Tommy Hunter AGAIN!

[weams]

He might have said something similar about JJ last year. Maybe not, because JJ was a veteran with hundreds of saves for the O's, but the more important thing is that Buck himself needs to improve his management the team's closer and overall bullpen.

I hate how he uses that phrase "I believe in the win rule." He's completely going against the implications of that statement by acting solely in response to the save rule. He's suggesting that all that matters is getting a win, and that a win is more important than getting a save, but his actions fly in the face of that; all he's doing in using one pitcher to get almost every single save.

Buck very rarely uses his closers/late relievers in ways that will maximize his chances of getting a win when his closer is struggling. Unless his closer has pitched 3 days in a row, he uses the same guy every time a save situation comes up, regardless of how his closer has been pitching, regardless of how overused that closer might be, and regardless of game conditions. Tonight, Britton should have kept pitching until he allowed a baserunner in the ninth, at the very least.

Buck is too loyal to his players and he's a slave to the save rule. He pigeonholes whoever his closer is and fails to adapt to how his relievers have been performing.

And yet, he has brought winning back to Baltimore.

[Rene88]

He might have said something similar about JJ last year. Maybe not, because JJ was a veteran with hundreds of saves for the O's, but the more important thing is that Buck himself needs to improve his management the team's closer and overall bullpen.

I hate how he uses that phrase "I believe in the win rule." He's completely going against the implications of that statement by acting solely in response to the save rule. He's suggesting that all that matters is getting a win, and that a win is more important than getting a save, but his actions fly in the face of that; all he's doing in using one pitcher to get almost every single save.

Buck very rarely uses his closers/late relievers in ways that will maximize his chances of getting a win when his closer is struggling. Unless his closer has pitched 3 days in a row, he uses the same guy every time a save situation comes up, regardless of how his closer has been pitching, regardless of how overused that closer might be, and regardless of game conditions. Tonight, Britton should have kept pitching until he allowed a baserunner in the ninth, at the very least.

Buck is too loyal to his players and he's a slave to the save rule. He pigeonholes whoever his closer is and fails to adapt to how his relievers have been performing.

Yep. Spot on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LookitsPuck]

They're NOT HITTING HIS CURVEBALL! Only 1 hit on his curveball. Hitters only batting .067 on it. His fastballs are getting clobbered. 4 seamer, 2 seamer, and cutter.

[EagleOriole]

Does anyone remember what life was like before Buck and DD? I do. I will take the win. Ultimately, Hunter should not be the closer, but maybe by showing faith in Hunter for a bit longer Buck is showing why he is so good at his job.

Managing 25 professional baseball players is easier at the keyboard.

[birdcrazy]

As I said earlier in the thread. Say you threw 94-97mph and only threw that fastball. What are the odds if you threw it for strikes you would get 3 outs before you give up runs?

I wonder if Tommy tips his pitches?

[ExileAngelos]

He might have said something similar about JJ last year. Maybe not, because JJ was a veteran with hundreds of saves for the O's, but the more important thing is that Buck himself needs to improve his management the team's closer and overall bullpen.

I hate how he uses that phrase "I believe in the win rule." He's completely going against the implications of that statement by acting solely in response to the save rule. He's suggesting that all that matters is getting a win, and that a win is more important than getting a save, but his actions fly in the face of that; all he's doing in using one pitcher to get almost every single save.

Buck very rarely uses his closers/late relievers in ways that will maximize his chances of getting a win when his closer is struggling. Unless his closer has pitched 3 days in a row, he uses the same guy every time a save situation comes up, regardless of how his closer has been pitching, regardless of how overused that closer might be, and regardless of game conditions. Tonight, Britton should have kept pitching until he allowed a baserunner in the ninth, at the very least.

Buck is too loyal to his players and he's a slave to the save rule. He pigeonholes whoever his closer is and fails to adapt to how his relievers have been performing.

As frustrating as this is Buck is no different than every other manager in baseball regarding the save rule.

[cacavolante]

Does anyone remember what life was like before Buck and DD? I do. I will take the win. Ultimately, Hunter should not be the closer, but maybe by showing faith in Hunter for a bit longer Buck is showing why he is so good at his job.

Managing 25 professional baseball players is easier at the keyboard.

We also have good players now. The managers before him failed mostly because we didn't have talent.

[EagleOriole]

We also have good players now. The managers before him failed mostly because we didn't have talent.

Since Buck took over, things have changed. You can quibble some of his moves in a game here and a game there, you cannot really quibble with what he has done over the course of managing the Orioles.

[CA-ORIOLE]

The lineup was setup perfectly for Hunter. A rookie who has struggled, Carter who is an all or nothing guy who has been mostly nothing, and Krauss. Springer, hitting .217, Carter .162, and Krauss at .164. Nice pitch to strikeout Springer chasing. Gets ahead of Carter 0-2 and instead of buring the pitch like he did with Springer, he leaves up just enough. A little bit of a seeing eye hit but he should have buried it on 0-2. Then he falls in love with this breaking pitch, insists on throwing it over and over again, and hangs two to Krauss with the 2nd one getting lined into the RF corner. Clevenger wanted something different. Tommy called him out to the mound and insistedon the breaking pitch and then hung it again. Lately, it seems to me that Hunter has gotten great matchups, continually getting the bottom of orders, and still keeps putting tons of guys on base. Hopefully, it's just a slump but he's not pitching as well as last year, although he is keeping the ball in the park.

Yeah, you nailed it. The Krauss AB was really bad. Krauss was all over his curveball and he actually shook Clevenger off to throw him that third one that got laced down the RF line.

[cacavolante]

Since Buck took over, things have changed. You can quibble some of his moves in a game here and a game there, you cannot really quibble with what he has done over the course of managing the Orioles.

I don't. I am quite happy with what Buck has brought to the table overall. But we are a good team now mostly because we have good players.

[notyourbuddy]

One outing? Bad luck.

Two outings? Bad luck.

Three outings? Bad luck.

Did he run over a Gypsy's cat or something?

(Bad luck is such a cop out answer. Fact is if you are throwing hittable pitches your BABIP is going to be high and tonight the dude threw three absolute meatball "spank me" curves/sliders. If anything he was lucky the first wasn't deposited out onto Eutaw Street.)

[Brooks The Great]

As frustrating as this is Buck is no different than every other manager in baseball regarding the save rule.

Not true. Look at what Bob Melvin did with Jim Johnson. Booted him for the closer's role after a couple of blown saves. Buck would have stayed with JJ for several more blown saves.

[Guest]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Orioles&src=hash">#Orioles</a> are 15-1 in games Tommy Hunter pitches. Only loss was a 10-4 game when he came in to get one out. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OriolesTalk&src=hash">#OriolesTalk</a></p>— Rich Dubroff (@RichDubroffCSN) <a href="

">May 11, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

More Hunter?

[cacavolante]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Orioles&src=hash">#Orioles</a> are 15-1 in games Tommy Hunter pitches. Only loss was a 10-4 game when he came in to get one out. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OriolesTalk&src=hash">#OriolesTalk</a></p>— Rich Dubroff (@RichDubroffCSN) <a href="

">May 11, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

More Hunter?

Don't let Buck see that.

[section18]

Hunter shook off Clevenger several times while he was pithing tonight. Clevenger was getting the pitch call from the dugout. He's not getting guys out and he's shaking off the pitch call? If Buck wants to keep Wallace around he better tell the pitchers to throw the dam ball they way they want him to or he won't be closing.