GrayRod for Closer (just to end this season)

[ScGO's]

The Bullpen has looked a lot better recently. There is still dead weight in the pen, but hopefully Webb and Colombe are back soon.  I still feel the bullpen needs a better Closer option than Dominguez if they want to go deep in the playoffs. 

I would bring GrayRod back as a closer/late innings shutdown arm for the end of the season.  Cano, Dominguez, Colombe, Webb, Soto, Akin, Bowman, Perez with Gray Rod as the closer could be pretty filthy. Burnes, Eflin, Suarez, Kremer are your 4 starters heading into the playoffs w/ that bullpen.

I think this gives us the best chance to win close games and be competitive in late innings, while also managing GrayRods workload. GrayRod returns to starting next year. 

[Moose Milligan]

No, I really don't see it that way.

[Aglets]

Seems to me that having him replace Povich in the rotation would be more beneficial to the team.

[Sports Guy]

It’s possible. It just depends on how he looks coming back from the injury.

I said this yesterday but I worry about mechanical issues when he comes back and maybe shorter stints would be better if that’s the case.

Of course, if he’s not having those issues, I don’t hesitate to put him in the pen but your evaluation time isn’t going to be much, so I can see the scenario where this makes sense.

 

[StottyByNature]

I think anything is on the table at this point.  We've got to limp into the playoffs, try to line Burnes up for Game 1 and then see what happens.  It will be interesting to see how they use Suarez, too.

[Aristotelian]

I proposed this before he got injured. I don't know, he has good stuff for the job but we also have a need for a starter in Game 3. With Seranthony I don't think the bullpen is a weakness right now 

[dystopia]

No, we need him in the rotation. 

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s possible. It just depends on how he looks coming back from the injury.

I said this yesterday but I worry about mechanical issues when he comes back and maybe shorter stints would be better if that’s the case.

Of course, if he’s not having those issues, I don’t hesitate to put him in the pen but your evaluation time isn’t going to be much, so I can see the scenario where this makes sense.

 

This is where I'm at. We have to see where he is and how he looks. The fact that he's not throwing in games yet has me concerned about him being ready for the playoffs.

[Fiver6565]

Won’t matter one bit if the team doesn’t start hitting. Never thought that bats would be the issue with this team after all the injuries to the staff, but these guys can’t outhit anybody right now. The pitching has straightened out for the most part so the mediocre play we’re seeing is more on the bats. Did anyone tho o these guys were going to come back last night even when it was just 4-1?  They’ve shown us nothing to indicate they can do that in recent weeks. You can’t win if four runs is enough to beat you. 
 

All this being said, Grayson to the pen makes too much sense not to do it, given where he is in the rehab timetable. I just don’t think there’s enough time left for a build up. Big Ben seemed to agree with that when they were discussing it during the game. 

[dtk9119]

Time is quickly running out for him to get rehab starts and to build up his innings so I could totally see him in the pen. I would take him in any capacity right now. Starter, opener, closer, anything. Just get him back healthy and not risk his long term health.

[sportsfan8703]

Can Grayson hit?

Really don’t need a closer when there is no lead to protect. Just being a realist. 

[waroriole]

Yeah whatever try it I don’t care. This team has checked out from the front office to the players. I can’t see this team trying something out of the box like that. Most likely he’s done for the season. 

[Aglets]

2 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

Won’t matter one bit if the team doesn’t start hitting. Never thought that bats would be the issue with this team after all the injuries to the staff, but these guys can’t outhit anybody right now. The pitching has straightened out for the most part so the mediocre play we’re seeing is more on the bats. Did anyone tho o these guys were going to come back last night even when it was just 4-1?  They’ve shown us nothing to indicate they can do that in recent weeks. You can’t win if four runs is enough to beat you. 
 

All this being said, Grayson to the pen makes too much sense not to do it, given where he is in the rehab timetable. I just don’t think there’s enough time left for a build up. Big Ben seemed to agree with that when they were discussing it during the game. 

Just looking at the month of August we had the 15th ranked offense in terms of runs scored.  

But we had the 22nd ranked pitching staff in team ERA.

So it is not just a problem with one side of the coin here.

[theobird]

You have to have a lead late for this to make any sense. And the way this team is hitting, He won’t get into a game

[Just Regular]

He's trained as a SP his whole career.    I think if they shorten him - they basically make him a "super opener", giving him the chance to prep like he has for every pro game.

ALWC Game 3 would be a whole pitching staff scenario if it occurs, and if in the better scenario it is ALDS Game 1 after Burnes-Eflin take care of an ALWC series, the AL calendar is the one with an off day following both ALDS Game 1 and ALDS Game 2 giving its participants a lot of bandwidth to bullpen aggressively.

I think you probably should use Eflin and Grayson both if we are down 0-1, and that's an interesting call as Eflin is the one with reliever experience.

Edited September 10 by Just Regular