Speier's had a funny year. He was unhittable through the first six weeks of the season, then grew mortal, and recently has been quite bad. He was streaky last year too, but his bad stretch came at the start of the season. I expect he'll right himself soon enough, but he can expect a few outings in middle relief till Gibbons recovers his confidence in him.

It worked out OK with Walker, even though the way he pitched didn't exactly fill me with confidence.  Gibby's pen management is getting creative, though, and that should bode well for guys' confidence as they're getting their chances.  Of course, I thought his 8th inning the other night would help Frasor, and it... didn't.

I have to say, though, Halama played Bengie Molina like a drum.  That at-bat was about as bad as it gets.

Good point, Laketrout.  Patterson's glove (and possibly his baserunning) might have come in handy for the O's late in the game last night.

I don't know if you were watching, Chuck, but Speier was not only pitching poorly but was highly rattled after the bases-loaded walk.  The first priority was to get Speier out of the game. 

I wish Gibbons had left in Janssen for another inning.  He was at 99 pitches.  I think there is just too much babying of the starters these days and they never build up any endurance.

  It wasn't that long ago that they wouldn't pitch Frasor on consecutive days because they felt he was less effective on the second day.  Yesterday was his 3rd game in 4 days and as soon as they brought him in I smelled trouble.

I don't know if you were watching, Chuck, but Speier was not only pitching poorly but was highly rattled after the bases-loaded walk.  The first priority was to get Speier out of the game. 

Yeah, I was watching. I have no objection to Speier being pulled. I just think that Schoeneweis should not have been the next man in given the likelihood that Patterson would be pinch-hit for. I don't think that Schoeneweis should be facing a RHB in a "game situation" if there are other options.

Either it didn't occur to Gibbons that Patterson would be pinch-hit for or he didn't care. I don't understand either of these.

I didn't reallize that League hadn't given up a HR this year.  He's had his most problems pitching at home where the old-style artificial turf is no doubt causing some of those groundballs to sneak through.  Speaking of the turf, Adams hasn't made an error  since Syracuse went on the road.

There’s a couple of interesting things with League’s stats. RHB are hitting better of him than left handed batters, batting .291 and getting on base .356. That strikes me as odd; does Syracuse’s home stadium play better for righties?

However, neither RHB or LHB are doing much damage, with a .329 and a .352 slg respectively.

Also, it has been mentioned several times that Syracuse’s stadium has a really bad infield (or something to that effect). League on the road has been pretty unreal:

IP 19.3, H 15, K14, WHIP .93, K/9 6.52

BAA/OBP/SLG: .224/287/284

At home his WHIP is .187 (on an undercover…) and opponent OPS is .783.

As a total aside, does any one else think that Cool Whip should sponsor an award given to the pitcher who has been most effective at preventing runner on base?

Way too defensive in my opinion if that is indeed the reason.I can't fathom any other reason why Molina is still standing at 2nd last night in the 8th with less than 2 outs.

Another small quibble with a Gibbons ploy is his penchant,at least a few times,of using Zaun as the dh with Molina behind the plate.I know he wants to get as many right hand bats in the game but he is playing with fire here.

Not only does he risk losing the dh with an injury to Molina but it limits his options late in the game via a pinch hitter or runner for either Molina or Zaun but especially a pinch runner for Molina.

So you want him to use his roster aggressively when it comes to making pinch-running decision that burn two bench spots and your warmed-up and (supposedly) better defensive catcher to gain a small basepaths advantage (the possibility that a deep single will be hit that Molina can't score on, before he reaches third base).  But you want him to use his roster defensively when he has a 1% chance of losing his designated hitter for one or trips through the order and having to go to his bench to pinch-hit.

I think you might want to ask yourself whether you prefer a manager to be ultra-aggressive or ultra-defensive with his roster and then arrange your criticisms to suit whichever one you choose... I mean, I generally agree with Gibby on both counts but I'm open to being persuaded otherwise on either.  But both?

I do agree that sometimes you should pinch-run for Bengie, but being up one with him at second in a tightly-played game against a team with lefties in the pen isn't it.

The thing with the backup catcher as the DH is, it doesn't actually limit your ability to pinch-run in a situation where you really need it.  If Bengie gets on in a tight and is the tying or winning run, you just PR for him, but Zaun back there and lose the DH spot.  So what?  It's going to be a couple of innings before the DH spot comes up and when it just does you just hold back a pinch-hitter.

I'm not so sure that the bullpen is pitching poorly because it is overworked.  I think it is just as likely that the bullpen is overworked because it is pitching poorly.  Except for Ryan and Speier, these guys have been struggling since the start of the year.  As a result, the team keeps having to use 3, 4, 5 or 6 relievers in a game to try to find somebody who has a hot hand that night, or to try to get platoon matchups that can help.  Speier certainly has fallen off dramatically since April so perhaps overwork is the problem in his case.

Some options are presenting themselves in Syracuse - I think Chulk should be back soon, League has done pretty well, Marcum just pitched a nice game last night, and Ryan Houston has done a nice job, although I think he still needs to refine his control.  Also, Taubenheim could go to the pen once Burnett is back (fingers crossed) and Rosario has pitched well and could be given a greater role.  Lee Gronkeiwicz must be disappointed that he is hurt when an opportunity may be presenting itself.