Ennder

That has to be really tough to face a new pitcher with 2 strikes on you already.

Yeah I really hate that bunt even if it works I don't like it.

The Red's bullpen is not very good outside of Cordero so I like our odds here.

I'd imagine Stetter will face Dunn if Griffey gets on.

Gagne pitched back to back days so I wouldn't expect him to be out there in a tie game. I don't have a big problem with that though I'd agree with you if he were a bit fresher.

I wouldnt' go so far as to say it was the right move, but I don't think it was a bad move. It is a judgement call situation and I liked the move because it was so slow with the hook a lot of times last year. Now if he had brought in say Mota that is just a bad move.

But if Suppan goes out and gives up another bloop single then do you take him out because when Yost didnt' do that last year he was a moron? Is the difference between Yost being a bad manager for taking a guy out too early or not early enough exactly one bloop single? Yost did some pretty stupid things last year but I just don't think this is one of them. It might be a case of burning up the bullpen when you don't need to but the way we have struggled to win on the road I'm absolutely fine with better safe than sorry.

That is how Yost managed last year though and everyone exploded at him over it. Pitcher would be cruising, give up a couple bloop hits and one hard hit ball, Yost goes to bullpen which lets in runs and everyone says he is an idiot.

I think there is a group of fans who are willing to crucify Ned no matter what he does.. now I know there were people that were against the move when it happened but either way if Votto hits a HR vs. Shouse or Suppan, there will be 3 - 4 pages talking about what a dumb decision. Bingo, if Suppan gives up that 2 run HR I'm on the boards complaining that Yost stayed with Suppan too long when he has struggled later in games on a regular basis and we had 3 lefties and a pinch hitter left to face and no other lefties until Gagne time.

He was facing Lefty, Lefty, Pinch Hitter, Lefty. That is a very good time to put Shouse in the game. That was not a bad move, it was a move that did not work. Shouse wasn't going to be the guy to face Griffey/Dunn regardless because they are likely to come up with Gagne in the game if Shouse makes that out.

Well I think the idea behind the move was good, the result not so much.

I am shocked and pleasantly surprised to see Yost go with Shouse here.

I find it pretty encouraging that we are winning ballgames when over half of the lineup isn't hitting at all. If we can keep the solid pitching/defense going when the bats warm up we should be looking pretty good.

Looking at Wendelstedt's data from last year he has a small strike zone on the right side and on low pitches. He has a generous strike zone on the left side.

Just a hot streak. Hardy has still displayed 20+ HR power for his major league career if you discount that first half of his rookie year where he was so bad.

That says a lot about Gwynn since Gross has been better than him offensively career wise in the majors. Gross is a case of BABIP this year, he has had so many hard hit balls right at guys that it is just silly. Probably why Yost keeps sending him out there.

Yes they were traded, that isn't exactly available for signing though. Bedard has as much of an injury history as Sheets does and is hurt now. Haren took a big time set of prospects to trade for that we may or may not have been able to match. The point is these guys are not growing on trees. You can't just say let Sheets go and sign a 15+ win 200 IP guy for the money because those guys are very rare to find as a free agent in today's game. I don't want the Brewers to sign Sheets so I'm not even arguing that we should just re-sign him, the point is you can't just go out and get these magical aces in the open market very often.

But almost none of these guys were actually available this year which is my point. It is extremely rare for a healthy productive SP to reach free agency. You cannot just go out and grab a FA instead of signing your own guy. Seven of the 15 pitchers you listed have been wildly ineffective or injured this year already as well which shows the attrition rate on SP. Five years from now I'm willing to bet that at most 3 or 4 of those guys are still pitching at an elite level and have not had some sort of major injury.

A sore arm is a sore arm, every single year multiple guys who pitched 200+ innings for 3+ years in a row get hurt. Pitchers get hurt that is just part of the game. This year already we have seen half of the top 10 pitchers from last year suffer through some sort of injury or massive ineffectiveness and it is only April. That is why I can't get too worked up over a pitcher getting hurt. The odds are against any of our pitchers staying healthy two years in a row except for maybe Suppan who has shown a skill for staying healthy. Here is what the www.disabledlistinformer.com site had to say about it. " Sheets will likely be evaluated and an MRI should be taken shortly. While this could simply be a strain of the triceps, it would not surprise me at all if this was a rotator cuff issue instead. The reason being, the triceps crosses part of the rotator cuff in the posterior aspect of the shoulder in what is called the "Quadrangular Space." The inner (long head) aspect of the triceps actually crosses over one of the rotator cuff muscles (teres major), and passes underneath another rotator cuff muscle - the teres minor. In between this intersection lies the axillary nerve, which, when compressed, can offer symptoms mimicking "stiffness" or "numbness" in the area of the triceps and posterior-lateral shoulder. In my clinical experience, I have seen very few baseball pitchers present with a pure, isolated "triceps strain" - rather, there is almost always an involvement of these rotator cuff muscles. A strained triceps certainly sounds better to the press than does a rotator cuff injury! If a DL stint is required, expect it to last the minimum 2 weeks, followed by a rehab start or two."

Yeah that certainly does make it sound worse than the rest of the comments.

I really think the difference between Hall and Hart batting 5th and 6th is negligible so I don't think Yost is a hero or a goat for any of this. The difference between these two configurations isn't enough that random luck won't decide which is better. Same with Braun 3rd and Fielder 4th, it is just such a non issue that I could care less how it ends up. If anything Braun 4th is probably slightly better from a technical standpoint but it just doesn't matter enough to worry about.

Of course if it had been say Zambrano or Harang it would read something like Harang solid in win despite arm soreness or something like that.

Livan never got hurt but his career hit a downward spiral at a young age which I think is basically the same thing. You don't always blow the arm out, some guys just slowly lose velocity and become less effective. Zambrano has been like that over the last few years.

I think the fact that more of our RP can go 2 IP this year will keep the bullpen on task. While we have had to use a lot of innings in the bullpen so far i don't feel that it is particularily overworked because we have had so many 2 IP outings with 2 days rest afterwards instead of back to back 1 IP outings with 1 day of rest.

I would not be surprised if he gets 15 days off since we cannot decide which pitcher to drop to make room for Gallardo with Yost saying we don't want to take any chances etc etc. To be honest given the innings counts for Sheets over the last 3 years it would not bother me to see him miss 15 days with a minor injury at some point during the season. I think that would be a blessing in disguise type situation for this team.