Post by Fish Troll on Apr 22, 2008 15:46:32 GMT -5
Warning, if you value your IQ highly, please do not continue reading this thread, thank you.
www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/baseball/marlins/sfl-flspmikeb421sbapr21,0,4011877.column
Its a 2-1 lead, you don't risk losing the game just to add insult. You don't go for a complete game when the lead is only 1, especially when it isn't a shutout. Beside Olsen is still a young pitcher, why leave a fatique pitcher out there when you can get the same production from a "journeyman" in Justin Miller. Pitching is like smoking, each time you pitch, you get closer to that next arm injury. I want to know what happen if Olsen fail that inning and then the bullpen have to face the top of the order with the tying run at scoring position (if he haven't score yet).
Scott Olsen doesn't get to finish what he started ... again
Mike Berardino | Sports columnist
April 21, 2008
MIAMI GARDENS
Somewhere in the great beyond, Billy Martin is cursing a blue streak.
The late manager who once coaxed 94 complete games from his 1980 Oakland A's pitching staff would be appalled at how incredibly rare that achievement has become in the overly specialized modern game.
In particular, he would look at how the Marlins handled Scott Olsen in Sunday's 6-1 win and scream his bratty little lungs out.
Here was Olsen, rolling along with a 2-1 lead through seven innings, a mere 98 pitches on his log. Other than Austin Kearns' leadoff homer in the fifth, Olsen had allowed no other Nationals past second base.
The rapidly maturing lefty wasn't just in control of this game. He had it by the scruff of the neck the way an old-school school nun grabs a sixth grader.
Looking ahead, the Nationals were sending up the bottom of their order: a fading Aaron Boone, Wil Nieves and, most likely, a pinch-hitter for the pitcher's spot.
Olsen had been dominant, and even though it was a hot afternoon he seemed to be holding up just fine.
"I think he could have [finished]," said Marlins pitching coach Mark Wiley, who has worked wonders with the once-combustible lefty. "I don't think there was any problem with that."
Sending Olsen back out for the eighth would have been the old-school play. Lift him if he runs into trouble, but not until then, especially considering the alarming way the Marlins' bullpen has been overworked so far.
Marlins starters have been averaging right at five innings per game, worst in the majors, and this is no recent phenomenon.
The franchise of Josh Beckett and Livan Hernandez hasn't produced a nine-inning complete game since Dontrelle Willis shut out the Phillies on Sept. 10, 2006. Only the Nationals (225 games) and Rangers (210) have longer droughts than the Marlins (199).
Before last season, by the way, do you know the last time a big-league team had gone all year without a single complete game? Try never.
So what does Fredi Gonzalez do? After admittedly "wrestling" with the decision while the Marlins batted in the seventh, the kindly skipper lifted Olsen and replaced him with journeyman Justin Miller.
How close did Gonzalez come to leaving Olsen in the game?
"Real close," Gonzalez said. "I thought [Sunday] was going to be the day. He could do it."
Mike Berardino | Sports columnist
April 21, 2008
MIAMI GARDENS
Somewhere in the great beyond, Billy Martin is cursing a blue streak.
The late manager who once coaxed 94 complete games from his 1980 Oakland A's pitching staff would be appalled at how incredibly rare that achievement has become in the overly specialized modern game.
In particular, he would look at how the Marlins handled Scott Olsen in Sunday's 6-1 win and scream his bratty little lungs out.
Here was Olsen, rolling along with a 2-1 lead through seven innings, a mere 98 pitches on his log. Other than Austin Kearns' leadoff homer in the fifth, Olsen had allowed no other Nationals past second base.
The rapidly maturing lefty wasn't just in control of this game. He had it by the scruff of the neck the way an old-school school nun grabs a sixth grader.
Looking ahead, the Nationals were sending up the bottom of their order: a fading Aaron Boone, Wil Nieves and, most likely, a pinch-hitter for the pitcher's spot.
Olsen had been dominant, and even though it was a hot afternoon he seemed to be holding up just fine.
"I think he could have [finished]," said Marlins pitching coach Mark Wiley, who has worked wonders with the once-combustible lefty. "I don't think there was any problem with that."
Sending Olsen back out for the eighth would have been the old-school play. Lift him if he runs into trouble, but not until then, especially considering the alarming way the Marlins' bullpen has been overworked so far.
Marlins starters have been averaging right at five innings per game, worst in the majors, and this is no recent phenomenon.
The franchise of Josh Beckett and Livan Hernandez hasn't produced a nine-inning complete game since Dontrelle Willis shut out the Phillies on Sept. 10, 2006. Only the Nationals (225 games) and Rangers (210) have longer droughts than the Marlins (199).
Before last season, by the way, do you know the last time a big-league team had gone all year without a single complete game? Try never.
So what does Fredi Gonzalez do? After admittedly "wrestling" with the decision while the Marlins batted in the seventh, the kindly skipper lifted Olsen and replaced him with journeyman Justin Miller.
How close did Gonzalez come to leaving Olsen in the game?
"Real close," Gonzalez said. "I thought [Sunday] was going to be the day. He could do it."
www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/baseball/marlins/sfl-flspmikeb421sbapr21,0,4011877.column
Its a 2-1 lead, you don't risk losing the game just to add insult. You don't go for a complete game when the lead is only 1, especially when it isn't a shutout. Beside Olsen is still a young pitcher, why leave a fatique pitcher out there when you can get the same production from a "journeyman" in Justin Miller. Pitching is like smoking, each time you pitch, you get closer to that next arm injury. I want to know what happen if Olsen fail that inning and then the bullpen have to face the top of the order with the tying run at scoring position (if he haven't score yet).
