Pirates @ Detroit 4/16, 6:40 start

rucker59@gmail.com · Post by **rucker59@gmail.com** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 9:22 pm

5B767B6A6D7C6B2B28190 wrote: Come on guys...wrap this one up. Inspite of our skipper.

Does he get credit for Kang's good game or just blame for Kela's bad one?

This would be a good thread of its own. I think has mostly been good this season. i really like how he's handled Melky, Kang. Morno. He's made the correct decisions with Bell. I really like how he's handled Martin and actually the entire outfield. Can't blame him for the pen. But he did make a mistake with V; unless there is some reason to sit him, I think this was nearly a costly decision.
Vazquez pitched 2 innings Sunday. That should have precluded him from pitching on Monday. But alas! The team was off on Monday. Then Hurdle decided it was also prudent to rest Vazquez on Tuesday even tho, as the only reliable arm in the BP and the one who generally protects a 1 run lead in the 9th, it meant trusting the unreliable Kela. They are also off on Thursday. This means that the 2 innings Vazquez pitched on Sunday require---according to Clint "I'm here to rest the players" Hurdle---that Vazquez must rest for 3 of the next 4 days.

Hurdle certainly is not to blame for Kela's poor pitching. But he is to blame for trusting the struggling Kela with a 1 run lead in the 9th when Vazquez had rested the day before. But Hurdle seems to believe that no amount of rest is ever sufficient and that losing is preferable to not getting plenty of rest.

Yeah, I agree this was a bad decision. I call it an "arrogant decision" because its not even a baseball move that failed, it was Clint deciding his "plan" is more important than managing to win the game.

And I've been plenty critical of Clint in past years. But he does seem to be managing better this year, actually, I'd say he's done a good job overall.

In addition to the above examples I gave, I gotta include Burdi as another example of clint pulling the right strings. Even though Burdi was hit pretty hard his first game, Clint has been moving Burdi up the ladder of responsibility. I think Burdi is going to be REALLY good for a long time.