Unfortunately, Lidge can't pitch 3 innings in relief every game. And hes far from a situational pitcher like that. LaRussa would be faced with the same problems as Garner. How do fill the gaps between 2 1/2 quality starters and 1 quality reliever over the course of a 7 game series?
i take my chances with the guy that's getting it done that night. he didn't look like he was falling apart to me, at all. you go through that lineup two times clean...and on the 3rd time you make a mistake...i think i'm keeping you in there, unless i have the kind of bullpen the astros had last season. particularly when the pen has had to go so much because you've been pitching guys on 3 days rest so much.
Max, Its kind of like Bidge swinging at a low and away slider. Even if he happens to hit one of those out for a HR, you still don't want him swinging at that pitch next time up.
not a good analogy though...because the alternative is not swinging and taking a ball. the alternative to munro is harville and micelli. which is more like being hit in the balls.
its a good analogy in that you don't want a players' weakness exposed when there is a better alternative available Munro's weakness is getting through the middle innings and no matter how you look at it, the stats say that Qualls and Harville were better alternatives all 3 of their game logs suggest that Harville and Qualls were SUPERIOR middle inning options to Munro its all in the stats, and Munro's typical middle inning struggles didn't give reason to go with a gut feeling over history and percentages IMO
it's not like munro NEVER gets out of the middle innings without getting banged around. he made really one mistake last night that got him pulled. he pitched himself out of trouble earlier...and had a 1-2-3 inning just two innings prior. the bigger picture to me is that you have to get more than 5 innings from your starter. you just have to. and i don't think pulling a guy who gave up a grand total of 2 runs in 5 innings is a good move for this team right now. the guy was beating morris. we were still in the lead when he left the game. and we turned it over to what is very clearly the weakest bullpen of the teams left in the playoffs...a bullpen that has had to fill in over and over and over again as we've pitched guys on short rest. my thought is, if your starter is in...and he's only given up 2 runs in 5 innings...you let him get through that...see if he can work his way out of it with a ground ball...UNLESS you have some killer bullpen that you know you can count on. we just don't have that..
what is the story on Garner.. as far as why he didn't have a job to begin with this season? what were considered his weaknesses that made him jobless?
yeah Max, it is!! hes only pitched past the 5th inning 4 times, and past the 6th only once ...he has been pulled in the 5th inning or before 15 times this year according to some #s I posted earlier, his ERA is around 9.00 in innings 4-6 since August btw ...we had a killer bullpen in September Harville 0.96 ERA Qualls 2.41 ERA Miceli 0.84 ERA Lidge 1.40 ERA Gallo 3.00 ERA Wheeler 3.09 ERA Springer 3.09 ERA I don't see a reason to abandon the bully, even if they have been struggling. You keep going to them until they perform, or they fail and you go home There are few alternatives to that IMO, and no way is letting Munro pitch in game situations one of them.
I think LaRussa's contract is up after this season. I know Garner won all those games at the end of the season but if you can get a guy like LaRussa on the Astros im all for it.
Once again... LaRussa had all the talent in the world in Oakland and won only 1 championship. He's had the all the talent to do it in St. Louis since 1996, but the team has failed to get to the World Series... despite goin to the NLCS 3 times before this year. He's a great baseball mind... but there's nothing to say in his track record that he would have got this team to the "next" level any faster than any other great baseball mind. In the end.... if you don't have the talent... it doesn't matter who's at the helm. In fact, many can make the argument that Garner got more out of this team than he should have.
Garner's biggest mistake wasn't the Munro situation, it was his decision not to pitch Lidge vs the heart of the Cardinals' lineup. Pulling Munro wasn't a bad move, IMO, but pitching Miceli was a huge disaster statistically.
And with Jimy Williams, we end up below .500. I am disappointed in Garner, but he was doing great during the regular season. He just needs to stop overthinking on every possible move.
