Showalter announces that Joe Saunders will start for #Orioles tomorrow

[winudi]

Because of the knee. The workout was on Wednesday and he was fine yesterday, but Buck is worried about the knee. I don't get that.

He may be on the roster, but I don't think he pitches no matter what tonight and I am pretty positive that even if Saunders does not give up a hit in 3 innings, barring a huge lead, he will be done for the night. My guess is Johnson is the insurance plan for Hammel if the O's win tonight.

[Brooks The Great]

I know this is a big what if but had Last nights Tillman faced the Rangers the results would have been less than favorable.

Given how well Tillman and the rest of the staff have fared on extra rest recently, I have no doubt he would have been better than he was against Tampa. Another reason it was a mistake to burn him. Tillman is also 2-0 in two starts in Arlington with a 1.93 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in 14 innings.

But it's in the past now, just have to hope Saunders can keep us in the game.

[Dr. FLK]

Given how well Tillman and the rest of the staff have fared on extra rest recently, I have no doubt he would have been better than hw was against Tampa. Another reason it was a mistake to burn him. Tillman is also 2-0 in two starts in Arlington with a 1.93 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in 14 innings.

But it's in the past now, just have to hope Saunders can keep us in the game.

People keep saying things like this. But we had to use him. We had to try and win that game to (a) keep our chances alive for the division and (b) have today's game be at home.

[NATTYBO's]

It has been rumored that Buck will have a short leash with hi pitchers tonight....my question is if you have 2 on with 1 out in the 1st with Hamilton coming up do you pull Saunders?

[Brooks The Great]

People keep saying things like this. But we had to use him. We had to try and win that game to (a) keep our chances alive for the division and (b) have today's game be at home.

No, we didn't have to use him. Lots of people thought that tonight's scenario was possible and that it was much more preferable to save Tillman. I disagree with anyone that thinks Saunders at home, the best case scenario, is better than Tillman on the road, which would have been the outcome if we had saved him. The Yankees comeback on Tuesday night should have made the Orioles' decision to save Tillman for them. Furthermore, our other options for Wednesday night would have given us a solid chance to win as well, I don't understand why people think not starting Tillman wouldn't still have given us a good chance to win the game.

It was bad baseball strategy, you have to save your best pitcher for an elimination game. Wednesday night wasn't an elimination game. Now we're starting our worst pitcher on the road in a park were he has awful career numbers against a team that pummels lefties.

[Big#3fan]

It has been rumored that Buck will have a short leash with hi pitchers tonight....my question is if you have 2 on with 1 out in the 1st with Hamilton coming up do you pull Saunders?

No. You throw everything high, and out of the strike zone. He'll strikeout! Have you seen him lately? He swings at anything and everything

[VeveJones007]

People keep saying things like this. But we had to use him. We had to try and win that game to (a) keep our chances alive for the division and (b) have today's game be at home.

A was a pipedream and B isn't as important as having a better pitcher able to pitch. There is no evidence for home field advantage in baseball, so B is purely sentiment. Plus, there's no guarantee that the pen couldn't hold down the awful Rays offense for 9 innings.

[Bradysburns]

http://espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/story/_/id/7794494/texas-rangers-yu-darvish-shows-grit-big-league-debut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Darvish

Just check out all the playoff/championship games he has started, going all the way back to high school. So he was amped for his first MLB game and overthrowing... I don't see that as indicative of big-game nerves at all.

[Dr. FLK]

A was a pipedream and B isn't as important as having a better pitcher able to pitch. There is no evidence for home field advantage in baseball, so B is purely sentiment. Plus, there's no guarantee that the pen couldn't hold down the awful Rays offense for 9 innings.

There's also no guarantee that Tillman would pitch a great game.

[DrungoHazewood]

A was a pipedream and B isn't as important as having a better pitcher able to pitch. There is no evidence for home field advantage in baseball, so B is purely sentiment. Plus, there's no guarantee that the pen couldn't hold down the awful Rays offense for 9 innings.

What? Of course there's evidence for home field advantage in baseball. This year AL home teams won 53% of their games, and that's consistent over many, many years.

Nobody can be seriously suggesting that a real, live MLB team with a chance at the division would lay down and throw a bullpen committee night, can they? That would have been outrageous. Buck would have been eviscerated, and rightly so.

[Can_of_corn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Darvish

Just check out all the playoff/championship games he has started, going all the way back to high school. So he was amped for his first MLB game and overthrowing... I don't see that as indicative of big-game nerves at all.

I know his resume. I also know what he admitted to in his MLB debut. Obviously it is conceivable that nerves could play a factor.

[LibertyTerp]

Terrible decision. We should have saved Tillman or picked Johnson. Batters are hitting .174 against Johnson this year and .281 against Saunders. We all know Tillman has been performing exceptionally. I know experience helps but sometimes you have to put your faith in a guy that has delivered exceptional results at the big league level even if he's less experienced rather than putting a mediocre experienced pitcher out there.

Edit: If we pull Saunders after a couple innings as long as he isn't pitching incredible and put in Johnson that would be genius. That would totally screw up the Rangers' gameplan.

[VeveJones007]

What? Of course there's evidence for home field advantage in baseball. This year AL home teams won 53% of their games, and that's consistent over many, many years.

Nobody can be seriously suggesting that a real, live MLB team with a chance at the division would lay down and throw a bullpen committee night, can they? That would have been outrageous. Buck would have been eviscerated, and rightly so.

I'm not going to bother arguing a generalized 3% difference from a coin-flip. Tell me how Arlington is that much different from OPACY. Oakland? Sure. Arlington? No.

I have stated my case for holding back Tillman in several posts in this thread. I'm not going to rehash it. If you disagree, look up one of those posts and can we re-start the discussion.

[Todd-O]

I'm good to go with Saunders pitching tonight. This is why we went out and got Saunders in the first place. In his three last starts he's averaged about 7 innings, roughly 3 runs, and about 3 K's per outing and the O's are 5-2 when he's gone to the mound.

We had to throw Tillman on Wednesday because he gave us our best shot at getting a game with NY on Thursday. Well, it backfired... but if Tillman hadn't gone and we lost 4-1, there would have been a ton of what-if's. Kudos for Buck going with his gut on that one. It just so happened that they O's were battling a team that won 90 games this year and has insane pitching.

At this point the O's need to play to win and that also entails making sure our arms are lined-up for later in the playoffs.

Forget Saunders' record in Arlington. The fact of the matter is the O's MUST score runs... I'm assuming Saunders et al. will give up 3 or 4 runs. So, our boys need to take some brains to the plate and figure out a way to generate more than he'll give up. Swinging at balls, low and outside, which they did the two previous games are our biggest concern.

Which O's offense are we going to see? Free wheelin' and power? Or tight and constantly putting the pitcher at an advantage?

[Eutaw]

I'm sorry but this is a total douchebag move. I could see Joe/Steve splitting the game but that idea doesn't fly with me. I'd rather lose with some dignity than win with none of it.

This. We don't take dives here. It's not the oriole way

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