re: Paul Mainieri Happy He Went With His Gut

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The revolving door on certain positions is all gut too I'm sure

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What positions?

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, it's just I see lots of posts that imply that PM doesn't get a guy out in time and EVERY time it's when the pitcher fails to pitch out of a jamb. hindsight is 20/20

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Thing is that when it is time and he makes the decision, there is often not even anyone sitting in the bullpen area. Why not have a pitcher or 2 out there stretching and maybe soft-tossing so when the time comes they can be ready sooner? Like others have said, it would not cost you a pitcher and the reliever could take the mound a batter or 2 earlier.

Only an idiot wouldn't have Romero in the lineup. Last season his home run pct was the third highest at LSU since the bats were changed. Only Katz's Sr. Year and Mahtooks Sr. Year were better. Pulmonary loves to pat himself on the back for doing things he should do.

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I would have saved gilbert for the third game and used him after Walker

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And we could have been down 3 runs by then and used our #2 reliever in a pointless spot. Only up 4 with 2 innings to go vs an undefeated top 25 team while you're already down 0-1 on the weekend means you use your #2 guy.

doubleb is spot on. Gilbert is the clear #2 heading into the weekend out of the BP. I get that there's a script when it comes to certain moves during the course of a weekend (ie-starting rotation, catching/DH roles, etc), but reliever roles and scripts are somewhat out of the window when your clear Friday Night guy gets the hook in the 2nd. You go situationally game-by-game at that point.

Which means with a 4-run lead in a very comfortable game, you can get Peterson a look there in order to make it to Sunday with as many bullets in your gun to close out with 2/3 and holding the rope from the bullpen as possible.

Poche gives you the luxury of going with a Peterson and saving your #2 reliever to get you to your #1 closer on Sunday. If you ask me, if we went with Gilbert Saturday because of a script, that's a huge error on the part of our coaching staff.

...and as others have alluded to, it's way more than a glaring problem...it's an expectation at this point. Paul just doesn't handle the pitching well in late games. Hell in some situations he makes questionable decisions on who to start when (Lange's Frosh season in Omaha there was a lot of discussion about why they waited to throw him in Game 2), though that's been more muted.

Paul's done a good job here. I think he's a good coach. But I think there are great college baseball coaches out there at programs who aren't at LSU's level. Unfortunately, anytime Paul has felt a bit of heat, he's pulled an okey doke on our AD and our Administration that get them flying through the air, breathless with extension requests that lock a good coach into a great job.

I'll repeat...a good coach...in a great job. So in reality, we're stuck with these blind spots he has as a coach. Beyond that, we're stuck with him and his ego trying to prove to us how much he knows about the game and how smart he is...which I think fuels some of the overthinking and mishandling of our staff at times.

Good Coach at a Great Job. Oh well...

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but reliever roles and scripts are somewhat out of the window when your clear Friday Night guy gets the hook in the 2nd. You go situationally game-by-game at that point.

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Bain and Reynolds saved our asses. We still lost the game though. That's the situation. So we still had plenty of pen but HAD to win that Saturday game if we had a chance to take 2 of 3. That means Gilbert. 4 runs is NOT comfortable in a park where the ball flies so well and the gaps are huge with a short porch in LF. That was pretty evident throughout the entire weekend which saw a ton of runs late in games.

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CPM has said numerous times he & Coach Dunn script every pitching rotation for every situation.

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Link?

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You're being a little hypocritical here along with making a point that's completely irrelevant. I think everyone expected TP to hold a 2-run lead based on his 4 other appearances.

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Hypocritical? where did I ever post that I expected Peterson to shut anyone of the caliber of TT or Baylor down? I thought it a good test for the young man to pitch in Houston with a 4 run lead v Baylor and even a tough task to pitch with a three run lead v TT.

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I've already said as much. But I think he would have also gone longer had he not been extended the weekend before

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Good, we agree on something. And this is why I threw it out there that it may be all scripted to fit the time of the year, and it wasn't scripted to win necessarily.

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It's good any day, but if it's available on Sunday, things either went really good or really bad the two days before. And that's what we had here. We lost game one and had to use up 2 experienced guys. We go with TP and he gives up a single run in the 8th, you likely go to Newman in the 9th right? Or even worse, they give you the performances they gave on Sunday and you lose to Baylor and all you have left on Sunday is Gilbert. What Gilbert did on Saturday was secure a win and saved Newman. He and TP should have been plenty good enough for a win Sunday.

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That's not what we had here, Mainieri used up Gilbert in a game where we had a four run lead.

If Peterson gives up a run in the 8th v Baylor a lot depends on how he pitched the inning. If he sat down 3 of 4 and made one mistake and a guy homered then I would trot him out in the 9th. and have Newman warming. A three run lead and my pitcher is getting 3 of four batters out then I'm not overly concerned.

Now if Peterson had walked a couple, gave up some hard hits and was saved by a screaming line drive double play then that's a different story.

But I'm not playing what if. When Gilbert came in I asked the question, why Gilbert here? That's my point. It wasn't a tough situation demanding an excellent pitcher.