Bautista 2023

[waroriole]

9 minutes ago, Chaka Garcia said:

Givens and Tate can’t get here quick enough. However, no guarantee they will be effective right off the bat.

Yeah the bullpen has potential to be really good when/if everyone gets healthy. I think the question becomes who do we send down. Are they ready to potentially lose Voth or Perez?

[Hank Scorpio]

Weather doesn't look promising tonight, unfortunately.

[oriole]

As soon as I saw him pitching at 97, I knew something was off. I just hope it’s not an injury. He looked terrible last night and it’s a miracle that he didn’t blow it. 

[sportsfan8703]

2 minutes ago, oriole said:

As soon as I saw him pitching at 97, I knew something was off. I just hope it’s not an injury. He looked terrible last night and it’s a miracle that he didn’t blow it. 

That’s the “downside” of winning so many close games… you run your closer into the ground. 
 

Cano should help.  I can’t believe how good he’s been. 162 is a marathon. We have to keep the big guy healthy. 

[Il BuonO]

26 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

That’s the “downside” of winning so many close games… you run your closer into the ground. 

Cano should help.  I can’t believe how good he’s been. 162 is a marathon. We have to keep the big guy healthy. 

That would be unnecessary if not for the insistence of having a “closer”. Baumann, Cano, Baker or even Coulumbe or Akin as lefties should be considered based on high leverage, workload and matchups. 

If the 8th inning brings the opposition’s 3,4, and 5 hitters I’d rather see my best guy then. If he’s locked into only the 9th that can’t happen.

Bautista has struggled with the splitter lately, but he still looks like the guy. A 100 mph FB is a nice thing on which to fall back.

[Mooreisbetter27]

2 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

That would be unnecessary if not for the insistence of having a “closer”. Baumann, Cano, Baker or even Coulumbe or Akin as lefties should be considered based on high leverage, workload and matchups. 

If the 8th inning brings the opposition’s 3,4, and 5 hitters I’d rather see my best guy then. If he’s locked into only the 9th that can’t happen.

Bautista has struggled with the splitter lately, but he still looks like the guy. A 100 mph FB is a nice thing on which to fall back.

Agreed.  Many of us in the game thread were opining about keeping Akin in before the trouble even started.  

[Il BuonO]

Just now, Mooreisbetter27 said:

Agreed.  Many of us in the game thread were opining about keeping Akin in before the trouble even started.  

Akin gets little love here, but his numbers weren’t helped early on in one particular outing where he was cursed with back to back cheap hits only to have Hyde bring in Baker who wasn’t sharp and promptly allowed a walk and a hit scoring two tins that were charged to Akin. 
 

Akin has always had a good spin rate on his FB and the slider works, while last night the CH looked good. 

[Getz]

He has been looking terrible, we're lucky he hasn't blown us games.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Getz

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Getz said:

He's been looking terrible, we're lucky he hasn't blown saves.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.  Will Hyde pull him out of the role if he continues to accumulate Saves while looking less than dominant? 

I think most managers will keep their "closer" in the role until they completely melt down.

[deward]

31 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

That would be unnecessary if not for the insistence of having a “closer”. Baumann, Cano, Baker or even Coulumbe or Akin as lefties should be considered based on high leverage, workload and matchups. 

If the 8th inning brings the opposition’s 3,4, and 5 hitters I’d rather see my best guy then. If he’s locked into only the 9th that can’t happen.

Bautista has struggled with the splitter lately, but he still looks like the guy. A 100 mph FB is a nice thing on which to fall back.

The closer-by-committee approach is a tricky one to get right; plenty of teams have tried and failed at it. Even the Rays seem to be shifting back to having one guy designated as the closer this year (so far). I do hope that the return of Tate and Givens will open things up to where Hyde doesn't feel the need to bring Bautista in for every three-run save.

[BRobinsonfan]

He did look bad last night and his velocity was obviously down.  But, at least by my eyeball test, he hasn't had the splitter working the way it did last year.  In the early games I chalked it up to the colder weather, but I think he's still trying to get the splitter working right.  Other than last night, the velocity has been there, so when he get's the splitter working he should (hopefully) be lights out again.   

[Il BuonO]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.  Will Hyde pull him out of the role if he continues to accumulate Saves while looking less than dominant? 

I think most managers will keep their "closer" in the role until they completely melt down.

Like he has with Perez? Again, there’s no reason to keep these guys in defined roles. We know the overall range of performance for relievers in general can fluctuate wildly, but managers insist on having closers and, to a lesser degree, set up men. 

I’ll say they lose a couple games just based on Hyde staying with him no matter what, like you said, until a melt down.

[Il BuonO]

2 minutes ago, BRobinsonfan said:

He did look bad last night and his velocity was obviously down.  But, at least by my eyeball test, he hasn't had the splitter working the way it did last year.  In the early games I chalked it up to the colder weather, but I think he's still trying to get the splitter working right.  Other than last night, the velocity has been there, so when he get's the splitter working he should (hopefully) be lights out again.   

Was it really down? I mean, I saw 99 and 100.

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Il BuonO said:

Like he has with Perez? Again, there’s no reason to keep these guys in defined roles. We know the overall range of performance for relievers in general can fluctuate wildly, but managers insist on having closers and, to a lesser degree, set up men. 

I’ll say they lose a couple games just based on Hyde staying with him no matter what, like you said, until a melt down.

I wouldn't go that far.

The truth is that massaging egos and keeping players mentally ready to play is part of Hyde's job.

Yes I think that Managers shouldn't structure their bullpen use around the Save stat but demoting a Closer can have an impact.

[TommyPickles]

1 hour ago, waroriole said:

Yeah the bullpen has potential to be really good when/if everyone gets healthy. I think the question becomes who do we send down. Are they ready to potentially lose Voth or Perez?

In fairness, the bullpen has been "really good" so far.

2.74 ERA. Third best in MLB. Better than every team in the National League.