That is right, I am still harping on that jackass Charlie Manuel. Once again, he pulled a pitcher last night for no reason to hand the ball over to The Bullpen with the 4th highest amount of blown saves (23) in the entire major leagues behind the likes of Tampa Bay, Colorado and San Francisco. Overall of 61 save opportunities, the Phillies have converted 62% of the time, the 2nd worst in the National League (only Colorado is better). If the Phillies could have just converted their save opportunities as well as Atlanta (66%) a team that has struggled with the bullpen all year, we would have two more wins.
However, the fact is our bullpen has blown games all year long whether it was Worrell, Adams and Cormier at the beginning of the year or Madson, Urbina and Wagner down the stretch. In spite of that, that idiot Manuel still believes the bullpen is our big strength. Our starters have had 80 quality starts ranked 8th in the NL and 13th in all of baseball. Add to that, Manuel yanking Tejeda 5 times before 6 completed innings when Tejeda had let in 2 or fewer runs (twice with zero runs allowed) and you'll see that our starters ranked in the top 10 in the entire major league.
Let's look at games that our starters received no decision meaning they were ahead or tied when they left:
Tejeda: 7 games (all 3 or fewer runs allowed)
Myers: 9 games (all 3 or fewer runs)
Leiber: 4 games (all 3 or fewer runs allowed)
Wolf: 3 games (all 3 or fewer runs)
Padilla: 5 games (three with 3 or fewer runs allowed)
Lidle: 6 games (five with 3 or fewer runs)
Brito: 2 games (all 3 or fewer runs)
That is 36 games that the starter was pulled when he was ahead or tied. 33 times the starter had allowed 3 or fewer runs which means that they were pitching well. 18 of these games ended up as losses.
Not even factored in this are the inherited runners that the bullpen allowed to score giving a lodss to the starter or the close games that the bullpen just turned in to a laugher.
My point is thinking that 3 or 4 guys are going to pitch well every day is just plain stupid. A good manager goes with the guy that has good stuff, that is getting hitters out rather than take a chance with someone who may have a bad day. Manuel doesn't get this and that is why we are trailing in the wild card race and not battling Atlanta for the division lead.
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Posted by john on Sep 27
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