ashbury

Kepler with a fine throw to the plate.

A while ago a question was raised as to why Santana is performing better than early in his career. To my eye, it's because his workload was decreased by about 10% a few seasons ago. He's not exactly built like your typical rotation workhorse, after all. Suppose the manager and the pitching coach have located approximately the sweet spot in his usage, over the years. Do you send him out for the 8th inning of an 8-2 game, past 100 pitches, with some unmeasurable risk that you reduce his effectiveness for the next game, or even the next several? I don't know how you quantify this, but the manager has to make an educated guess, and I can't see it as remotely possible to make that choice. You want to win the game, but it's not the 7th game of the World Serious - you do have to think about the upcoming schedule too.

You can not hope to stop his bat, you can only hope to contain it.

I'm less interested in psychological explanations, and more persuaded the team doesn't have the horses yet to contend over a long season. Probably that puts us in the same place where it comes to their ability to hang in at the top any longer.

Giminez making fans forget Joe Mauer at first base, with those two catches of foul pops in the first two innings.

http://www.christiansteinerphotography.com/wp-content/gallery/sidegallery/lionel-hampton-fw.jpg

I think they are not paid their salaries during their suspension. Six games might be only a 3% salary reduction, give or take, but even for a minimum-MLB salary that's in 5 figures, enough to focus one's attention. If the purpose of a suspension is to modify future behavior, hopefully this does the job for all parties. In terms of the player's contribution to the team's results, maybe it's not sufficient, and a six-figure team fine should be added, to suitably focus the front office's attention as well.

Still, based on your spoiler I went ahead and skipped the game, and I'm glad I did. So there's that.

A lot of replies came in while I was typing, but I want to reiterate something. As I think you're implying, it's 20/20 hindsight to look at which pitcher was effective and which was not, as events actually played out. But the right way to look at it, IMO, is to compare how one plan compares to another when it works, and then see if the downside is too much worse when it doesn't. Rucinski in the 8th, at a minimum, stands out a mile in my book. If he fails, so what, you're back where you were. But what if he succeeded, even marginally, staggering out with an 8-6 win, say? That's a realistic plan, and one worth going for.

Unclear to me in all the discussion since yesterday is what plan Molitor had for the ninth inning, supposing Pressly had succeeded to a reasonable degree in the eighth. Did he say? Would he use Breslow, who was the next in the actual parade of relievers as events unfolded? Pressly for another inning? Or someone else? I'll go with Breslow, for discussion purposes. Now, what would be the outcome if this plan had succeeded? A victory, and for Tuesday and beyond you have Rucinski and Wheeler even fresher (they did come in with some recent mileage), and Pressly/Breslow unavailable for duty on Tuesday.What would be the outcome if the plan failed? We found out, of course. A longshot loss, Belisle and Rucinski in addition to Pressly and Breslow unavailable Tuesday, Wheeler still fresh as a daisy, as these things go.Next, consider the plan various critics seem to advocate: Rucinski in the 8th, and I suppose either Rucinski again in the 9th or Wheeler, in the name of saving the bullpen. If that plan succeeds at all, even with a few runs scored to somebody's embarrassment, you have your expected win, and Pressly and Breslow rested going forward, with Belisle also rested, being further down on the depth chart.If that plan fails, you have burned Rucinski and Wheeler, and have to bring in someone else, one of the three we actually saw. If they all fail, you lose in the same kind of debacle, but with the outcome of Breslow or Belisle rested for Tuesday or afterward.I'm sorry. That got long-winded. But I found it necessary to think through all the scenarios, to reach the conclusion that I believed to be in there: that even if Molitor's plan had worked, it wouldn't have worked very well. Wheeler's the wild card in this speculation. Which is more important, to have an experienced starter in reserve for long relief in the rest of the series with Houston, or to get that bullpen rested up? I guess some of it depends on how pessimistic Molitor is on Berrios. Boil it down to this. Five pitchers under consideration: Pressly, Breslow, Belisle, Rucinski, Wheeler. Rank them according to whom you want rested and ready for Tuesday (an 8-2 lead on Monday gives you that luxury). Let's say Molitor sees Wheeler as crucial as the long-man - fine, he might be wise about that. But he doesn't like Rucinski? Then he's the lowest priority for Tuesday, and that makes him first to go in the eighth inning on Monday. Belisle next, I suppose, then Breslow, whom you leave in to mop up to game's end if things go as badly as they actually went. With an 8-2 lead, I just don't see how the upside/downside calculation favors what Molitor did.

18! That's more strikes than Belisle has thrown all season, so far.

Hey, spoiler warnings, please! Some of us haven't seen today's game yet.

<off-color>Hawkins slipped a bullpen-style joke into the one broadcast of his I listened to, where he stated the name of a pitch supposedly a cross between a slider and a cutter.</off-color>

The Rucinzki one probably could have been triggered by the proverbial butterfly in a Brazilian rainforest.

If they go on a tear now, and approach 658-658, they'll have the Twins to thank.

All he needs to do is throw shutout ball for nine innings. Unless the Twins happen to not score any runs either, then he may need to put on his big-boy pants and go a few more frames.

Another frontrunner. Anybody can look smart checking the ERA lists and seeing video of a Deadman's Curve. Show me the "looking uncomfortable in jackets and ties years after retirement" crowd telling us that Berrios will be fine, back in 2016. That's the guys I want to listen to for insights.

We have our early leader for Post Of The Day.

Ben drove in both of his team's runs on Memorial Day, May 29, with an 8th inning single, but it wasn't enough as the Kernels fell to the Kane County Cougars 3-2, wasting a pretty good outing by starter Clark Beeker.

Aaron took a giant stride toward the consistency he no doubt needs to demonstrate to the Twins brass, with a quality start versus Indianapolis on Memorial Day, May 29. In 6 full innings of work he surrendered only 6 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7 batters. This makes four straight solid outings in his ledger. The Indians did score three runs against him, slightly raising his season ERA to 3.81. Two of those runs came courtesy of a fourth-inning homer by Elias Diaz; the other tally came in the sixth via a double and a wild pitch followed by a single. Slegers departed with a 3-1 deficit, having reached his likely planned limit with a pitch count of 101 (66 for strikes), but the Red Wing batters bailed him out in the bottom of the 8th with 4 runs, and Michael Tonkin picked up the 5-3 win with three effective innings of relief to close out the game.

Does anyone here ever post a new opinion in regard to these "old chestnut" topics? I'd like to re-affirm the moderation team's strong advice to stick to the topic and avoid turning the discussion toward the psychology of our fellow posters themselves. As you can see in the above exchange, it tends to put the person on the defensive, for no purpose. And with that, please return to the subject at hand.

Ervin got the last strikeout by the staff today. Think that might have something to do with the debacle?

They will call up Mike Quade from Rochester, but then not use him.

Making it an even tougher play. (I had forgotten the majority of Robbie's few innings in the field this year have been in RF.)

Grossman in left doesn't get within the same area code of that ball.