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Fernando Rodney
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If Smith closes, you strengthen the 9th and the expense of weakening the 8th. How does that leave you better off?
And sure, Smith has closed in the minors. But until he's done it in the majors, it's not a given. -
Fair point but finding a guy who can pitch the 7th or 8th is easier than finding a trusty closer so why not give Smith the ball in the 9th to shake things up?
Before this last blown save, I wanted to give Rodney a couple of more chances but he's too wild now. He may be overthrowing because his fastball isn't 97 mph anymore so he's putting guys on base due to missing his locations. Heck, he turned 38 in March and he's given up as many HRs this year as he did last year. He's already walked 12 guys in 22.1 IP and he's averaging less than a strike-out per inning for the first time since 2011.
Lastly besides Smith, the M's have RH pitchers like Wilhelmsen and Mark Lowe so one of them could replace Smith if they move him to the closer spot. Maybe Rodney not closing for awhile will resharpen his focus (if he's not generally too old already).Tequilla said:If Smith closes, you strengthen the 9th and the expense of weakening the 8th. How does that leave you better off?
And sure, Smith has closed in the minors. But until he's done it in the majors, it's not a given. -
It's probably less that Rodney is overthrowing the ball as it is that his stuff is more hittable and as a result he's nibbling and trying to be too fine because he doesn't trust the results when the ball gets hit.
The way that I look at bullpens is very similar to how Kansas City uses their pen. In an ideal world, you have a closer that pitches the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning. Each has "their" inning and that's just the way it is. The rest of the pen is tied into either piecing together the innings to getting to the "3 closers," filling in when one of them needs an off day, or to eat up innings in a loss.
The problem with the Mariners right now is who do you trust in the pen? I agree that Smith is the most effective guy. Right now you could argue that his greatest value is getting the team out of highly leveraged situations. The Bartender was a former closer and while his ERA looks fine, his WHIP is over 1.6 per inning, which is not indicative of someone I'm willing to trust in late game situations. Farquhar was also a former closer and now look at him.
By my count, there's 4 guys right now in the pen that you can trust (Smith, Furbush, Lowe, and Beimel). In today's game where SP's don't get deep, you can't win consistently with 4 trusted relievers.
The big concern that I have with Smith going to the 9th would be that in so doing, you may strengthen your outcomes if you get to the 9th but do you get to the 9th with the lead less than you currently are? For as bad as Rodney has been, he's 14 of 17 in save opportunities and one of the blown save chances turned into a win anyway. So if you're looking purely at results, Rodney's getting the job done ... just not in a comfortable manner. -
I'm in, give the jerb to Smith. What's the worst that can happen, he turns into Rodney?
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Let Smith close, you put your best fucking guy out there. "He's never done it before" is the most FS argument out there. At one point nobody has done it before.
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But who can we get that's better??
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HR, YKWilburHooksHands said:Let Smith close, you put your best fucking guy out there. "He's never done it before" is the most FS argument out there. At one point nobody has done it before.
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At this point a 50 something Bobby Ayala is an upgrade.
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Unbelievable... I just gave Boobs an Awesome !
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FREE PUB!greenblood said:At this point a 50 something Bobby Ayala is an upgrade.
