Ok then. We are all fans here, otherwise why continue to spend time on this atrocity? I do wonder what Porter's motives were. Did he not realize that the Rangers had the ability to replace their lefties with righties? (Serious question).
Porter is really buying into closer by committee LOL I'm cool with it, just not cool with Chapman in the 9th
They replaced Mitch Moreland - a legitimate major leaguer - with Michael Choice, a guy who had a 0.083 batting average and hasn't done anything in the majors. If you believe your pitcher is a major league quality pitcher - and maybe that's a mistake here - you want to make that trade. Better to have a lefty facing Choice than a righty facing Moreland.
Also worth noting that, last year, Chapman was equally outstanding against righties and lefties. It seems silly to give up on him 10 days into the season this year and assume he sucks.
I don't think you've seen Chapman pitch to righties in save situations, or in games where the score is tied. Also, you know about as much about Michael Choice's abilities as how meaningless his .083 batting average is after just 10 games of a season. The bottom line is, if you're trying to save a game with your lefty specialist... Don't.
He doesn't "suck". He's a left specialist who should only be asked to save games if nobody better or more qualified is available. Porter went on a hunch tonight, and it backfired (as most hunches tend to do in baseball). At least they were still able to win.
Chapman last year had equal at-bats against lefties and righties and was more than solid against them both. He's only pitched 25 innings, so I have no idea what kind of sample size there is of "save situations against righties" since he wasn't a closer or "games where the score is tied aganst righties". Care to share more details? He's a decent minor leaguer who's a bench player for the Rangers. However you want to look at it, you want to face that over Mitch Moreland, who hit 23 HRs last year.
He was significantly better against lefties vs righties, looking at all measureable stats. His 4 ER allowed last year were all to right handed batters, and he had 3 blown saves. Don't have to really go much further than that. He's the only lefty in the bullpen. I don't think he's on the roster as one of those potential closers in waiting.
