From: john smith on
This team has played almost 20 percent of the schedule and are yet to
blow out the opposition once. Heck they haven't even won one game
comfortably . What is their largest margin of victory to date? This is
not a good sign. Close games mean an over extended bullpen..

From: John Kasupski on
On Wed, 5 May 2010 15:30:14 -0700, eddygdvd(a)msn.com (john smith) wrote:

>This team has played almost 20 percent of the schedule and are yet to
>blow out the opposition once. Heck they haven't even won one game
>comfortably . What is their largest margin of victory to date?

Four runs, which they did on April 27 in the second game of the three-game
series against the Disastros (6-2, six innings by harang and one each by
Herrera, Masset, and Cordero).

>This is
>not a good sign. Close games mean an over extended bullpen..

The complete game has pretty much gone the way of the auk* in MLB. As of Monday
night, the Marlins and Phillies were tied for the MLB lead with 3. Florida had
three different pitchers go the distance (Nolasco, Johnson and Volstadt). The
Phillies' three complete games have all been by Roy Halladay.

A couple years ago the Marlins set an infamous MLB record when they went 301
consecutive games without one, from Sept. 16, 2006 to Aug. 19, 2008.

The Reds had six complete games all of last year, and that made them fourth out
of 16 teams in the NL. Arroyo had 3, Harang 2, and Justin Lehr had one.

So since relief pitchers are going to pitch in most games eventually anyway, it
really doesn't matter too much what the score is when they're in there. What you
don't want is your starters to keep getting knocked out early in games so that
the pen has to pitch 5 or 6 innings every night, instead of only 3 or 4 - THAT
is what overextends the bullpen and is why you sometimes see managers leaving
starting pitchers in a game to "take one for the team" when they're getting
hammered. The only other thing the manager can really do to help alleviate this
is to not have guys warm up unless he intends to bring them into the game.

* - Whenever I use that expression, I am reminded of the poem "Caution To
Everybody" by Ogden Nash:

Consider the auk
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot to walk and learned to fly before he thinked

Nash also wrote this poem, which he titled "The Fly":

God, in his wisdom
Invented the fly
And then forgot
To tell us why

No, Mr. Nash...what He forgot was to teach Astros outfielders how to catch them.
:-) :

JK

From: john smith on
John K, I just made the point that this team hasn't blown out one team
all year. This is not good. Almost 30 games and not one walk in the
park...... NO EASY ONES.... Remember one thing about close games and it
has nothing to do with pitchers accumulating innings. Pitching and
laboring is very bad. Having to make perfect pitches on every pitch can
be a lot more stressful than throwing pitches in a blow out . Not one
pitcher has had the luxury of pitching in a blow out with the Red's
ahead this year. Pitching in close games can put a lot more stress on
one's arm than just accumulating innings.

Most of these Reds pitchers pitch "scared" and to corners. Good pitchers
just don't pitch this way most of the time. THE only guy who looks and
pitches with poise out there is Leake. Every other pitcher nibbles too
much. Whether this is related to lack of stuff, confidence or both. It
doesn't bode well for this team's chances.

I ask any of you, do you have confidence in anybody other than Leake
right now? I don't...


Has anybody noticed the lack of SHUT DOWN innings by Red's pitchers this
year? Almost invariably every time the Red's score, the very next inning
the opposition comes right back and counters. They have been very bad
this year in SHUT DOWN innings. This stat is the most important pitching
stat to me.

From: Will Vaughan on

"john smith" <eddygdvd(a)msn.com> wrote in message
news:6578-4BE2119C-1172(a)baytvnwsxa001.msntv.msn.com...
> John K, I just made the point that this team hasn't blown out one team
> all year. This is not good. Almost 30 games and not one walk in the
> park...... NO EASY ONES....

*snip*

Doesn't concern me - as long as they win them. In fact, winning like this
this early in the year should build some confience, yet keep them on edge.
People here complain way too much....


From: tom dunne on
On May 6, 12:25 pm, "Will Vaughan" <ws...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> "john smith" <eddyg...(a)msn.com> wrote in message
>
> news:6578-4BE2119C-1172(a)baytvnwsxa001.msntv.msn.com...
>
> > John K, I just made the point that this team hasn't blown out one team
> > all year. This is not good. Almost 30 games and not one walk in the
> > park...... NO EASY ONES....
>
> *snip*
>
> Doesn't concern me - as long as they win them.  In fact, winning like this
> this early in the year should build some confience, yet keep them on edge..
> People here complain way too much....

Are you complaining about how much people here complain? Ironic! :)

The problem with the Reds winning this way is that it won't last.
They've been incredibly lucky, and have the most 1-run wins and extra
inning wins in the majors. The truth is that the Reds have been
outscored by their opponents by 28 runs so far this season. That's
exactly one extra run per game that the Reds are giving up. When the
lucky breaks stop, so will the wins.
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