with Morton in the game 3 loss. As well as he pitched, they’ll have him ready to go for the Morton start again. I’m hoping Peacock struggled due to identity crisis, prepping to be both a starter and reliever. He should now be 100% in a relief role — ready for a couple innings in the two road games, and then multi innings to support McCullers in game 4. If Devo, Harris, and Giles can find their mojo, that would be a welcome sight.
I don't think the 24 continuous curveballs will translate well in a starting role. Use him in relief, and use him often.
I think people are putting too much stock in this bp > starters thing - just seems like a phase that started with KCs bullpen and everyone is still going crazy about it. The Cubs were deadly on the pitching side last year primarily because of their starters Arrieta, Hendricks and Lester. Giants back in 2014 had a pretty bad bullpen and were ranked 24th in WAR according to Fangraphs - they won because Bumgarner was amazing. Here in 2017, we have gone through two teams with MUCH better bullpens than us (especially if you include Price as a RP for the Sox). Yet here we are going to the World Series largely in part due to the performances of Verlander and Keuchel. I don't think there is anything more uplifting for one team and demoralizing than getting dominated by starting pitching like Verlander. Just think about it, would you rather get dominated out of the gate and having in the back of your mind you'll be facing that guy several more times tonight or dominated by a good bullpen? Also, you have to get a lead for that good bullpen to even matter and therefore it puts more pressure on the opposing starter be "perfect" which can result in these short outings. Has to be a bad feeling to go against Justin Verlander right now as the opposing starter...
Just my two cents but I'd do what they have been doing...have him ready in the pen for games 1 and 2 and if the situation merits it, use him out of the pen. If we are losing the entire game or blowing the Dodgers out then save him for game 3. That being said, would probably only use him if we are up 1-2 runs and Keuchel/Verlander didn't make it at least 7 innings (i.e. if we are up say 4-2 and their pitch count is too high to go back out the 7th, I'd use him for a 3+ inning save again. Long story short, whatever game(s) LMJ does pitch in we absolutely need to win based off what I've seen from our bullpen so far.
