Heyman on Buck/Britton

[LA2]

Right. You can burn him. You can burn anyone in an elimination game followed by a day off. I think Buck was thinking I can get two outs with a pitcher who was dominant in August and September, then go to my closer next inning and inning after that if necessary. It was just the wrong call. And to expect him to say now after the fact "yeah, I made a mistake" is not in his nature. It would be tantamount to saying Ubaldo was the wrong call and he couldn't get it done. It's just not in Buck's nature to do that. Given the same opportunity again, I'm sure Buck would have gone with Britton. It was a bad call. But anyone wondering why he won't fess up to that is ignoring that doing so throws Ubaldo under the bus. While many would love to do that, that's just not how Buck operates. He would rather continue to attribute the loss to something other than his mistake of bringing in a pitcher incapable of getting 2 outs. And I don't necessarily blame him for that.

Excellent point. I also think he made every effort not to throw his flailing lineup under the bus.

[thezeroes]

I would have had Ubaldo on the roster for two reasons:

1) If Tillman got hurt in warm-ups or really early in the game and you essentially needed another starter.

2) For a really long extra inning game AFTER you have exhausted all your good relief options.

I bet every team puts a second starter on their 25 man roster for their 1 game wild card game for those reasons, and I fully support it.

But that in no way justifies using him before exhausting far, far superior relief options.

Dylan Bundy was on the Playoff Twenty-Five. He had not pitched since the 25th of September. With Ubaldo on the roster, Drake, Worley, Wilson, Wright, and Miley were all left off. Gausman had pitched just two days before and would have been used on very short rest. It would have been Miley's day for a side session and would have given another left handed reliever/long man. Better options than Ubaldo were to be had especially when going with a ten man staff. It would not have hurt to have had left one of Reimold, Stubbs or Mancini off the roster and added another pitcher either.

[Prayin4Reign]

Second guessing. It's what we all do best.

Sucks that we lost but I'm over it. It's not like I was yelling at the TV. Buck is a pretty solid manager, just seemed to me that he didn't want to show his hand yet. When I saw Ubaldo come in I wanted to feel more comfortable than I did. But the dude had been pretty darn tough over the last several games and was a prime reason we got to the wild card game. So in that respect I could understand the decision.

Like I said, I'm over it...and I love Buck. I hate that he got roasted for it and he'll probably continue to get that question the remainder of his life. I was happy to see Andrew Miller speak up for him. Pretty good show of character on his part and that's not something I'll forget.

75% of the team in the majors would gladly take Buck if they could. I'm happy he's an Oriole. We should all be.

[Ruzious]

Buck made several mistakes there - not just not using Britton. But the fact is - the O's might very well have lost even if he didn't make any mistakes. And the players themselves certainly had a ton of opportunities to do things to help the O's win. The loss was NOT Buck's fault any more than it was about a dozen players' fault.

[fansince71]

Excellent point. I also think he made every effort not to throw his flailing lineup under the bus.

I like this point. Just look at the teams still in it, hitters that know how to work counts and grind out at bats, make contact and put it in play. Oriole hitters besides KIm just are not capable of doing that.

[LA2]

Breathe deeply, and let it go.

Yes, good idea--At this point I think I'll be ready to do that when the Indians eliminate Toronto. Definitely once the O's prove they're ready in '17 to redeem some lost rep. I have many ties to S. Korea and this past year was a tough one to keep friends persuaded of Buck's preeminence.

[tntoriole]

The simple answer is "I made a mistake." Like players and GMs do. There is no real reason that Buck can't simply say that and maybe he already has to his players, but I doubt it. When he has made mistakes, he tends to go zen in his public explanations...like this one where he said "sometimes you just have to wear it." That phrase is incomprehensible. But, as Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan said in his lyrics to Things Have Changed...'there is lot of water under that bridge, and a lot of other stuff too."