The Washington Nationals had a sweep within reach last night in New York. They headed into the series on Monday 6 games back of the division leading Mets and had a fantastic chance to cut it to 3 games. Apparently, Matt Williams....sorry, I mean Dave Martinez had other plans. With the Nationals leading 4-2 heading into the bottom of the 8th inning, Martinez summonsed Ryan Madson from the bullpen following 7 strong innings from Tanner Roark. In any normal instance, that would be the logical move. If the Nationals are winning, they go Kintzler, Madson, Doolittle. We've seen it work successfully many times before.
I said out loud last night in the 3rd inning while watching the game "It's going to be interesting to see what Dave Martinez does tonight if the Nationals are winning this game in the 7th or 8th because Brandon Kintzler and Ryan Madson are unavailable." Fast forward to the 8th inning and here comes Ryan Madson. The same Ryan Madson who has had two Tommy John surgeries in his career. The same Ryan Madson that Dusty Baker would constantly talk about "monitoring his workload". The same Ryan Madson who had pitched in 3 of the Nationals past 4 games, and once he entered the game last night, in 4 of the last 5. The same Ryan Madson who LEADS Major League Baseball with 11 appearances this season. Ryan Madson was set up to fail by his manager last night and there's no way around that.
We've seen more than our share of bullpen blunders over the past few years, but this one is pretty high up there. It goes:
1) Matt Williams pulling Jordan Zimmermann in a 1-0 game in the top of the 9th inning in Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS;
2) Dave Martinez's decision to bring Ryan Madson into his 4th game in 5 days in a 4-2 game in the bottom of the 8th against the Mets where a chance to cut the Mets division lead to 3 games was at stake; and
3) Pretty much every bullpen decision Matt Williams made in 2015.
So, as you can see, this decision ranks fairly high up there. Now, a lot of people believe that Dave Martinez had no choice but to use Kintzler, Madson, and Doolittle this often, this early in the season. In part, I'll agree with that. The Nationals have had 1 off day in 19 games since the start of the season. That's absolutely brutal. By comparison, the Mets have had 3 off days already in 17 games (1 was a weather postponement, so they'll make that up, but the number is still 3 nonetheless). It's a lot easier to manage a bullpen with built in off days, there's absolutely no disputing that. What I will disagree with, is that Dave Martinez had to use these guys because there have been so many close games. Madson was used in 3 consecutive losing efforts to the Mets just a week and a half ago. The first of those 3 was an 8-2 loss. He hadn't pitched in 4 days at that point, so I guess that was just getting him some work. Ok, fine. The Nationals proceed to lose the next 2 games by 1 run and Madson pitched the 8th inning of each of those games to keep it close. My real gripe came Saturday against the Rockies when Madson came in to pitch during a 6-2 game. It's not a save situation, nor is it a hold situation. Nope, it's just a game that since the Nationals were winning Dave decided "well, I guess I better use Madson and Doolittle!" Two guys with a history of arm issues and you use them both in an 8-2 loss and a 6-2 win.
Last night was one of the worst pieces of managing that I've seen in a long time. Madson was gassed. You could see it within the first two batters. Conforto singles and then after getting ahead of Cespedes, he allows him to single as well. His velocity was there, but his location and the movement on his pitches were not. Shawn Kelley was available last night. Shawn Kelley threw 6 pitches on Monday night and then didn't pitch on Tuesday. Shawn Kelley needed to pitch the 8th inning last night. Doolittle was available for the 9th following a 10 pitch save on Tuesday. Ryan Madson should not and quite frankly can not be throwing 26 pitches last night coming off an outing where he threw 21 the night before. If you're dumb enough to bring him into the game in the first place, which Dave Martinez apparently is, you have to have a quick hook. Once he gave up back to back singles, Shawn Kelley or Sammy Solis need to come into the game. Asdrubal Cabrera, who was coming up with Cespedes on first and Conforto on second, is 1 for 5 with 2 K's against Shawn Kelley in his career. Jay Bruce, who was on deck, is 1 for 3 against Kelley and 0 for 4 against Solis in his career. Todd Frazier, who was due up third, is 0 for 6 with 5 K's against Kelley and 0 for 1 with a K against Solis. These numbers were right in front of you last night. You chose to ignore them. It doesn't matter what their career numbers against Madson are because Madson was gassed and at that point was the equivalent of Jacob Turner last night throwing 96 MPH meatballs. Ryan Madson is a great pitcher who deserved better last night. In fact, the Washington Nationals deserved better.
I can't stress enough how imperative it is that Dave Martinez not use the bullpen like he's been using it. It will end with Madson and Doolittle on the DL with elbow problems and the rest of the bullpen pitching like it did early in 2017 because there will no longer be any defined roles. If he continues to manage the bullpen like he has been, he will not be here very long. He has a 3 year $2.8 million contract. Dusty Baker made $2 million alone last year with the Nationals. If Martinez isn't getting the job done, the Lerners will not hesitate to eat $2 million and bring somebody else in who can get the job done.
Last tidbit, Dave Martinez did make one good move last night. That was bringing in AJ Cole to a bases loaded situation to face Cespedes. Pedro Severino called for a fastball low and away, Cole threw a 93 MPH fastball a little below the letters and Cespedes belted it for a grand slam. If that was Martinez telling Mike Rizzo that AJ Cole should not be in the Major Leagues, then I applaud him. There's absolutely no reason that AJ Cole should be on the Nationals flight to Los Angeles. It's time to DFA Cole to get a fresh arm in the bullpen. You can bring Trevor Gott back up, who looked very good in his last 4 outings before being sent down. You can bring up Carlos Torres who is a veteran with a lot of Major League experience and who has some long relief experience as well. Or if you're dead set on having strictly a long reliever, you could bring Edwin Jackson back up. Two things that I know for sure though - AJ Cole is not a Major League caliber pitcher for a team with World Series aspirations and Dusty Baker is in San Francisco smiling as he watches this all unfold.
No comments:
Post a Comment