I’m certainly not the coach and thank goodness for that but I have been involved with baseball my entire life, and specifically, pitchers/catchers.
So, after 48ish or so games, going into the home stretch here’s how I’d run em out.
Thursday night/ Dollander. He’s had a great year, and is extremely mature having been there done that. He has plus stuff, and doesn’t get easily rattled.
Friday night/ Drew Beam. I’ve made no secret of the fact I believe he’s our best pitcher on this staff. No, he doesn’t have the best natural stuff, but he understands how to pitch. Changes arm angles, deliveries, wind ups, speeds, will work fast, slow it down, speed it up, just naturally understands how to pitch and oh by the way also has plus stuff. Not as plus as the other 3 big dogs but plenty plus enough. In fact I believe he’s had the most quality starts on staff and if not, it’s very close. People mention him hitting a wall but I haven’t seen that. He’s the ace in my eyes but he’s also a true frosh and because of that I’d run him out second.
Saturday/ this was the toughest decision for me, but I’d ride with Blade. Plus-plus stuff but still gets it all over him if it isn’t great. Struggles with adversity some but has a wealth of experience in the most pressure filled spots and because of that I’d have him bringing up the tail.
I’d have burns ready to go and use him whichever night he’s needed. Along with seachrist for long relief and continue using the pen as has been used with the exception of giving Joyce an inning or two 7th-8th if needed or 8th only. Just a nasty absolute fireball set up man. A long forgotten part of the bullpen. Follow him up with Red. If he struggles and or doesn’t get it done, I quickly go to mark.
All of this is my opinion but would like to hear others as well as the whys.
Something I picked up on early in the year and spoke to my brother about early. I said it would burn us occasionally but I absolutely loved it. My pitching coach in high school drilled it into us and it was almost the same in college. But Frank absolutely drills into these men how important it is to get ahead of hitters. Like to the point they don’t even think about it, it’s just what they do and I believe because it’s a pretty common philosophy, a lot of teams have keyed on it and a reason why they have all been touched up a few times in the past 4-6 weeks. Hitters are sitting dead red fastball on first pitch they see and sec hitters for the most part take advantage of that bit of info. A few times because of the propensity for our guys to throw fastball first pitch trying to establish the count in their favor, they’ve been hit a little. Here’s the thing and the reason I don’t get real bothered. Even knowing they are looking for it, our pitchers are successful far more than they aren’t. This game favors the guy holding the ball and it’s wise to make the hitters beat you because odds definitely favor you by any where from 8-2 all the way to 6-4. Pound the zone and make the hitters win. They will lose more times than not and by pounding the zone, we walk very few so when the hitter does win, it doesn’t hurt very much, it’s just a solo. In my opinion, this is the best approach and I’m glad it’s franks approach.
The only argument I have against us doing it is by trying so hard to work ahead our guys leave several pitches between the thighs and the belt and even if they aren’t hitting it out, the likelihood of a hit goes waaay up on those pitches. But work too high they lay off, too low they lay off. The same pitch that’s too high in an 0-0 count becomes a hammer in an 0-1, 1-1 count and even more nasty in an 0-2, 1-2 count.
All that said, I love the philosophy and want to continue seeing it.
I’ll end with this. I’ve seen several saying our starters are struggling to get 5 innings and while in some cases, that can definitely be true, I believe the majority of the time they’re pulling our guys early is to not overtax the arms. A lot of these starts the pitchers could and probably should continue but Tony and Frank are playing the long game with this strategy and overall I dig it.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts, yours?
So, after 48ish or so games, going into the home stretch here’s how I’d run em out.
Thursday night/ Dollander. He’s had a great year, and is extremely mature having been there done that. He has plus stuff, and doesn’t get easily rattled.
Friday night/ Drew Beam. I’ve made no secret of the fact I believe he’s our best pitcher on this staff. No, he doesn’t have the best natural stuff, but he understands how to pitch. Changes arm angles, deliveries, wind ups, speeds, will work fast, slow it down, speed it up, just naturally understands how to pitch and oh by the way also has plus stuff. Not as plus as the other 3 big dogs but plenty plus enough. In fact I believe he’s had the most quality starts on staff and if not, it’s very close. People mention him hitting a wall but I haven’t seen that. He’s the ace in my eyes but he’s also a true frosh and because of that I’d run him out second.
Saturday/ this was the toughest decision for me, but I’d ride with Blade. Plus-plus stuff but still gets it all over him if it isn’t great. Struggles with adversity some but has a wealth of experience in the most pressure filled spots and because of that I’d have him bringing up the tail.
I’d have burns ready to go and use him whichever night he’s needed. Along with seachrist for long relief and continue using the pen as has been used with the exception of giving Joyce an inning or two 7th-8th if needed or 8th only. Just a nasty absolute fireball set up man. A long forgotten part of the bullpen. Follow him up with Red. If he struggles and or doesn’t get it done, I quickly go to mark.
All of this is my opinion but would like to hear others as well as the whys.
Something I picked up on early in the year and spoke to my brother about early. I said it would burn us occasionally but I absolutely loved it. My pitching coach in high school drilled it into us and it was almost the same in college. But Frank absolutely drills into these men how important it is to get ahead of hitters. Like to the point they don’t even think about it, it’s just what they do and I believe because it’s a pretty common philosophy, a lot of teams have keyed on it and a reason why they have all been touched up a few times in the past 4-6 weeks. Hitters are sitting dead red fastball on first pitch they see and sec hitters for the most part take advantage of that bit of info. A few times because of the propensity for our guys to throw fastball first pitch trying to establish the count in their favor, they’ve been hit a little. Here’s the thing and the reason I don’t get real bothered. Even knowing they are looking for it, our pitchers are successful far more than they aren’t. This game favors the guy holding the ball and it’s wise to make the hitters beat you because odds definitely favor you by any where from 8-2 all the way to 6-4. Pound the zone and make the hitters win. They will lose more times than not and by pounding the zone, we walk very few so when the hitter does win, it doesn’t hurt very much, it’s just a solo. In my opinion, this is the best approach and I’m glad it’s franks approach.
The only argument I have against us doing it is by trying so hard to work ahead our guys leave several pitches between the thighs and the belt and even if they aren’t hitting it out, the likelihood of a hit goes waaay up on those pitches. But work too high they lay off, too low they lay off. The same pitch that’s too high in an 0-0 count becomes a hammer in an 0-1, 1-1 count and even more nasty in an 0-2, 1-2 count.
All that said, I love the philosophy and want to continue seeing it.
I’ll end with this. I’ve seen several saying our starters are struggling to get 5 innings and while in some cases, that can definitely be true, I believe the majority of the time they’re pulling our guys early is to not overtax the arms. A lot of these starts the pitchers could and probably should continue but Tony and Frank are playing the long game with this strategy and overall I dig it.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts, yours?
