re: The ATL Thread 9!20: Oh No We Suck Again Edition

quote:

---

Elder on the roster as injury insurance essentially early in a game.

---

With the built in off days, I’m not sure Elder even makes the NLDS roster. I think another bullpen arm would be more valuable. That way you can use a Hand to come in and just face 1 LH batter. I think some of our backend guys are facing more batters than they’ll actually have to in the playoffs. And with the rest days, the top guys won’t have to pitch back-to-back days much, and never 3 days in a row.

And I looked at Yates numbers a bit closer last night. His overall numbers the past 7-15 games aren’t good overall. But he had one terrible outing where he gave up 4 or 5 runs in less than an inning that skews those a bit. Most of his recent outings, he hasn’t given up a run.

Granted, they stepped up big time, but we won the World Series riding just Smith, Matzek, Jackson, and Minter. (I am very concerned that 3 of those were high velo LHP and we only have 1 this year). But with the adrenaline of the playoffs and the extra rest between games, the top 4-5 guys should always be fresh and their velocity should be as high or higher than it’s been all season.

Minter’s walks do concern me, though. He’s not as mentally strong as Matzek was. But we have a huge advantage with Fried and Strider being our 1/2. They should get us to Minter/Joe/Iglesias with a lead pretty much every start, and as long as the NLDS and NLCS don’t go all 5 or 7, we have a great chance of starting each series 2-0.