Its a pity.... now Qualls won't be available tomorrow... Luhnow on the phone with Jerome Williams agent trying to offer him more money.
? Qualls didn't pitch yesterday and there's an off day on Thursday. He only pitched .1 innings on the 6th and 1ip on the 2nd. I don't see a problem with this.
Why waste Qualls in the 9th inning (19 pitches) of a 5 run game when Martinez was available? Why have Sipp pitch the 8th inning last night with a 12-6 lead? Remember, Porter is the same manager who used Williams in that save situation because "no one else was available" even though Downs had only thrown 2 pitches the night before. More than likely Sipp and Fields are unavailable tomorrow. It would be nice to have a rested Qualls available for 1+ innings if need be.
There is a method to Porters madness, when someone figures it out let the rest of us know. Seriously, the guy is a joke.
boom stick? break out the broom stick! #sweep also, agreed that porter is an idiot but really happy with the win. get to talk so much trash to dallas acquaintances
It might seem that simple but there is more that goes into it. Pitchers need work. Can't worry about tomorrow especially when your not contending. Get the wins when you can.
I was mostly joking and referring to Porter's moves a couple of weeks ago where he didn't want Qualls to pitch after a 12 pitch outing the day before. See the above posts for further explanation into Porter's bizarre methods....
Arguably Sipp is the Astros' second best reliever (after Qualls). Why have him pitch 24 pitches including the 8th inning of a 6 run game? Then he pitches tonight which essentially makes him unavailable tomorrow. Fields is arguably their third best reliever. Pitching him both last night and tonight make him unavailable tomorrow. If Qualls doesn't throw 19 pitches tonight, perhaps he can go more than an inning tomorrow when their 2nd and 3rd best relievers are unavailable. Part of a manager's job is to worry about the next game when he has the opportunity to. Think about it this way, Porter has essentially blown through 2 of his 3 best relievers in a 6 run win and a 5 run win. Sipp pitched an extra inning with a 6 run lead and Fields pitched an extra inning with a 5 run lead. Your last statement seems contradictory. In one sentence you say why worry about tomorrow when you're not contending. Your next sentence you say get the wins while you can. Porter needs to learn and grow the same way the players do. Part of that learning curve is to recognize how to use a bullpen. Again we are not talking about 1 or 2 run games. We are discussing 6 and 5 run games.
I think Qualls needed the work so it really doesn't bother me. Now if Porter somehow deems that this rules him out for 2 innings tomorrow, then we have a problem. But it shouldn't, relief pitchers can't possibly be a fragile as Porter seems to think they are. But Porter is a very bad manager, so he may in fact deem qualls unavailable for more than an inning, but that says more about porter than the quality of this individual decision.
How did he need work? He threw 15 pitches 2 days earlier... I think relief pitchers can survive getting 2 days off.
Who cares about inning pitched? It is about pitches thrown. The reality is if he got his guys out, he'd have pitched a full inning on the 6th.
