Of course it is, but thats not the point. My complaint is hinch not knowing when to pull his guys. Like I said sans last nights game or we can say sans Keuchel altogether, going back through the years, hinch has a horrible reputation of doing this. Theres a certain game 4 that really pisses me off and who knows, we probably go on to do GREAT things if we get past that game.
No ****ing kidding. Exactly. There's not a manager in baseball that pulls Keuchel after 8, having given up 1 run in a pretty dominating (in his way) fashion, having thrown under 100 pitches, with a 3 run lead and an extra days rest. After the HR, you get the pen tossing, after the single they're ready (this is what happened). Then you have Kipnis up, a LHB who has looked terrible in the 4 games he's played (the Indians guys felt horrible for him when Reddick caught that HR, were talking about how he needed something like that to get him going). Keuchel K's him. Then you're down to Keuchel vs. Guyer or Giles vs. Chisenhall (a good LH platoon guy with some pop). Hinch talked, Keuchel said "I'm good" (literally, you could read his lips), it was K's last batter regardless, Correa made a good play and we won. Yay. ***eta: now I can't remember if Hinch came out before or after the Kipnis AB*** That's how it looked to me. I never really though about pitch count during the inning until people were mentioning it after the game, so I looked. Guys going 110+ in their first ~5-7 starts isn't uncommon, especially for the top guys: I saw Cueto, Darvish, Sale, Archer, etc...
I heard that Keuchel once threw 167 pitches in high school, and Hinch has the nerve to allow him to throw 117 yesterday? Did he think of the children?!? Ok, now that I got my facetious response out of the way, this is how I seriously feel. I think there is definite value and a psychological benefit. It has to be a positive for Keuchel's psyche, and it also helps re-establish him as our ace, and a force to be reckoned with to the rest of the league. By Hinch's actions, he is essentially telling Keuchel, "you are our horse, you are the leader of our rotation, and I will treat you differently than our other starters." I can't quantify that obviously, but I do think that it is way more positive than negative. Also, please keep in mind that our bullpen has hit a wall in August/September before. And although they were all fresh and ready to go yesterday, yesterday's day of rest can have an incremental impact over the course of the marathon of a season. So although I would have personally let him go CG, I don't feel too strongly about it, and I wouldn't have argued if we took him out. Like others have mentioned, it sure is nice that we are arguing about our ace who came into the season as a huge question mark is pitching like his Cy Young year going 8 innings or going CG. This is the best 20-game start of the franchise my friends, and more good times are hopefully ahead!
I think that is the exact reasoning behind the decision. You hear the complaints on here about Hinch not being more fiery and that the players must not respect him as much. Moments like that are about respect. It shows you Hinch doesn't just see numbers.
This was one of the longest, inane "process over outcome" arguments I've seen on the boards in a while. And Cangrejero was no where to be seen. Weird. Even if we lost, I'd have been miffed but it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I love everyone's passion on the forum. People seem to hang on every move and every game. The sheer fandom is really pleasant to see. That being said, there's really no way to quantify the impact of Keuchel pitching an extra 10-20 pitches after the 8th inning. So it's a moo point.
exactly. For all the posts looking for hand-waving from Hinch.. it's like people don't understand that humans have different personalities. Different people lead in different ways (Jordan vs Duncan vs Magic). Different people show fire in different ways. This type of thing can be "silent fire" from Hinch
Maybe Hinch should have pulled him after the 7th? Or the 5th? I mean, what's the difference between 115 and 100, right? or 80? Or 60? What if Keuchel hurt himself in the 6th inning? Could we forgive ourselves for pitching him instead of Devenski for the last 4 innings?
Oh...at some point in the future, if Keuchel has a bad game, someone will say it is the extra 10-15 pitches he threw in this one.
And people will still be forgetting that he was pitching on extra rest. The BBS would have also exploded if whoever Hinch brought in to replace him (Giles, Gregerson, or Devo) would have blown the lead.... and TBH, the Indians would have relished seeing any other pitcher on that mound at that point.
This is all I will say regarding Hinch. He was a psychology major while at Stanford so he obviously has some understanding about how to motivate and communicate with individuals. Also, I've had the opportunity while interning with a local TV sports department to be in the dugout interviewing Hinch and at BP watching him talk to players before games. Seeing the way that he interacts with the players and handles himself around them it is very obvious that his background in psychology influences his coaching style. I for one love his coaching style. It is very apparent to me that he knows each of his players and how he needs to approach each guy on the team. I think he knew how much Dallas was wanting to go the distance and let him to do it because he knew the confidence that it would give Dallas. And I am 100% ok with that.
Still entertaining to swing over and look at game threads on a different site. We have gems like this from Sunday: "Today looks like is going to be awful, and all those relievers we did not WANTED to use last night, are going to be used today for a losing cause"
Luhnow did go out of his way to say that Fisher has had a great start to the year in Fresno, so it could probably be him.
Depending on how banged up Altuve feels, I was thinking it could be Kemp since he can play both OF/2B.
Yep; I'm too lazy to check, but I also think Kemp is on the 40 man roster and Fisher is not. That would pretty much tilt things toward Kemp, if correct.
A shame for Teo. Was having a great start in Fresno. Luhnow said that Teo would have probably made most MLB rosters out of spring training. Guess it's a good thing to have that much depth, but several of these guys are going to be blocked out for the next couple years, barring injuries.
