They have to show up to every social event, don’t they.
Wonder why Rivera and Ayala blew it yesterday? It’s because the Nats have used them to maintain their stranglehold on the league lead in appearences. #1 and #2 last year, the Nats aren’t taking any chances, as Rivera and Ayala are #1 and #2 this year.
Ayala projects to 103 games this year, Rivera 93. This is bad for soooo many reasons. Rivera last year popped in 85 times. To overwork him two years in a row is just asking for trouble. Ayala is in his first year back from a significant arm injury.
But what can Manny do? The Nats questionable roster moves kept him one bullpen arm short and forced him to use LOOGY Ray King as a real reliever with predicatble results. Hanrahan and Colome are iffy, best used in games that aren’t close. O’Connor is meant to be a long man. Rauch is “saved” for 9th inning appearences.
This is with the starters being ok. What happens if Perez or Redding falter? If Lannan doesn’t regain his form. If Chico is Chico?
Bullpen help is easily found, but only because there’s tons of it out there good AND bad. To sort through it could take the better part of a season. A loooong season.
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8 Responses to “They have to show up to every social event, don’t they.”
May 7th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Absolutely right. Bowden is wrecking our greatest asset (virtually all of it inherited from the Expos BTW) with his terrible SP and loading up the roster with hurt players and LOOGYs (it was Ray King this year but don’t forget Joey Eischen, Mike Stanton, etc.–the guy is an unreconstructed LOOGY-lover).
May 7th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The starting pitching hasn’t even been that bad (though I wouldn’t bet on that holding up) this year, but this marks year #3 of trying to make it with a patchwork pitching staff.
550 IP by relievers in 2006, 590 in 2007. Looking at 550 this year. It has to take a toll.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Yeah, that’s true, the SPs have eaten average innings this year I guess. The main problems as you point out are the roster spots wasted on the injured, the LOOGY, and the just plain bad.
Nonetheless, I can’t help anticipating the other shoe dropping on Odalis, Lannan, etc.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Here’s a question that you may know. Did Bowden acquire Saul? He has been a FA and resigned by him, but originally Saul signed right around the same time Bowden came on board with the pre-Nats/post-Expos franchise TBNL. So I’m not sure if we should give Bowden almost no credit for our relatively decent bullpen or none at all.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Saul officially signed after Bowden had come in, so technically it’s his guy. However, he’d been an Expo minor legauer for a couple years up until that summer, so its most likely that the people already here wanted him back after he was made a free agent and Jim just rubber stamped it for the most part.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
How is this Bowden’s fault? Can’t some of the blame go to Manny? There have been quite a few times that I felt Manny was too quick to pull a pitcher. Sometimes it’s best to keep them in to get that last out of the inning. Just because Rivera is your 7th inning guy, Ayala your 8th and Rauch your 9th doesn’t mean he has to use them each and every night. Also, Manny probably doesn’t trust Colome or Hanrahan (who would?) to do the job in the 7th or later. They should bring up Schroder, DFA Colome and the Nats would have an extra guy they could trust in the late innings.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
What about Bergmann? Seriously — with the news today that O’Connor is replacing Chico in the rotation, and Chico’s been relegated to the ‘pen…could you think of a worse place for Chico at the moment than the bullpen?! They’re trying to get his head on straight, not screw him up even worse, right!?
May 8th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Sure some of the blame can go to Manny, He doesn’t seem to be adapting well to the position he’s been put in. Using Ray King as a regular reliever is an example of poor judgement in the face of poor choices. But Bowden takes the lion share of the blame for setting up the poor choices.
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