Sigh.
Pitching, as we all know, is not 75 percent of the game. (It's more like 35 or 40.)
But, man, when you're not getting any pitching, it feels like it's at least 90 percent... When you fall behind by four or five runs, invariably you lose the damn ball game. Roy Halladay and Ted Lilly each have 12 Quality Starts. All the other Toronto starters have combined for just 13 more.
It is every fan's privilege, and probably every fan's obligation, to complain about the manager. There are a hundred different ways to push those buttons every night. While I am fond of saying that actual in-game strategy is likely the least important part of the manager's job, it is always going to be the one that we notice. John Gibbons has the power to make me complain about: a) his insistence on playing his favourites, for no logical reason, and b) his bullpen management. In this, of course, Gibbons closely resembles pretty well every other manager who ever lived.
I have no idea why anyone would let John McDonald bat against a right-handed pitcher, late in a ball game, trailing by three runs with two men on base. It seems... nuts? Who does? Sure, on the one hand, McDonald is obviously one of the manager's favourites... he hit a grand slam and drove in five runs the night before... he had two hits already this evening. On the other hand... he's John Freakin' McDonald, and the fact that he has two hits tonight and drove in five runs the night before strongly suggests to me that he's probably used up his quota of offensive goodness for the next few weeks.... What the hell. He got away with it, of course. Johnny Mac drew a walk to load the bases, and set the stage for Reed Johnson's Rally Killer, the good old GIDP.
Adding to my bewilderment... after McDonald walked, Russ Adams came off the bench to run for Molina. At third base. If Adams isn't going to be hitting for McDonald in a situation like that, what the hell is he even doing on the ball club? You might as well have Luis Figueroa up here, and let Adams work on his game in AAA rather than completely waste him like this. He may or may not amount to something useful - he certainly took a major step backward this year. But he's never going to amount to anything this way.
Oh well. Let's have a little Data Table to wrap this up. Here is the Toronto bullpen:
The main thing about this that interests me? Scott Downs. He has quite obviously been one of the team's three best relief pitchers this season. Tthere's really very little to choose from between Downs and Speier - if you're wondering, Downs has stranded 15 of 23 (65%) inherited runners, Speier has stranded 17 of 30 (57%) - and it really wouldn't be totally out of line if someone actually noticed...
Pitching, as we all know, is not 75 percent of the game. (It's more like 35 or 40.)
But, man, when you're not getting any pitching, it feels like it's at least 90 percent... When you fall behind by four or five runs, invariably you lose the damn ball game. Roy Halladay and Ted Lilly each have 12 Quality Starts. All the other Toronto starters have combined for just 13 more.
It is every fan's privilege, and probably every fan's obligation, to complain about the manager. There are a hundred different ways to push those buttons every night. While I am fond of saying that actual in-game strategy is likely the least important part of the manager's job, it is always going to be the one that we notice. John Gibbons has the power to make me complain about: a) his insistence on playing his favourites, for no logical reason, and b) his bullpen management. In this, of course, Gibbons closely resembles pretty well every other manager who ever lived.
I have no idea why anyone would let John McDonald bat against a right-handed pitcher, late in a ball game, trailing by three runs with two men on base. It seems... nuts? Who does? Sure, on the one hand, McDonald is obviously one of the manager's favourites... he hit a grand slam and drove in five runs the night before... he had two hits already this evening. On the other hand... he's John Freakin' McDonald, and the fact that he has two hits tonight and drove in five runs the night before strongly suggests to me that he's probably used up his quota of offensive goodness for the next few weeks.... What the hell. He got away with it, of course. Johnny Mac drew a walk to load the bases, and set the stage for Reed Johnson's Rally Killer, the good old GIDP.
Adding to my bewilderment... after McDonald walked, Russ Adams came off the bench to run for Molina. At third base. If Adams isn't going to be hitting for McDonald in a situation like that, what the hell is he even doing on the ball club? You might as well have Luis Figueroa up here, and let Adams work on his game in AAA rather than completely waste him like this. He may or may not amount to something useful - he certainly took a major step backward this year. But he's never going to amount to anything this way.
Oh well. Let's have a little Data Table to wrap this up. Here is the Toronto bullpen:
NAME G W L Sv Hld IP H ER R HR BB SO K/9 WHIP ERA
Casey Janssen 1 0 0 0 0 0.2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 3.00 0.00
B.J. Ryan 44 1 0 24 1 49.0 27 6 6 1 12 62 11.39 0.80 1.10
Justin Speier 46 1 0 0 20 39.0 34 14 15 4 17 42 9.69 1.31 3.23
Scott Downs 36 4 1 0 1 39.0 29 15 17 3 21 30 6.92 1.28 3.46
Ty Taubenheim 5 1 0 0 0 4.1 6 2 2 1 3 4 8.31 2.08 4.15
Brian Tallet 24 3 0 0 2 31.1 25 17 17 4 20 23 6.61 1.44 4.88
Francisco Rosario 15 1 1 0 1 19.2 16 11 11 3 14 18 8.24 1.53 5.03
Brandon League 6 0 0 0 3 5.1 6 3 3 2 0 3 5.06 1.13 5.06
Jason Frasor 33 2 1 0 9 33.0 35 19 19 6 14 34 9.27 1.48 5.18
Vinnie Chulk 20 1 0 0 1 24.0 29 14 16 4 5 18 6.75 1.42 5.25
Pete Walker 23 1 1 1 3 30.0 37 18 24 5 13 27 8.10 1.67 5.40
Scott Schoeneweis 48 2 1 1 17 33.0 34 21 21 3 11 16 4.36 1.36 5.73
Shaun Marcum 7 0 0 0 0 9.2 14 8 8 1 10 11 10.24 2.48 7.45
Jeremy Accardo 2 0 0 0 0 2.1 4 2 2 0 0 1 3.86 1.71 7.71
Dustin McGowan 5 1 0 0 1 5.2 9 5 6 1 6 7 11.12 2.65 7.94
Blue Jays 96 18 5 26 59 326.0 307 155 167 38 146 296 8.17 1.39 4.28
The main thing about this that interests me? Scott Downs. He has quite obviously been one of the team's three best relief pitchers this season. Tthere's really very little to choose from between Downs and Speier - if you're wondering, Downs has stranded 15 of 23 (65%) inherited runners, Speier has stranded 17 of 30 (57%) - and it really wouldn't be totally out of line if someone actually noticed...
