Molitor

[DaveW]

His closer blew his first save and his second best reliever blew the game.

 

The problem is the quality of his options.

Perkins should have been back out in the 10th, or bring in your best arm: May. It was a foregone conclusion that the A's would beat Fien.

 

Fien has been garbage since late June. Just More deadweight to cut from this bullpen.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Perkins should have been back out in the 10th, or bring in your best arm: May. It was a foregone conclusion that the A's would beat Fien.

Fien has been garbage since late June. Just More deadweight to cut from this bullpen.

 

I just don't think they view May as part of the bullpen.  I think he's in some sort of weird limbo because they don't know what to do with him.  I don't know who is to blame for that.

 

And again, he can't pitch Perkins all night.  At some point he's going to have to call on someone else who is highly likely to suck terribly at pitching.

 

Get the man some better options and then it's fair to evaluate him.

[DaveW]

You can certainly pitch him one more inning against the best part of the A's lineup.

[TheLeviathan]

 

You can certainly pitch him one more inning against the best part of the A's lineup.

 

Using your logic we should only ever pitch Glen Perkins.  That's just not how it works.

 

It's not the manager's fault when you have only one functional bullpen arm.

[DaveW]

Using your logic we should only ever pitch Glen Perkins. That's just not how it works.

 

It's not the manager's fault when you have only one functional bullpen arm.

It is his fault when he refuses to pitch his 2nd best arm in May. Make up whatever limbo excuse you want, May is an infinitely better option then Fien, especially fien in his last 7 outings who can't get anyone out.

[TheLeviathan]

 

It is his fault when he refuses to pitch his 2nd best arm in May. Make up whatever limbo excuse you want, May is an infinitely better option then Fien, especially fien in his last 7 outings who can't get anyone out.

 

It's not an excuse, I think they don't want to use May in anything but a mop-up role until they can get him back in the rotation.  I think that decision was largely above his pay grade as well.  (And stupid, Pelfrey should be a full time reliever and setup man)

 

Fien sucks, we all agree.  This problem is on Ryan, not Molitor.

[drjim]

I personally thought he would go to May and save Fien for a potential save opportunity.

 

Molitor was actually more aggressive with his reliever usage than I thought he would be.

[DaveW]

It's not an excuse, I think they don't want to use May in anything but a mop-up role until they can get him back in the rotation. I think that decision was largely above his pay grade as well. (And stupid, Pelfrey should be a full time reliever and setup man)

 

Fien sucks, we all agree. This problem is on Ryan, not Molitor.

The twins are the only team in baseball who feel the need to not only have 8 RP, but make sure 4 of their roles are "mop up men"

 

Seriously, why not just put may in AAA and recall Vargas or someone who can actually come and PH for Suzuki at the end of a game? Instead you have 4 current mop up specialists you don't trust in big moments.

[TheLeviathan]

 

The twins are the only team in baseball who feel the need to not only have 8 RP, but make sure 4 of their roles are "mop up men"

Seriously, why not just put may in AAA and recall Vargas or someone who can actually come and PH for Suzuki at the end of a game? Instead you have 4 current mop up specialists you don't trust in big moments.

 

I agree.  The bullpen construction doesn't make any sense to me.  The May decision makes no sense to me.  

 

It's going to keep hurting this team if they don't act quickly.

[USAFChief]

I would have handed the ball to May to start the 10th, but that's not the issue.

 

The issue is, if the Twins take themselves seriously, Blane Boyer and Casey Fien can't be the first two righties out of the pen. That's not good enough.

 

Maybe May can be part of the solution, but they've had three weeks to make that transition happen, and have made no effort to do so. Regardless, they need bullpen help. Stat. Even if May, or Pelfrey, becomes a setup guy.

 

So either use your minor league talent in trade to go get some, or just come out and tell us all you don't have the will to do so.

 

This isn't on Molitor.

 

This is squarely on Terry Ryan.

[Danchat]

 

The twins are the only team in baseball who feel the need to not only have 8 RP, but make sure 4 of their roles are "mop up men"

Seriously, why not just put may in AAA and recall Vargas or someone who can actually come and PH for Suzuki at the end of a game? Instead you have 4 current mop up specialists you don't trust in big moments.

FYI, the Twins are back to a 7 man bullpen. This happened when Pressly went on the DL.

[SwainZag]

 

Perkins should have been back out in the 10th, or bring in your best arm: May. It was a foregone conclusion that the A's would beat Fien.

Fien has been garbage since late June. Just More deadweight to cut from this bullpen.

 

You use Perkins an extra inning and you likely use Perkins up for the next 2 days as well.  Is throwing him out there in a tie game in the 10th worth not having him available tomorrow? 

[Bark's Lounge]

 

I would have handed the ball to May to start the 10th, but that's not the issue.

The issue is, if the Twins take themselves seriously, Blane Boyer and Casey Fien can't be the first two righties out of the pen. That's not good enough.

Maybe May can be part of the solution, but they've had three weeks to make that transition happen, and have made no effort to do so. Regardless, they need bullpen help. Stat. Even if May, or Pelfrey, becomes a setup guy.

So either use your minor league talent in trade to go get some, or just come out and tell us all you don't have the will to do so.

This isn't on Molitor.

This is squarely on Terry Ryan.

Chief, you are spot on. To add to this - Berrios is doing very well this year for the most part and because of his probable pitch count limit, he will not have a start for the big club this year. My hope, was to see him called up in August or September to see if he could be a neutralizing force in the bullpen... swing and miss stuff baby! If they will not use May in those situations right now, and I suspect he'd figure out how to be good at it, there is no way they would give Berrios a shot at it.

 

Hell Adam Wainwright was a bullpen star when the Cards won the WS in 2006 and ended up becoming one of best starting pitchers in MLB after the fact.

 

It is apparent the Twins have blind eyes for these kind of visions of having a strong starting pitcher prospect waiting for his turn and utilizing them in the bullpen and using them in high leverage situations. What a ****ing shame.

 

I don't particularly like this thread, I certainly don't like what is going on in the bullpen. And I do not expect to see a change in the philosophy this season and it makes no damn sense.

 

I would join the Islamic State before I would ever blame Molitor for this crap. Molitor's craftiness is one of the main reasons he became a HOF player, why he was a WS MVP. He did not lose this in the last 20 years, he is probably more engaged and informed than he has ever been... he knows Boyer and Fein are backend bullpen guys at best.

 

What a drag.

[AlwaysinModeration]

You use Perkins an extra inning and you likely use Perkins up for the next 2 days as well. Is throwing him out there in a tie game in the 10th worth not having him available tomorrow?

I am with Dave on this...Perk could have gone a second inning--would have given them the best chance to win. He didn't argue to use Perk 3 innings...just two. Using him two innings would not have meant he could pitch the next day at all. There is a 50% chance he would have been needed the next day anyway, but a 100% chance they needed him in the 10th last night.

[Willihammer]

Twins now 55/91 in SB attempts after going 2/5 today.  Is Molitor's stopwatch broken?

[DaveW]

The SB situation is now a disaster overall, couple that with the pick offs and the Twins are by FAR the worst team in the bigs in base running in those departments.

 

Add in the bizarre amounts of bunts the twins call in the early innings and it's clear Molitor is much more "old school" than Gardy and it isn't working.

[Secondary User]

After tonight's game, there should be plenty to talk about on this subject....

[Thegrin]

NO ! To me it seems he is managing scared.  Too often taking what he thinks is the safest choice.

[TheLeviathan]

His shifting alone destroys the "much more conservative than Gardy" argument.

 

But the team is giving up way too many outs on the bases.