armadillooutlaw
Well-Known Member
Stop it, you two. Your fighting is tearing this family apart. Lol.I don't want to argue.
Stop it, you two. Your fighting is tearing this family apart. Lol.I don't want to argue.
Something also to consider are the opponents and their splits.Things to consider about who is in the starting rotation from here until the end of the regular season.
We have 10 games left. We are going to get six starts out of Montgomery, Dunning, and Eovaldi. That leaves 4 games for some combination of Perez, Gray, Heaney or Bradford.
In the last month, Heaney has one good start and one good relief appearance
In the last month Gray has had 2 decent starts and 3 bad ones.
In the last month Bradford has only had one start and it came 23 days after his last start in AAA. His five relief appearances in September were all scoreless. He averaged less than 1.2 innings per relief outing and he was used about once every 3 days.
If Bradford stayed in relief it seems, based on Bochy's history of using him, that that he would make three more appearances for a total of about 4.1 innings.
In Bradford's 7 starts this year he has averaged about 4.1 innings. The average was a whole inning higher when he was starting on a somewhat regular basis. Based on that, if he starts 2 more times he probably gives us 8.2 innings.
That means we should get 4.1 innings out of Bradford if he is in the bullpen and 8.2 or a little more if he starts.
It appears, the way Perez has been pitching we could very well get 10 innings from him as a starter.
I think if Perez starts 2 more games, we use the bullpen for 8 innings tops, and if Bradford starts we use the bullpen about 9 innings total in those 2 outings.
It is a good chance Gray gives us no more than 3 innings per start, meaning the bullpen would work 12 innings total, in his 2 starts. The results from 2 Heaney starts would be very close to the same, maybe causing the bullpen to work 10 or 11 innings.
Those are good points to consider.Something also to consider are the opponents and their splits.
Both Seattle and LAA hit left handed pitchers better than right handed pitchers, by around 0.15 AVG higher each. In fact, Seattle is the 4th best team in baseball when facing lefties on the road.
Of course Eovaldi and Montgomery are guaranteed rotation spots for the last 10 games. Let’s also assume Dunning is as well. That’s 2 RHP and 1 LHP. The remaining two spots will go to either Bradford (L), Gray (R), Perez (L), or Heaney (L).
Seattle’s 5 best hitters (Julio Rodriguez, Teoscar Hernandez, Ty France, Eugenio Suarez, Cal Raleigh) all bat right-handed and are all much better against lefties. Raleigh is actually a switch hitter, but he’s more dangerous from the right side. Kelenic, Ford, and Crawford are all left-handed.
So with Seattle, logic would say that Jon Gray would be a much better choice than, say, Heaney or Perez. But as we all know, Gray’s current form is pretty poor. So do you start the guy who has the best total stats from 2023 who would also theoretically give the opponent the hardest time? Or do you start the guys who have better recent stats/form but would possibly favor the opponent’s most dangerous hitters? Tough, tough call.
Maybe give Jon Gray one last shot at starting Tuesday against the Angels, and if he starts to struggle like he did today, go to another pitcher and then permanently remove Gray from the rotation before the final series against Seattle.
At this point, I am still wanting to win the division and have the Blue Jays knock one of our division opponents out of the wild card race.Cole pitches today for the Yankees
Maybe they get a win and gives us an edge going into tomorrow
Yuki Matsui, LHP, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
There are one or two relievers in this mix.
Naoyuki Uwasawa, RHP, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
There are one or two relievers in this mix.