re: DAT 9/23: Astros (Pecko) @ Mariners (Kirby) 9:10ct ESPN

They don’t think he can play CF and they desperately need someone that can with Varsho’s stuff. You could run the Trammell’s or Loperfido’s out there, but with the margins as thin as they are I can at least get the glove angle. But at the same time, desperate times and desperate measures give Cam some leash out there.

Loperfido should have been up for Velazquez two weeks ago. He has as good of a chance as hitting a lefty as that fricking bum.

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Agree. I subscribe to the theory that you’re gonna definitely win X number of games and definitely lose Y number of games. Then there’s that handful of games that come down to managing and he seems to lose every one of them.

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you win 1/3 and lose a 1/3

JE is outta there probably on Sunday night when they lose the division to the Texas Rangers. He's simply the worst.

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I see Hader threw over 40 in a non-save situation. Lovely. Calls for my favorite meme

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Actually, throwing Hader in the 9th and 10th was one of the few things Espada DIDN'T frick up with the lineup.

He pitched him bottom 9 in a tie game, which he has done before
He pitched him bottom 10 with a 1-run lead, which also made sense of course.

This game was massively important and I don't blame him for treating it as such.

The only problem was that it was a rare night when Hader was not sharp at all. He needed 20 pitches to get through the 9th and it would have been worse had they not picked off a runner at 1st.

The 10th was a train wreck with his command, but who else are you going to bring in?

Where this turned into a disaster where some of the moves with the lineup. He ended up taking Walker out in the 8th (Pena pinch ran and stole a base) and Smith in the 8th (Wade pinch hit for Smith). Velazquez ended up replacing Smith in right.

Meanwhile, Spence is busy taking the most un-competitive AB in the history of the game. He is someone who should have been pinch-hit for.

Velazquez came up in the 10th with 1 out and Diaz at third and predictably struck out. Walker may have done the same...but that isn't the point. That second run would have been huge.

EDLS is on the shelf so it’s even more dire. My only gripe about how he handled the pitching, is not having a hard cap at 30-35 pitches for Hader. Of course it’s a big win if you get it, but not at the cost of losing Hader for 2+ days. If it looked like it was trending wrong hoping for a miracle out of one of the shite bags available would have been tolerable, I think to me at least.

OR, push Abreu for 2 and get you through 9 and hope Hader can hold up in the 10th. But then if BA gives it up you also look like a moron.

100% in agreement with LSUGrad on the handling of the position players in the 10th. None of them are good options but in a tied game on the road I lean towards defense and having those guys still in the lineup in the likely scenario it’s still tied later

I get the urgency of all of it, the sooner you clinch the quicker you can make the call to hold Hunter. Brown will have to go tomorrow which puts him on full rest to start game 2 if you get there. The roster just leaves no room for error. Chandler has a piece about how it’s so top heavy you are asking for Herculean results out of the top 4-5 guys every night and when they don’t have it it’s a catastrophe.

All in all, as much as I despise Joe the roster and the injuries were the biggest problem last night

100% agreed, was just working through scenarios as the road team in a tied game late and like you previously mentioned none of them are very good.

When Hader had the same miss up in the zone and the pitch count started to elevate is when I started to think about just hoping for a miracle out of someone else so you could get him back sooner.

And who knows, maybe Hader responds well and is available tomorrow and all my teeth gnashing means nothing.

A list so putrid and rancid that not even Bagwell could defend it.

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If I’m going to push someone for two innings, it’s going to be the guy who is far and away your best reliever. And I’m not going to take him out for Bryan King or whoever else they even had available (or use one of those guys in a tie game in the 9th instead of Hader)

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Okert's injury has definitely fricked up the bullpen.

My favorite stupid line from Eduardo Perez last night, when he wasn't busy rolling r's on the Hispanic player's names:

Blubaugh comes into the game in the 7th. Eduardo: "I am a little surprised they aren't going to Bryan King here"

The bullpen is a clusterfrick. Okert out, King is unplayable unless you are up 10 or down 5, Imai is a corpse, they are running Bluebaw into the ground, Hader will be down for 2 days now, Sousa has gotten better but still isn't trustworthy, and a starter hasn't made it out of the 3rd in the first 2 games of the road trip.

The bright spot was Hendrickson. He looked the part. He looks like a lefty who can actually come out of the pen and get a couple of lefties out (I am looking at YOU, Sousa). And VanWey has been good the last 2 nights.

Hoo, that’s the list I’m talking about. Abysmal! And the guy in the middle of that list, Varsho, was the guy that was supposed to help fix the rest of that list, and not only has he just added his name to it, he’s hurt with something that either developed as soon as we acquired him or it was there before and our medical staff missed it. If the latter is true Crane needs a complete purge. No one’s jobs should be safe. No one’s!