Joe Maddon should Get the L here. Ugh.
Last week Joe Maddon took Andrew Heaney out of the game and the bullpen came through, lots of new faces. Then it crashed and burned at the end. Well the same scenario happened tonight but more of those new faces sure looked ugly.
On a night that Justin Upton hit his 300th career homer (breaking a tie with Tim Salmon for 150th on the all time list at 299), Shohei Ohtani hit a monster 3-run HR on a pitch less than a foot and a half above the ground and Brian Goodwin mashed a ball over the CF fence, all was good and clean and pure in the Halosphere… until it wasn’t. Mike Mayer, some guy named Barnes who looks uglier than Don Mossi and a guy with a name too close to Butcher to think he did anything but Butcher the damn game all, well, basically they all butchered the damn game.
David Fletcher did not get on base so maybe that was the omen.
The Angels are 2-4 or in 2020 math of a 60-game season they are 5.4 – 10.8 (close to the infamous 6-14 mark that started the 2002 season but still, UGH!)
Wait, they lost last night? LMAOLOLROFL… I 100000% thought they were going to win and went to bed early. JFC.
I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I think Maddon is throwing out these bullpen guys to see who’s a keeper and who’s getting cut when they need to whittle down the roster again.
That’s like two weeks away.
How many players will actually be eligible to play each day?
When the season opens on July 23 or 24, teams will submit rosters of up to 30 players, with a minimum of 25. Two weeks later, those rosters will be trimmed to 28, then to 26 two weeks after that. Once teams are limited to a 26-man roster, they will be permitted to add a 27th player for doubleheaders.
There will be no limitation on the number of pitchers allowed on an active roster this season.
He doesn’t need to test them all in the same game when it is still to close(Rahul) to predict the outcome.
Soggy Joe, a star contestant on “Press Your Luck”
Glass half full take: Games are still being played.
I’m sad. And I can’t show how much cuz no images
I know it is way too early (even for a 60 game season) but that W would have been nice to have in the standings right now.
Also that article pic is frightening 😂
If you weren’t around at the previous version of this site … Rev used to use some nasty images to depict a “LOSS” … something not even baseball related … and it would say “LOSE” on it! The one that sticks out to me was a weird image of Prince looking into a mirror and it was … uh … weird. Bat-boy looks nothing creepy like Prince did in that LOSE photo of Rev’s.
His WIN images were all rainbows and sunshine… so you REALLY WANTED A DAMN WIN.
Old timer, asking youts to get off his lawn … over and out.
So clearly we’re doomed.
Here’s a blanket for you …
So if Heaney “looks” gassed or struggling (questionable eyesight) then don’t dick around! Use your high leverage relievers. Bedrosian (ugh I’m now pining for freaking Bedrosian), Buttrey, Robles, Key. Save the fodder arms for a game like last night when you have a 10-2 lead
Soggy Joe is full of shit. Pulling Heaney because he saw him struggling in the fifth inning. The ol’seven pitch struggle inning.
Wow, no way to post images anymore
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?game_pk=631389&game_date=2020-7-29&type=home_pitchers&chart_view=pitch&chart_type=call_name&inning=5&count=&batter_hand=&pitcher_hand=&filter=&player=home-pitchers_488748&view=Umpire&coloring=Pitch%20Type
That was a bizarre managing job tonight. I love Joe but this was not his finest moment.
Turn the page and win the series.
While we don’t know for sure what Heaney would’ve done if he stayed in and I will err on a softer side than most by saying that under certain circumstances pulling him there could have been a good move, it definitely could not have gone any worse than it did with Heaney still in the game.
Long way of saying, I understand you, Joe, but you messed up. =)
I get the feeling that managers are playing it real safe w/ ramping the pitch count up with all the injuries that pitchers have been having around baseball.
I will retract my post about Maddon if Heaney pitches two CGs later in the year because his babied arm is in such great shape late in this short year, otherwise…
Didn’t Heaney have back stiffness 10 days ago?
OTOH, what sort of mind games does Heaney play with himself when he hits sixty pitches now? Does he overcorrect and get too fine, thinking his manager is coming for him at any moment?
Gotta nurture success and confidence when it comes. Heaney is the kind of pitcher that needs to find his groove and keep it. He loses it frequently.
I’ll repeat this here:
Most of the damage in the first 10% of this season can be sourced to the bullpen thusfar. You should be able to win a game against the Mariners with seven runs on offense.
If the Angels rode Heaney through seven innings, they probably would have had a 7-3 lead with Buttrey up in the eighth.
Joe out-thunk the game, undercut his #1 starter, and it did the team no favors. He needs to try to be less clever, respect success, and not play 11th dimensional chess.
We don’t know what the offense would have done if the inning had ended at 4-2 or 4-3.
I’m not blaming Joe because these relievers who can’t pitch are what he’s been given. A major leaguer should be able to get outs.
They gave up 9 runs. If these fellows had pitched last night and given up 9 runs we’d have lost that one, 11-10.
It’s not necessarily the reason why Joe pull him, but Heaney gave up over 1.000 ops to hitters faced the third time last year. It doesn’t surprise me Joe pulled him after he walked Crawford (Mariners lead off hitter) who he let Heaney face for the third time.
Then he shouldn’t be given the ball as a starter. Put Heaney in long relief. Things change, and you don’t know unless you try.
^ This ^. If you are a starter, and you can’t go through a line up for a 3rd or 4th time, then in reality, you are a not a MLB starter.
You play the hand you have. I get that Joe put in crappy relievers and they blew the game and that was a bone head move, but we don’t have this luxury of a bunch of starting pitchers to choose from. Should Joe have kept Heaney in the game, possibly, but he had let 5 out of the last 10 reach, his velo was dropping and he has a history of not going deep in the game.
If Joe was keeping a good starter in the bullpen or the minors who is better than Heaney, then fine, but to blame Joe cause Eppler hasn’t invested in a bounty of starting pitching is a stretch.
That being said, watching that game sucked and I’m angry too!!
No. Joe should have let Heaney go longer than sixty something pitches. The fifth inning was like seven pitches. Let the starters go longer. I would rather see our starters lose, than have the pen blow it. Plus does not seem to understand how to work the new rule for minimum batters faced.
The way I see it is that Joe made a couple of bad moves last night, but one of them wasn’t taking Heaney out to start after one batter in the 6th.
In my mind if you are a starter who has thrown a good number of pitches per inning and reached the 6th in a close game and then start by walking the lead-off hitter in five pitches you are telling me you are done. Plain and simple. And since I have zero patience for lead-off walks I can’t blame Maddon for that that.
Where he blundered was in putting the game in the hands on Mayers and Barnes. Mayers in particular had that deer in the headlights look after the 3R HR. He’s a kid who is not ready for those big moments.
Buttrey should have been brought in to close the6th, or at latest to pitch the 7th after we had regained the lead. Joe understands how to use your best relievers in the high leverage spots and not necessarily slotted in predetermined innings. He knows this. I was upset to see him go to the Mike Scioscia School of Managing by staying with weak pitchers longer than he had to,.
Agreed. I kind of firmed up my opinion on this last year, but I’d much rather a manager take a pitcher out too early than too late. If the bullpen sucks to the extent that it did, it is pretty much on roster construction. I don’t know if I would compensate by giving my starter a longer leash, because that might just lead to more problems.
first game of the season………Hoby Milner grand salami to Matt Olson. 29 yr old journeyman were his 4th team TB, Phil, Cleve. this pen sucks period……Billy just following his marching orders to keep payroll down in pitching, scouting, and player development. Sounds like the UTEP Disney movie where Don Haskins is told by the AD….”.We ain’t Kentucky!!!”
ACCEPT IT CTPG, WE’RE NOT THAT GOOD!!!
Kentucky?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysE-G40c04E
https://youtu.be/Mw0riLqQBj0?t=42
“I keep tryin’ to think, but nothin’ happens!”