Some thoughts on yesterday’s game:
In the 11th inning, Beliveau in and he gives up the leadoff walk and the sac bunt. The Tigers have Justin Upton and Miguel Cabrera coming up, two guys that kill lefties. Gibby has Harrell (who pitched 20 pitches the day before), Loup (28 pitches the day before) and Bolsinger (75 pitches the day before). So he goes with Harrell, since it can’t be Bolsinger.
But, we are coming off the All-Star break. Our starters have many days off. Why not go with Marcus Stroman? It would be very unusual to use a starter in relief and to have him come in mid-inning. Likely, if you were thinking of using him (or Happ) you would have had him start the inning. But still, of the pitchers that were available to pitch Stroman would be the best pitcher.
I know it messes up your planned rotation. Stroman was going to start tomorrow, but Happ could go tomorrow, it isn’t like it would be asking him to go on short rest.
For me, if Harrell got you out of that inning, and the game kept going, odds are you were going to have to use one of Happ or Stroman, because Bolsinger wouldn’t be able to pitch and 28 pitches the day before for Loup....I think that puts him out of today too.
That does give you the problem of finding a starter for Tuesday’s game. But, in my mind, we have that problem coming in four days (three now), because I’m doubtful Francisco Liriano will be making his next start. So instead of needing a spot starter Thursday, we get the spot starter Tuesday.
I guess, the difference is that Thursday Bolsinger could be your spot starter. Tuesday....it likely couldn’t be him, after his 75 pitches Saturday. But, really, once you are talking about a spot starter, I don’t think it matters if it is Bolsinger or someone else.
And it depends how much importance you put on yesterday’s game. Tied in extras, if you could keep it going a couple more innings, odds are pretty good.
Ezequiel Carrera drives me crazy, he’s quick enough to get to balls hit to the fence, but he never seems to catch a ball at the fence. For me, at least Steve Pearce tends to catch what he gets to.
Sell off or not, I’d be shopping Carrera and Pearce hard. I’d love to have a good defensive left fielder out there for the rest of the season.
Not about last night’s game, but this caught my attention from the Score:
Their heralded infield defense has also fallen off slightly in 2017 as defensive superstars Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki - who combined for just 23 errors in 2016 - are already at 14 this season.
Ignoring that error count is a lousy way to define defense “fall off”, and agreeing with the premise that they are declining. 14 errors in 91 games would be 25 errors in 162 games, not really a huge change from the 23 last year.
Their falloff could be measured better in UZR/150. Donaldson is a 0.8 this year, down from 5.7. Tulo is 0.2, down from 2.8 last year.
Would anyone be against calling up Lourdes Gurriel to play second? He’s on the 40-man roster, he’s played against good competition before. Yeah, he’s only at New Hampshire, but can he be any worse than Goins and Barney? Might as well give him a couple of hundred at bats and see if it can play in the majors next year. I don’t know, I don’t see the Jays getting any return in trade on either Goins or Barney, I don’t see either being an important part of the team in the future.