Author Topic: Buck Showalter didn't do Tuesday what he did do in July  (Read 659 times)

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Offline EasyAce

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Buck Showalter didn't do Tuesday what he did do in July
« on: October 05, 2016, 09:39:19 pm »
By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2016/10/05/buck-showalter-didnt-do-tuesday-what-he-did-do-in-july/

Charlie Dressen (
Ralph Branca over Carl Erskine, 1951), phone home. Casey Stengel (
Jim Coates and
Ralph Terry over
Luis Arroyo, 1960), there’s a call for you on line 60. Mike Matheny (
Michael Wacha over Trevor Rosenthal, 2014), come
out from under the rug.

All is forgiven. Buck Showalter died for your sins Tuesday night and slaughtered the Orioles’ season while he was at it.

Showalter wasn’t even close to the first manager ever to make the wrong bullpen decision in a postseason win-or-be-gone
game. But he may yet prove the most ignominious. Especially because the decision he refused to make Tuesday night was
one he made on 31 July—and got the result he could have gotten Tuesday making the same move.

When the Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion
proved Showalter the most extreme kind of wrong for not bringing in Zach
Britton to face him with first and third and one out in the bottom of the eleventh, in a madhouse called Rogers Centre,
you could almost hear Dressen, Stengel, and Matheny heaving sighs of vast relief. And offering hands of sympathy
while they were at it.

The worst part? Showalter actually should have known better even without knowing Dressen’s, Stengel’s, and Matheny’s
mistakes. He’d been in two previous postseason win-or-die games with significant bullpen moves to make, and he
made the wrong moves then, too. George Satayana may have had Showalter in mind when he observed what happens
to those who forget history.

* 1995, managing the Yankees. Game Five, division series, the Kingdome. Showalter has a marksman—
incumbent closer John Wetteland, after Wetteland’s heir apparent Mariano Rivera pitched five and a third shutout innings
including some extras. No, Showalter brings in Jack McDowell, a badly overworked veteran starter. Loses the game and
season in extra innings. Rejects a new two-year deal after refusing George Steinbrenner’s order to dump his hitting coach.

* 1999, managing the Diamondbacks. Game Four, division series, Shea Stadium. Double-switches his closer Matt
Mantei in against the wild-card Mets. Removes Matt Williams and shifts shortstop Tony Womack to Williams’s right field
slow. Womack subsequently drops John Olerud’s deep fly setting up second and third and a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Showalter lets Mantei work a third inning for the first time all year. Watches in horror when Todd Pratt hits one over
the center field fence to send the Mets to the NLCS.

Showalter has since earned a reputation as an astute bullpen handler . . . on the regular season. When he needed a
double play in the worst way possible Tuesday night, he didn’t bring in the one pitcher who could just about stamp it
guaranteed before he toed the rubber. And the Orioles still have the American League’s best record over the past five
seasons with no pennants to show for it.

Now, let’s go back to 31 July. Tie game, 2-2. On the road. Down 2-0 after six, the Orioles tied it in the top of the seventh
on a leadoff walk, a double, a run-scoring ground out, and a sacrifice fly. He went to his bullpen, saw Darren O’Day
and Brad Brach keep the other guys at bay, and brought Britton in to work the ninth. With the game still tied.

Britton had a 1-2-3 ninth and worked a scoreless tenth. The only blemish: a one-out walk in the tenth. The entire
performance: Two strikeouts, three ground outs, and a fly out. Tie held. The rest of the Orioles pen held fort until the
top of the twelfth, when the Orioles hung up a four spot on an RBI single and a three-run homer (Adam Jones).

Showalter sent Logan Ondrusek out to pitch the bottom of the twelfth. He had a 1-2-3 inning for the save and the 6-2
Orioles win.

The opponent? The Blue Jays.

“It was just frustrating having to sit there watching that and not being able to pitch,” Britton admitted after Encarnacion’s
ICBM sent the Jays to the division series Tuesday night. “It’s frustrating watching the guys battle ahead of you. You want
to go in there, and do the same. But it’s not my call. It’s not my job to put me in the game. That’s Buck’s call  . . .

“I was expecting to come in certain situations,” he continued. “Maybe if there’s an opportunity for a double-play ball in a
big situation, whether or not we were ahead, behind, or whatever.”

Even Ubaldo Jimenez, a starter, whom Showalter brought in with one out in the eleventh only to cost two hard-hit base hits
and first and third, expected Britton to come in. When Showalter visited the mound with the entire Oriole infield, Jimenez
expected the boss to have a hook on him.

“He’s our best pitcher,” Jimenez said, understating the case for the reliever who pitched himself into the Cy Young Award
conversation with a measly four earned runs surrendered in 67 innings . . . with all those runs coming in April, yet. “And
couldn’t get into the game.”

Britton himself even said in September his proudest moment on the season was that 31 July outing in Toronto.

“We got beat twice there, and it kind of was a big win for us, taking one of those games,” he told the Baltimore Sun. “It wasn’t
even a save, it was more just an outing where getting two innings against that team right there, and maybe three or four
innings later, we ended up winning. It was one of the ones I was most proud of.”

Left in Tuesday night, Jimenez did what he could. Even with Jose Bautista, who hasn’t been too successful against him this year,
on deck. Tried to throw Encarnacion something down, way down. Watched with horror when his meatball stayed over the middle
of the plate before Encarnacion sent it to the Van Allen Belt.

Showalter probably wanted a belt after that. If he’d been in Baltimore, he’d have had to wait in a very long line to get his—
accompanied by a drink.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2016, 11:08:36 pm by EasyAce »


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Online DCPatriot

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Re: Buck Showalter didn't do Tuesday what he did do in July
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2016, 03:52:43 am »
I would NEVER second guess Buck Showalter on this.  Could have been a case of fatherly/custodial love.

IMO, he knew exactly what he was doing.  A pitcher's mindset can be destroyed giving up the run that ends the season.

Britton is having a storybook season for himself.  A possible Cy Young candidate...Buck wasn't about to let something happen to the kid.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
"It aint what you don't know that kills you.  It's what you know that aint so!" ...Theodore Sturgeon

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"It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Buck Showalter didn't do Tuesday what he did do in July
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2016, 04:57:06 am »
I would NEVER second guess Buck Showalter on this.  Could have been a case of fatherly/custodial love.

IMO, he knew exactly what he was doing.  A pitcher's mindset can be destroyed giving up the run that ends the season.

Britton is having a storybook season for himself.  A possible Cy Young candidate...Buck wasn't about to let something happen to the kid.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Showalter "wasn't about to let something happen to the kid?"

Kid?

With six seasons worth of major league experience overall and three as the Orioles' closer---and with a) a 1.37 ERA and
b) 2.12 fielding-independent pitching this season---this is a kid?

Back-to-back All-Star teams . . . this is a kid?

37, 36, and 47 saves in his first three seasons as the Oriole closer . . . this is a kid?

28 years old . . . this is a kid?

This was the best pitcher the Orioles had this season.

This was a guy who'd pitched in a similar situation against the same team at the end of July and---doing
exactly what he probably would have done Tuesday night---called it the outing he was proud of most this season.

He should have been in the game Tuesday night.

Hell, he should have been in the game after Duensing started the inning with a punchout. He wanted to be
there, in that kind of cookery---that's what great pitchers want.

But back-to-back singles later, he still should have been Showalter's number one pick to face
Encarnacion. If you want to stay alive with another chance to win, you do it with your best. If you're going
to get beaten anyway by a guy who hit 42 bombs on the regular season, at least you got beaten with the
best you had to throw at him
, not by a pitcher who had a shaky season overall and isn't exactly known for
working in late-inning/extra-inning pressure situations.

This "kid," as you call him, would have been more than up to it. And if his gig at the end of July was an
honest indicator, he probably would have gotten rid of Encarnacion, at minimum with a strikeout, at
maximum with a double play ball. If a strikeout or other out, he can get rid of Jose Bautista on deck, who
doesn't hit him well.

Sorry, I'm not buying fatherly/custodial love here.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.