Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 02, 2002
Busy Bullpens:

Today's Marlins-Cardinals game strikes me as the kind I don't like to attend. There were 11 pitching changes, 5 for the Marlins, 6 for the Cardinals. At least for Florida, when Penny could only go 2 innings, Torborg brought in a reliever who pitched 3 innings. He then let everyone work 1 innings, and they all pitched well. La Russa pulls his usual over-managing act. Pearce is gone after 4.1, so he brings in Stechschulte to finish the 4th. He gave up a hit but struck one out, so does he come out for the 6th? No, bring in Timlin. He pitches 1 inning, allows 2 baserunners but no runs. Is he strong enough to continue? We'll never know. There's a lefty leading off the 7th, so La Russa has to go to Matthews, to get one out, which he does with a five-pitch K. Righties are 4 for 20 with 4 walks vs. Matthews this year, but he has to come out for Dave Veres. Now Veres has been pitching well, but his ERA looks to me like it should be higher, and he already has 2 losses and a blown save. Veres also gets one out, but gives up 3 runs doing it. Rodriguez gets hammered in his 1/3 of an inning, and finally the ball goes to Hackman, who is allowed to pitch 2 innings trailing (I assume they were out of pitchers at that point).

Now doesn't it make sense, when your starter is knocked out early, to bring in a guy who can pitch a few innings, just in case the guy you want to finish the game stinks today? They had nothing when Veres blew up, because the Cardinals had used their better relievers already. It was easy to manage a bullpen when you had 4 great starters, Honeycutt and Eckersley. La Russa and Duncan were given too much credit for handling that staff.


Posted by David Pinto at 06:18 PM | Baseball