adambr2

Except that going into today, the Brewers relievers were 26th of 30 in innings pitched and appearances. There has been no wear and tear or extra appearances out of them. The 7th reliever on 22 of the 30 teams have less appearances/innings than Wang. Wang being the 7th reliever has zero effect on the team or its capability to win. He ate innings today just the same as anybody else's 7th reliever. Releasing Wang to put Figaro in the same role adds zero wins. Since it's not affecting our ability to contend, why not keep the "piece"? Except it's not that simple. Look at the individuals, not just the total IP of the pen. It's obviously a bit skewed when 1 guy has pitched just 3 times. K-Rod has logged more innings than any other National League reliever, he's at the top with 16. He's also at the top in appearances. K-Rod, Thornburg, and Will Smith are all in the top 6 in the NL in appearances. It's not just innings pitched -- you're putting a guy in a game, even for a hitter, you're getting him hot, sending him in, and adding mileage to the arm. Even just looking at innings pitched -- K-Rod is 1st in the NL, Thornburg is 7th, and Smith and Duke are both tied for 25th. Given that there's roughly 105 relievers in the NL active at any time, our top 4 are all in the top 25% in IP. Our top 3 are roughly in the top 5% for appearances. K-Rod is on pace to pitch 96 innings, and he hasn't thrown more than 73 since 2004. He can't keep up this pace. If you want to argue that April was an aberration and that we'll have less save situations going forward, that's fine, but just looking at the team IP and saying guys haven't been overworked isn't looking at all the evidence.

I applaud Roenicke for going outside the box today and I applaud Maldonado for doing his part to save the pen. As it turns out despite the very short start from Garza, we only used 1 inning of a regular reliever. Wang is designed for these situations anyway and doesn't really figure into our planning for close late games. I wonder if this could become a regular practice, and why more managers don't do this in obvious blowout situations if you have a tired pen. By regular I just mean a time or two a month in blowout situations, but it could make the difference the next day or two with fresh arms that you might have otherwise had to use. You don't need a guy to go do anything but throw strikes in some situations. Eventually they will hit them to enough guys to record 3 outs and that's all you need. Get out of the game and save who you can for the upcoming games.

Well, we could always have him hang out in the dugout and walk behind Braun if we really need to seal the deal.

Maldonado coming in to pitch?

Just get out of Herr today having used only Wang and Duke out of the pen.

I'm not bothered by anything Wang did today, but if it just so happens that his arm feels a bit sore today having pitched so much, we best not take any chances and send him to the DL for awhile.

Am I the only one getting a really crappy camera angle from the mound to the plate?

Gomez Herrera Gennett Lucroy Overbay Davis Reynolds Bianchi Garza

K-Rod has far exceeded my expectations. Whatever it is about the guy, he succeeds in Milwaukee. Will Smith was a fantastic addition. A guy who can be an elite LOOGY but he's not limited to being a LOOGY. I said a few weeks ago we probably should have held onto Aoki, I was wrong. Smith was well worth it, and they had it pegged with him all along. Thornburg ironically might be pitching himself out of the rotation just because he's been so good in the pen, they're going to be hesitant to mess with it. You know it's going good when you feel like Jim Henderson hasn't been very good with a 3.38 ERA just because you're comparing him to the rest of the pen.

Dead Simmons, why do you post here so much and in our game threads against you guys versus Cardinal boards recently? I don't mean that to be confrontational at all. You seem to be a very level-headed fan and I think I speak for just about everyone saying you're certainly welcome here and we're glad to have you. Just curious as to why you would prefer the virtual company of fans of a rival team versus your own.

I was saying that at the time. Bunting with Overbay was a ridiculous call. Especially with Reynolds on deck who is a very likely candidate to strike out with 1 out and make the sac moot. Fortunately Overbay bailed him out on 1-2.

He had one on March 31st though, so I think he "only" has 12 in April.

I was totally okay with this losing this game when it started. I'm not anymore. Do this K-Rod.

Pretty annoying to see Siegrest get generous borderline calls after seeing our relievers get squeezed this series.

I think I would rather see Gallardo out in RF than see Elian Herrera play one more inning.

Absolutely the worst time to walk a guy right there.

Lucroy single, Davis triple, Reynolds sac fly= 2 runs Lucroy double but would have been the same result.

Big insurance run.

could have struck him out 2 pitches earlier with a slider on the out side. You should totally be a pitching coach/manager in MLB.

Only Frank Drebin could have avoided calling that one a strike.

Spend all that time worrying about the runner on 1st, only to walk him into scoring position.

It bugs me to no end when guys are caught looking in late tie games with runners in scoring position. A single might win the game, and the inning ends with the bat on your shoulders.

The last 2 K's have come on main street fastballs. Come on, guys.

In part because we frequently make guys who aren't comfortable bunting go up there and bunt.

I know Martin doesn't play much 1st, but what universe was he operating in to think he should possibly be doing anything but covering 1st on a routine groundball to 2nd?