Craig Kimbrel 2024

[Chavez Ravine]

lol. There are archived versions of this exact thread on the Dodgers and Phillies fan boards. The dude you want to close out the World Series for you is not the dude that walks the bottom of the order then gives up a Weaver—-no matter how many days of rest or work he has been on. 

[Jagwar]

59 minutes ago, FlaO'sFan said:

It looked like Kimbrel was close to the front of the pack that sprinted out to Mullins at second base and was as excited as anyone. That had to have been a tremendous relief for him after that homer...lol.

I hate that he blew the save and got the win. 

[eddie83]

39 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He can pitch back to back days

 

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I’m sure Hyde wanted Kimbrel to get a good bit of rest after pitching in 4 of 6 games on the road trip.  Still, I agree he probably  should have gotten him into a game on Thursday or Friday.  Not an easy call though because you don’t want to use him and then he’s got to come in the next day in a tight spot and then he’s unavailable the third day.  You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.  

I would have thrown him in the 9th yesterday. Heck they could have brought him in with 2 outs if they wanted. 

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

I hate that he blew the save and got the win. 

Wins and saves are both low value stats.

Should be up to the official scorer's discretion.

[eddie83]

 Not saying this happened but it’s possible Kimbrel preferred not coming into a low leverage spot to get work. Maybe Hyde and him talked about it.  

[LookitsPuck]

Think he got squeezed when every Yankee pitcher had an expanded zone. That said, what did McCann and Hyde have him throw…12 or so fastballs in a row. Why? 

[Allan Bryant]

5 hours ago, Jagwar said:

I hate that he blew the save and got the win. 

Can you blame him ?  lol 

[OriolesMagic83]

Like there are backwards K-s, there should be sideways W's.  That's for the wins a pitcher stole from other pitchers while trying to lose the game.

[baltfan]

8 hours ago, ORIOLE33 said:

One thing about this fanbase, they'll never run out of excuses. Kimbrel will walk guys on two days rest. I'm not buying the "he hasn't pitched in a week" excuse. 

You should. We have this result and his result in the first game of the season that shows he struggles with command and control when he gets too much rest.  

[25 Nuggets]

Ma-son Mil-ler

-clap clap clap clap clap-

Ma-son Mil-ler

-clap clap clap clap clap-

[banks703]

I was at the game yesterday and remarked how I absolutely hate how we bring in a guy to finish an inning, face one batter and then do the same thing the next inning. I realize that CK has been pretty good of late but I told my friend who is a Yankees fan that he would blow the game because I didn't like the matchups for him at the bottom of their lineup/turning it over to the top and Rice had been coming out of his shoes all day. Sure enough, when CK couldn't locate, I told him that either Rice or Soto would go yard because they would just sit on their pitch. The ball that Rice hit was absurdly loud (we sat under the cover of the second deck on the 3B side). He squared up CK like nobody's business.

Again, I know that he's been pretty good of late but gosh, I do not trust him in big games. The 3 batter minimum rule really hurts when someone like Craig can't find the strike zone. If this is how Hyde is going to squeeze innings out of the pen, I'd rather he also do that with CK at the end of the 8th to see whether or not he's locating. 

[Just Regular]

I hope some of the tacit understanding between Mike Elias and Craig Kimbrel is the Club provides the Player a platform to climb the all-time Saves list and the Player will model team-first behavior as playoff pitching gets optimized.

Kimbrel's August saves are safe from Tanner Scott or Chad Green or John Brebbia.    Evaluating if you trust Yennier Cano for the end of the game is kind of the Arms equivalent to the Bats evaluation if Ryan O'Hearn and Jorge Mateo should take 20% of the PA.

[Just Regular]

From Jay Jaffe's article this afternoon looking ahead to future Cooperstown candidates with the class of 2024, which Billy Wagner narrowly missed, now enshrined:

Now pitching for the Orioles, his fifth team in four seasons, Kimbrel has climbed to fourth in saves (440) while delivering a 2.72 ERA and 2.93 FIP with 23 saves. However, he’s blown five saves already — matching his highest total since 2011 — and is in the red as far as WPA (-0.4) goes. Including his rough second half with the Phillies last year (-0.85 WPA), he’s gained just 0.1 points of R-JAWS relative to my last check-in and now ranks 13th, a full point behind Jansen and half a point behind 11th-ranked Jonathan Papelbon.

The 36-year-old Kimbrel is just 6.1 innings from reaching the 800-inning threshold, at which point his 39.3% strikeout rate would surpass Jansen by nearly four full points. His postseason line (4.50 ERA and 10 saves in 30 innings) is nothing to write home about, but like Jansen, he could benefit if the electorate is in an inclusive mood.

The K% leap from .355 to .393 at 800 innings is kind of cool.     Billy Wagner's .332 is third place.

At 400 innings Josh Hader's strikeout rate is .420, and that holds up the best at 200 innings and 100 innings smaller sample sizes.     Felix Bautista 2nd place at 100 IP at .404.

Fingers crossed Kimbrel can do some work on that 4.50 ERA mark in the postseason, should he make the roster.

[Moose Milligan]

[iiiput]

I don’t know what role he can have now, but it’s not high leverage situations. He can move into that 6th inning role since Hyde hates to let starters go deep into the game