Milwaukee Brewers Blog - Between the Green Pillars - All Comments

re: McClung Has Earned a Larger Role

radio silence — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:36:39 GMT

Nice post, Ryan.

I agree completely.

re: Playoff Rotation Triage

Ryan Topp — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:23:07 GMT

Mayo...

I get the points you make and I get it, especially the part about his not being our problem after this year. I don't want to take that too far and get crazy with him, but we don't have to worry about the long term.

Time is going to tell if bringing him back on short rest for the 4th straight start was the right call. I hope like hell it is. I just have some serious doubts that it is the best way to get to 3 wins before the Phillies do.

Nothing left to do now but wait and hope. Or pray, I guess, if you swing that way....

Thanks for the response, BTW. You post on the JS or SB a bunch?

re: Playoff Rotation Triage

joe mayo — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:49:07 GMT

Correction. The reality of staring at a computer screen for about 16 hours today must've crossed my eyes. I obviously meant that I vote for the former. The option that sends CC out there twice. Sorry about that. -- Tim

re: Playoff Rotation Triage

joe mayo — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:42:30 GMT

Ryan,

I'd have to agree with soberholtzer here.

I might have a slightly different opinion if CC was "ours" long term. Or if Sheets hadn't come up lame again. But he's the only healthy horse we got, so ride him as long as you can.

At this point, the only other starting options that inspire any confidence are Gallardo and Bush. And both have BIG question marks.

Granted, Gallardo against the Pirates (the unofficial 2008 Brewers MVP) looked sharp, every bit the future ace we all hope for. But he's coming off major surgery, so yeah, short starts, and you can't expect more than 6-9 innings from him all series.

Bush? He's sure had his moments of greatness this year. But do you honestly trust him in this situation?

The fact that these 2 guys are the "best" options after CC speaks to the importance of finding a way to make CC available for 2 starts this series.

Gallardo-Hamels

CC-Myers

And our Saturday game has got to be Bush - Moyer.

So we'll get one more shot at Old Man Soft Toss this year to see if we can actually be patient and slap singles the other way. Because it takes A LOT to hit a 72 MPH fast ball out of the yard.

I have NO faith in Soup at this point, but he's got to be your Game 4 man. If not, you might as well cut him in the off season and cut your losses. You're paying this mediocre pitcher >$10MM per year precisely for this situation. If he can't man up, or you're not willing to give him the ball once, then fire him.

I agree on Parra, 2 or 3 appearances in relief against the lefty heavy line up. Same thing with McClung. Use this seemingly strong minded stud at least 2x. If nothing else, an angry ginger kid should scare the Phils for one outing at least.

And I know this post has been rambling - but it's late and I've had the work laptop open for about 5 hours tonight so cut me a break. One final thing on CC - - -

Would you rather have a Game 2 and 5 outing of 6-7 innings and 2-4 runs out of him each game, or just a Game 3 shut out win?

Because the former is a "down" performance for him. And if our bats can't get it going in Philly to produce more than 4 runs, then we're not going very far anyways.

I vote for the latter…

-- Tim

re: Playoff Rotation Triage

Ryan Topp — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:29:36 GMT

Soberholtzer,

Well Dale has spoken and he's decided to roll the dice on CC for Thursday so we'll get to see if you were right to just trust the guy when he says he wants the ball.

It is true that pitchers went more often in the past, though the 1980's is a bit late for too many true 4 man rotations, I believe. Of course that was also before the power explosion of the late 1990's made it much tougher to get through big league lineups and made pitchers work harder to get outs. (there is also the Pay issue, but that isn't relevant here)

As for the Parra issue, I think you can fully expect to see him in at least a couple of games, number one almost certainly, to get through the Utley/Howard combo a time or two, so I'm not sure why it would be so bad that he not start. I do not agree that 4 starts by RHP would be a death sentence for the series at all.

I guess we'll get to see soon enough what comes of the decision to start CC on short rest. If he's great, I'll be sure to let you know how wrong I was.