Syzygy Destroys Bullpen, Twins Lose
03 Sep 2010 by sirsean
Lately Bill Smith has been making solid moves to bolster the Twins' chances at a playoff run this year, making it difficult for reasonable fans to criticize him without celestial bodies aligning to bring about an unforeseen situation that would require far more bullpen arms than even Wild Bill would be able to acquire.
Well, there must have been a syzygy of some sort last night, because last night's 13 inning half-marathon showed just how frayed are the seams of the Twins' bullpen. Coming into the game, Matt Capps and Brian Fuentes were known to be unavailable -- Capps had just pitched two consecutive days, and Fuentes has a bad back for some reason.
So let's take a look at what happened, shall we?
- Scott Baker pitched just two innings before leaving with elbow tendinitis -- his return is unknown.
- Manship pitched well, leaving with a 3 run lead.
- Rauch pitched well too, leaving with a 4 run lead through 7 innings.
- Flores came in, despite the fact that he'd pitched in two consecutive games -- but he's not a Closer, so his arm doesn't need to be protected. He got one out and gave up one hit, and his night was done after 7 pitches.
- Guerrier came in,* despite the fact that he'd pitched in two consecutive games -- but he's not a Closer, so his arm doesn't need to be protected. He's also been struggling through one of his patented dead-arm periods (which he got because he's been pitching way too often). He got lit up, and by the time he left, the lead was gone.
- Crain came in, despite the fact that he'd pitched in two consecutive games -- but he's not a Closer, so his arm doesn't need to be protected. He's pitched well lately, but if there's one thing Gardy loves doing to a guy who's pitching well, it's ride him until his arm falls off. So enjoy that, Crain. Oh, and Crain gave up a home run, and the last Twins lead of the night was gone.
- Having exhausted all the available options in the bullpen, the Twins went with the only strategy that made sense. Continuing to preserve a veteran Closer at the expense of young starters! Duensing came in despite having pitched on Tuesday. One day's rest, baby! That's never turned into a long term problem for a team in the past!
- Then they needed another pitcher, so finally they brought in -- no, wait, never mind. They didn't go to Capps. Instead, they went with Friday night's starter, Nick Blackburn, who mercifully lost the game.
* Scott Ullger was managing at for the late innings, because Gardy had been ejected earlier in the game by Joe West, who continues to be very adamant that nobody can question any of his myriad terrible calls. I'm guessing Ullger was thinking, "What would Gardy do in this situation? I know! Put in Guerrier!" It worked about as well as you'd have guessed.
So the Twins managed to keep Fuentes and Capps out of the game, preserving the health of their pair of mercenary Closers at the expense of everyone else on the pitching staff, who have also been dramatically overworked in recent days. And if you noticed a pattern up there, I wouldn't call you crazy. It seems like every pitcher in the bullpen has been used in every game -- Gardy must have heard about this newfound vaunted bullpen depth, and forgot that it doesn't really matter whether you have 3 guys or 8 guys if they're all exhausted all the time. But it didn't have to be this way, Smithers; no, it didn't have to be this way at all.
Apparently, Gardy had been "begging" Bill Smith for bullpen help, made possible by the September 1 roster expansion. I don't know exactly why Smith was reticent to do it, but here are two possibilities:
Possibility The First: Gardy said he'd been trying to get ahold of him for the last two days. So maybe Smith is simply incommunicado. If true, that's pretty bad.
Possibility The Second: Bill Smith is waiting until the Rochester Red Wings season is over before taking away their most talented relievers. (I saw this a few days ago, but can't find the link to it right now. Damn internet.) If this is true, and Smith values AAA wins as much as he values MLB-pennant-race wins, that's really bad.
So basically, there wasn't any excuse not to have more relievers in the bullpen. At least Slama and Burnett, maybe Perkins and Neshek and Swarzak. There are warm bodies waiting in AAA, and they could have been out in the bullpen last night if Bill Smith had called for them.
And, because Blackburn was wasted in relief the night before his scheduled start, the Twins needed to find another starter for Friday night. Who should they go with? Pavano? No, they won't move him up a day. Swarzak? Too bad, he started on Wednesday. Perkins? Too bad, he pitched two innings in relief on Thursday.
Say hello to your Friday night starter: Matt Fox.
Who the hell is that?, I hear you asking. Well, good question. The Twins drafted him in the 1st round back in 2004, and here are his AAA numbers this year: 123 IP, 3.95 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 9.1 H/9, 1.2 HR/9. For what it's worth, every single one of those peripherals has trended in the wrong direction at each level throughout the minors. His stuff just doesn't play at the upper levels.
Put another way, Anthony Swarzak's AAA numbers look like this: 231.1 IP, 4.28 ERA, 5.4 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 10.0 H/9, 0.8 HR/9. So Fox has performed better than Swarzak, but Swarzak's just 24 and still a prospect -- Fox is 27 and on the brink of not being a prospect any more.
Matt Fox is 27 years old, doesn't have much in the way of stuff, doesn't have a track record of good performance in the minors, and is pretty clearly not a prospect. Good for him for making it to the majors.
But it took a whole lot of random, disconnected events all converging at once to get him this chance. Even if he makes the most of it, he probably won't stick around.
So hopefully he enjoys himself while he's here.
And hopefully Bill Smith has learned that he should never let this happen again.
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