If he's going to give up runs, it's in his interest to do it in the first inning. That way, he's not a good candidate to come in as a reliever, and Gardy has to keep him in the rotation.1 1 Right up to the day he is DFA'ed
Makes complete sense. As a starting pitcher who had just taken his turn, and with injury questions, there was no rush to get to Rochester except to refill the feeder for the housecat and water the plants.
As an objective statement of the state of things, I guess that's right. I question how many 40-man rosters out there can withstand 3 infielders all on the 15-day DL at the same time. It's too many holes to cover; it's not a long enough time to warrant initiating a trade that another GM will see as being out of desperation.
His stats this year have opponents batting .265 with nobody on base, and .161 with men on. When the runners are in scoring position it's been .048. OBP and SLG run similarly. His career stats are pretty close to neutral in such comparison. Obviously these 2014 numbers will be up after this game. But let's be fair.
How will you know if he's right? BTW, I won't be watching this game tonight. Anniversary. My wife likes baseball, but not hunched over a screen, so we'll go out.