Buck And "His Guy"

[Rene88]

Britton needs to stay where he is. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Oh, I agree 100%. But I don't think using him to close out a game or two when Hunter can use some extra rest is a problem.

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[Bahama O's Fan]

I think I also trust Britton to come in with runners on and Tommy to come in with a blank slate, than vice versa.

[Jonesy10]

Tommy's BABIP is .385 after last night. His FIP is still pretty much in line with his ERA though (low 3's) so if he keeps pitching this way we should expect similar end results with less heart pounding outings.

[usmcterp]

Keep in mind that the bottom of the 9th often doesn't get played.

That should not really have an impact on the graph, since it is average runs per innings. Less innings should just be a lower denominator. This of course assumes they treated each team's at bat as an inning to properly normalize the data.

[El Gordo]

When he blows 2-3 saves in a span of 10 G then I'll be worried. The CL job is to get the save, not make fans feel comfortable. As far as I can tell every team has a CL, and few are doing better than ours, so a lot of other fans must be even more uncomfortable than O's fans.

[NickM21]

I think JJ's elite season in 2012 (or well until the playoffs) gave many an unrealistic idea of what to expect from our closer. There simply aren't many elite closers that can come in and "guarantee" you a shut down inning. The Mariano Rivera's, Trevor Hoffman's, and Billy Wagner's of the world are no longer around. There's Craig Kimbrel and that's basically it. That being said, Tommy has been hit hard in several outings, barely managing to escape. He may be unlucky from a BABIP perspective, but from the eye test he's still been hit hard. I think he will be fine, but to expect more than what he's actually accomplished thus far (10/11 I believe? with a sub 3.00 ERA) is probably asking too much.

[Specman]

Major league managers are supposed to be the "BEST" in the world at what they do, yet the way I see it they are just "Zombies" following a set script.

Last night was the latest example.

The eighth inning Zach Britton had an easy 1-2-3 inning throwing maybe 12 pitches, yet again Showalter brings in Tommy Hunter who is reminding more and more of Jim Johnson or Two Pack Don Stanhouse. Tampa was one wild pitch away from tying the game and one swing away from winning it. He is very scary. Hunter allowed 3 hits and 1 run in the 9th.

Some reporter with kahunas needs to get Bucks thinking. You could see Showalter in the dugout thinking , "maybe I should have let Britton finish out the game".

I am not an astute baseball guy by any stretch, but this "MUST-BRING-IN-THE-CLOSER" (To spoken like Homer Simpson saying "Must- have-

donuts") is just getting ridiculous. Any average Joe could manage like this.

[orioles119]

Showalter is not alone in this behavior. Don't pretend that it's limited just to him.

[Shabadoo25]

Britton also pitched the night before, I believe.

If you want to continue to see good performances out of him, he can only be used so much.

[jabba72]

I think they should go on whoever needs the innings, either Britton or Hunter. Im not sure who else in the BP has Buck's trust to close.

[weams]

Major league managers are supposed to be the "BEST" in the world at what they do, yet the way I see it they are just "Zombies" following a set script.

Last night was the latest example.

The eighth inning Zach Britton had an easy 1-2-3 inning throwing maybe 12 pitches, yet again Showalter brings in Tommy Hunter who is reminding more and more of Jim Johnson or Two Pack Don Stanhouse. Tampa was one wild pitch away from tying the game and one swing away from winning it. He is very scary. Hunter allowed 3 hits and 1 run in the 9th.

Some reporter with kahunas needs to get Bucks thinking. You could see Showalter in the dugout thinking , "maybe I should have let Britton finish out the game".

I am not an astute baseball guy by any stretch, but this "MUST-BRING-IN-THE-CLOSER" (To spoken like Homer Simpson saying "Must- have-

donuts") is just getting ridiculous. Any average Joe could manage like this.

Showalter is not alone in this behavior. Don't pretend that it's limited just to him.

The Average Joe could not manage a MLB team, no matter what knowledge of the game or statistics he might acquire. There are not a ton of folks that could manage these multi-million dollar investments much better than the guys who have made a career of it. I do think that some new procedures are worth exploring. The shifting has had a visible impact on the game.

[mdbdotcom]

A few questions for the OP.

- Would you have felt better about it if Hunter had given up the three hits and a run earlier in the game?

- What if he'd left Britton out there and he blew it? What would your comment be?

- Do you think employees perform better when their role in an organization is random, or if they know what they will be called upon to do?

[terps19]

Britton also pitched the night before, I believe.

If you want to continue to see good performances out of him, he can only be used so much.

You cant expect Britton to pitch multiple innings on multiple occasions within a week and expect the same results. Britton has been money out of the pen this year, BUT you cant overuse him. Lets say Buck does let Britton come out for the 9th and the next day (today) they need a lefty out of the pen to lock down the 8th. You cant expect Britton to pitch 2 innings and then another inning in back to back days and think he wont be overused.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Some reporter with kahunas needs to get Bucks thinking.

Cojones. Otherwise, Big Kahuna would mean something completely different.

[El Gordo]

Major league managers are supposed to be the "BEST" in the world at what they do, yet the way I see it they are just "Zombies" following a set script.

Last night was the latest example.

The eighth inning Zach Britton had an easy 1-2-3 inning throwing maybe 12 pitches, yet again Showalter brings in Tommy Hunter who is reminding more and more of Jim Johnson or Two Pack Don Stanhouse. Tampa was one wild pitch away from tying the game and one swing away from winning it. He is very scary. Hunter allowed 3 hits and 1 run in the 9th.

Some reporter with kahunas needs to get Bucks thinking. You could see Showalter in the dugout thinking , "maybe I should have let Britton finish out the game".

I am not an astute baseball guy by any stretch, but this "MUST-BRING-IN-THE-CLOSER" (To spoken like Homer Simpson saying "Must- have-

donuts") is just getting ridiculous. Any average Joe could manage like this.

If you read the message boards of the various ML teams you might say the same thing about fans. They all say the same things about the manager. FWIW if Buck uses Zach two innings then he can't use him tonight. And as for Buck being old school, if that were true how come he picked up the shift so readily. They still don't use it in STL. Buck is smart and will adopt innovation when he judges it effective. Most baseball managers have their jobs because they have earned them. Most fans are fans because they don't know any better.