Buck Stuff

[Ripken]

It's not really. Take nothing away from what Buck has done for this team and organization, but not using Britton, leaving his starter's in too long and costing his team ball games are reasons why he never can win the big games or series.

I've been a big Buck supporter, and I think he's a great guy who cares, but there are other good people out there who might be able to take the team to next level.

Does Buck make all of our hitters (minus Kim) swing at constant garbage, as hard as they can, in every possible situation? Our offensive approach is horrendous. Some of us have been trying to point that out for a looong time. You can not sustain success, especially in the playoffs, with a lineup full of hackers. It's a seriously flawed roster and it can not win.

[emmett16]

THIS game was 100% on our complete failure as an offense. A complete inability to make a pitcher work...our complete ineptitude to do something OTHER than hit a HR. This has been an issue pretty much all year. WE MUST CHANGE THIS CULTURE.Sure, blame Ubaldo if you want.We werent going to score.You MUST BRING BRITTON IN THERE..unless he's hurt. Either way, this is really about an offensive failure. Completely and absolutely about incompetence as an offense.NO OTHER EXCUSES.

Dear Guy,

The 2016 Orioles do not make the pitcher work. Their offense functions off the home run. Is that good?no. Is that ideal? No. but that is your 2016 Orioles. The offense "functioned", the RF dropped a ball, and the manager sat the potential AL CY young winner. Some games we hit 1+ homers and typically win, others we hit 1- homers and other parts are exposed. This hame was lost on defense and bullpen management

[fansince71]

The same Pedro prominently involved with the previous worst bullpen management decision in playoff history?

Involved? What does that mean, was Pedro the manager. Im talking about Pedro the hall of famer.

[Tbone83]

I also don't know why you pinch hit your OBP guy for a batter who is actually worse in the field and much worse with the bat. Reimold showed his rear end tonight and it's the last time he sees a major league roster. Mark that down.

It's funny how with all the horrid at bats in this game that Kim is the one who gets PH for. He is the only player on the roster who I could even watch at the plate without cringing the last month of the season.

[orioleslist]

I strongly disagreed with Buck's decisions tonight.

I'm not prepared to return to the Sam Perlozzo/Dave Trembley days of ineffectual managers. Buck is insanely talented and a top five manager in the game. What he did was inexplicable, but it doesn't erase the fact that he has personally dragged this team to greater success than the sum of its parts over the last five years.

Agree 100% with this post. That being said, do we just let Buck off the hook or do we start a serious discussion on whether he's the one who can take us to the next level?

Obviously, that discussion shouldn't happen tonight, but IMO, we'll need to have it in the near future. (And of course, "we" here is a generic pronoun used for lack of a better alternative.)

Sent from my LG-D415 using Tapatalk

[O's84]

Bottom line is Buck is vulnerable to making decisions that in the post season that lose games. He over plays his hand and gets greedy. Again, I can't believe I'm saying this because I love Buck.

But it happened. Look, the loss isn't totally on him. The offense was awful okay, and some of the blame lands on DD for sure. But you gotta put Britton in. I just don't get putting a SP there who you can always put in later in the game. Britton is lights out, 0.5 freaking 4 ERA and it was the meat of the order of a potent Jays line up.

[section18]

I have not seen Britton interviewed anywhere. I'm curious what he thought of not being used. This does not make sense and Buck's postgame comments reminded me of when we lost to KC a few years ago. He looked lost almost like he was surprised the game was over. We really have to go home and no more games this year? That's how he acted. He didn't look disappointed to me. You can interpret that any way you want. Strange ending! I guess the money was on the Orioles in Vegas. I agree with Tony's comments.

[Moshagge3]

Involved? What does that mean, was Pedro the manager. Im talking about Pedro the hall of famer.

I know, but surely you have to see the irony in Pedro being the guy to defend Buck when Grady Little's decision to leave Pedro in the 2003 ALCS is widely considered the dumbest managerial move ever.

[Number5]

When the roster was announced, I read somewhere that Ubaldo was on the roster for this exact situation - extra innings. I didn't see a whole lot of complaining about that, so I'm not sure why we should be complaining in hindsight now. Ubaldo didn't have it tonight and we lost the game, but the decision was made when it was decided to have Ubaldo on the 25-man roster. Britton is the closer and we were the visiting team, so saving him for a closing situation does make sense. I thought maybe Buck might go get Ubaldo after the first two hits to bring in Bundy, but I really do get why Buck didn't have the closer in the game. In any case, the main reason we lost was we failed to score. Man, that first pitch to Reimold was a fat home run pitch - a mistake in the dead center of the strike zone - taken for strike one.

[Sessh]

You know in all the chaos I hadn't even thought of that. Wouldn't bases loaded no outs be more ideal that 2nd and 3rd no outs? At least you could set up the force at home. Probably wouldn't matter anyway but just sayin'.

There was one out. A double play ends the inning and you have a force at any base. No reason to pitch to EE there and no reason not to bring in Britton to pitch to Bautista.

It was first and third with one out. First base was not open.

You know, you're right. I thought Donaldson moved up on the bobble and bad throw from Reimold. Even still, no reason to pitch to EE there. He still should have been walked. The only run that mattered was on third base.

[Enjoy Terror]

When the roster was announced, I read somewhere that Ubaldo was on the roster for this exact situation - extra innings. I didn't see a whole lot of complaining about that, so I'm not sure why we should be complaining in hindsight now. Ubaldo didn't have it tonight and we lost the game, but the decision was made when it was decided to have Ubaldo on the 25-man roster. Britton is the closer and we were the visiting team, so saving him for a closing situation does make sense. I thought maybe Buck might go get Ubaldo after the first two hits to bring in Bundy, but I really do get why Buck didn't have the closer in the game. In any case, the main reason we lost was we failed to score. Man, that first pitch to Reimold was a fat home run pitch - a mistake in the dead center of the strike zone - taken for strike one.

Ubaldo was brought in for emergency relief, not extra innings.

[spiritof66]

I am sorry if I'm simply repeating what others said, but I didn't see this point made clearly in the preceding posts.

I wouldn't have brought Ubaldo in to start the 11th. I would have gone with Hunter or Bundy instead. But I'm not second-guessing that decision.

Ubaldo gives up two solid hits. He's clearly not at his best. Runners at first and third, one out. Encarnacion and Bautista coming up. If EE (or JB if you walk EE) hits a fly ball or gets a hit, the season is over. You really need a strike out or a ground ball to keep the lights on. Let's see, are there any pitchers available with an extraordinary capacity to get a K or a ground ball? Yes, there is, and his name is Zach Britton.

I understand that we were never going to win that game unless we scored another run, and we lost it because of a very poor offensive performance against some mediocre pitching. But when you have a path to maximize the chances of stranding the winning run instead of losing the game, you have to take that path, even if the chances of winning the game later are diminished.

not doing everything you can to keep the winning ruin stranded on third is indefensible.

[Rojo13]

We didn't even get a hit after the 6th inning, this loss has nothing to do with buck or the pitching

Not true.

I will say the game was great for Buck up until the 11th. I was shocked that he yanked Tillman so early but it was brilliant. Then he rode the hot hand Givens for longer than I thought he would(but just as long as I wanted). Then we had Brack and O'day.

But you simply can't bring in any starter - Ubaldo or Bundy - before you pitch Britton for 2 innings. Britton is the best pitcher on the team. He must pitch in the game. If he comes in, all we have to do is score in the next two innings and we most likely win. It might not have happened.

And if you are going to go to a starter, it can't be Ubaldo to face the #1 hitter. If he gets on, he will steal a bag. Ubaldon's worse inning is his first. He's wild. Ubaldo knew this and was piping the pitches.

My employee is a Red Sox fan (and lives in Boston). My friend said he was frustrated as hell as a sports fan that Britton didn't come in. HE texted me, "People up here are speculating Britton is hurt. He had to be in the game."

Nope.

That one mistake was the worse mistake I think I've ever seen any manager make. It would be like not batting Mike Trout in a game as you were waiting for an opportunity for him to come up with two on.

And the icing on the cake is of course how we all joke about the fact that he hates Kim and loves REimold but he pinch hits REimold (i wasn't happy but was ok with it) and then Reimold strikes out in 3 pitches and then makes a crucial error. Karma is a ****.

You couldn't make that crap up.

[ExileAngelos]

there is something of an argument to be made for that. we looked absolutely lost at the plate. we could have gone 20 innings without scoring a run.

Agree completely. I told my buddy when Liriano came in that it was curtains. We needed to hold on 2-1. We didn't. This offense lost the game.

[O's84]

I want to thank the 2016 Baltimore Orioles for an exicting season! Even though it ended in heart break I enjoyed it immensely, really one of my favorite seasons ever. Thank you Buck, thank to all the players though flawed, grinded hard and came up just a bit short. I look forward to a Gausman/Bundy (knock on wood) 1-2 punch with Tillman at #3. Our bullpen will also still be very good. Still might need to shore up 1 rotation spot though that is less of a need if Gausman makes the jump and Bundy stays healthy. Hopefully DD can find some ways to diversify the offense so were not as prone to these slumps. I also think Machado's 2nd half regression really hurt us but a lot of the line up wasn't hitting anyway.

Once again thanks to every player who played, you made it an exicting season and thanks to Buck, even if I'd rather have someone else at the helm making the post season decisions, he's worlds better over the regular season then we've had since Davey Johnson.