To me, with the possible exception of Sampson, Miller should be the last person getting the ball out of the bullpen in a tied extra innings game. Garner's infatuation with Gallo and now Miller never ceases to baffle me. Miller's not terrible, but he's not the guy that should be trotting out to start the 10th.
Thoughts after tonight's game: ---Screw the bats, Timmy. We need some big time help in the bullpen, STAT. One of best rotations in baseball doesn't mean much when you keep coughing up the lead late. ---What's happen to Brad's throwing this year? Guys are running on him left and right. ----For all the grief he took earlier in the year, Preston's having another damn solid year....check out his stats against Morgan's. ---I love Willie T, but the way Burke's swinging the bat, he's going to be riding the pine for awhile. ---Garner relies too much on the whole lefty vs. lefty thing....but most ML managers do too.
Yea... but the ones who do actually have competent lefties who have pretty decent splits. Garner's insistance on using Gallo (who had worse splits against lefties) completely refutes his reasoning. Also, other managers don't have arms like Qualls and Wheeler (who have great splits against both righties and lefties).
Since Miller came up the 2nd time (May), he's been far better than either Qualls or Wheeler. In May, he had an ERA of 2.8 with a WHIP of 1, and in June he had an ERA of 1.6 with a WHIP of 0.7 - with nearly 2 strikeouts per inning. He's earned his spot in the bullpen. Qualls has been playing with fire the last several outings and has an ERA over 5 this month. Wheeler has seemingly gotten on track, though. Miller and Springer have been the most consistent members of the bullpen this season, which creates a massive quandry for a manager. Do you go with the guys with a history of success, but who've really struggled this season? Or guys without such a history, but who have excelled this season? The way to have the best chance to win is to go with the guys that have done the job. The way to not be second guessed is to go with the "name guys". I'm glad we have a manager that goes with the former, rather than the latter.
But those "name guys" only exist because Garner put them in that position in the first place... and they came thru more often than not. Its not like we don't have those guys anymore, and Garner has to find a new replacement in Miller. I don't have that big of a problem with Miller pitching... but how do you justify Garner's use of Gallo?
You go with the larger sample size, because those statistics are more indicative of the player's ability. The hot-hand method is illogical.
True, but we keep losing chances to gain ground. The way Cincy is playing, we should have been in the Wild Card lead a few days ago ... By the way, am I the only one sick of seeing St Louis crank out 100 win seasons no matter who gets hurt? I did love the beat down they got tonight, though! Hopefully the Sox got it all out of their system before we come to town...
Did anyone else see this?! A total spanking of the Cardinals by the WhiteSox! 20-6 whooping. "ChiSox pound out 24 hits in 20-6 spanking of Cards" http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260620104
I figured the Ausmus blurb was simply a case of selective memory, but you are right - he's allowing the highest SB% in the league - url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding?seasonType=2&sortOrder=true&split=78&groupId=9&season=2006&qualified=null&sortColumn=catcherCaughtStealingPct]Stats[/url]
Hey now, it wasn't him alone, Trevor helped plenty and Lidge just turned out lights out instead of theirs. Now let's see, tonight, if we win, Roger get's to either save the series or blow it. If we lose tonight, Roger will either be our hero for us not getting swept or he will be the LP and we will all be thinking, what have we done!
The larger sample size says both Qualls and Wheeler are very mediocre this season. Relievers are notoriously fickle year to year. Relying on what any reliever did last year over their performance for 2+ months this year is absurd. By the way, it's not the "hot hand" method - when relievers struggle like Qualls/Wheeler/Lidge have, it's usually a mechanical thing. It's not random chance - they are sucking for a reason. During Lidge's struggles, his failing was not random chance - it was highly predictable. Similarly, when Wheeler was struggling, it was pretty apparent. Now, it's Qualls' turn.
Yeah. Plus Cincy and St. Louis will be playing the same teams we should be laying the beat down on but aren't when we have to play Chicago and Detroit.
I ain't mad at cha! It was quite disheartening last night, I can't lie. We should have known this would be a strange season when Wandy was our best pitcher at one time (might still be, I need to look at the stats)
