FanGraphs' Matthew Carruth reacts:
Amazing, just plain amazing. Forget the idiocy of holding your supposed best reliever back for a possible future lead for a moment and just soak in the stupidity on the part of whoever had Rodriguez up and throwing for 11 consecutive innings.A HardballTalk commenter correctly pointed out:
On the plus side, I think he’s stretched out now so the Mets can go ahead and get Oliver Perez out of the rotation.
If Jerry Manuel was so intent on killing his arm like he did, why not just put him in the game in the ninth and let him pitch seven or eight innings? At least then the Mets would have a bullpen available to them to back up John Maine.And some good commentary from Baseball Prospectus' injury expert Will Carroll:
One of the few things that is controllable is how often a player warms up, then is sat back down. It's something teams watch for and that has a pretty high "cost" to the arm. Baseball even has a term for it—"dry hump," for obvious reasons—and depending on the player, it can be pretty taxing. Hearing that Rodriguez did that nine times on Saturday goes beyond the weirdness of an extended game and well into abuse or just stupidity. After the game, the Mets admitted that Rodriguez had thrown "over 100 pitches while warming up" and "came into the game with a dead arm." Rodriguez is the epitome of the La Russa-era, one-inning reliever and basically started a game in the pen. Will he get five days rest? The last time Rodriguez did something like this, according to Kevin Goldstein, would have been nearly a decade ago, when he was at Single-A. How the Mets manage his recovery will be a very interesting one to watch.Nice work, Jerry. You have one bright spot on your team (the third highest reliever in the history of baseball, by the way) who kept relatively healthy last season and he now has a dead arm after throwing 100 pitches in the bullpen of an April game. That hot seat just got a bit hotter. And that, my friends, is the stupid call of the week.
Picture from MSNBC
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argh. i know, just lay it on. I would be sad, but Ike Davis is starting tonight! and my boss is out this week so I PROMISE a mets post!
ReplyDeleteEverybody always argues that the manager shouldn't take the fall for poor player performance. Well, this time, he most certainly does
ReplyDeleteYou wonder if Jerry Manuel is trying to get fired George Constanza style. Will he be dressing up in Tom Seaver's retired jersey and spilling sauce on it? Will he be taking the 1969 World Series trophy, tying it to his car and driving around the parking lot? What is next? Just put the man out of his misery at this point.
ReplyDeleteSomeone just pointed out this *gulp* in defense of Jerry: why didn't the pitching coach, the bench coach, or the bullpen coach say something? Wouldn't someone speak up and go "um, maybe K-Rod should sit down?" Maybe even K-Rod himself? Does anyone on that team care anymore? Mike Pelfrey (who actually got the save that game) seems like he's the only one who is trying. And when Pelfrey is your epitome of effort, you're in deep trouble
I can only hope that this is one of the straws that breaks Jerry Manuel's back! Until I read this post I was actually pretty proud of Manuel for managing his bullpen so well that rather than pitching Francoeur in the 19th we had K-Rod. Of course, that Met pride did not last long. Making our star closer pitch a full game in the bullpen is inexcusable. And while I love blaming Manuel for EVERYTHING, I totally agree with Andrew - where were the bullpen and pitching coaches in all of this! There is no end to the dysfunction that exists in this franchise. The Mets obviously need to shake something up - I'm still pushing for Bobby V to come back and lead us to a respectable season. I dream about Bobby V sitting on the sidelines in his Groucho Marx glasses and mustache.
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe that the Mets even won that game. They had one hit off of Garcia in what I think was only his second start in the major leagues and they couldn't even manage a run off of Infielder Felipe Lopez, who probably topped out at 75 mph. I know I should just be happy that we won a close, "hard-fought" (kind of) game, but the Mets can't even win without trying to injure yet another star player on the team.
Good points all around, Elissa. The great part too is that the two runs they scored was by hitting sac flies off of an outfielder who had pitched two innings. Jerry Manuel even tried to BUNT against the outfielder. BUNT! Give away an out. I'm telling you, he's trying to get fired. I mean the team is not helping him out much by refusing to hit Felipe Lopez and a backup outfielder.
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