April 2021 game thread

[fish16]

It’s not a gimmick either, look at Yarbrough’s stats as a starter compared to how much better he is as a “bulk reliever.” FYI

Yarbrough as a starter has a 4.61 ERA and as a reliever its 3.45. But the WHIP is literally the exact same, as is the k/9. And the hitters peripherals indicate it's mostly luck that accounts for the differences. As a reliever his OPS against is .688, as a starter its .703. .09 higher slugging percentage. Babip as a starter is .295, .279 as a reliever. OPS+ is 102 as a starter, 98 as a reliever. It's a negligible difference as a starter vs a reliever other than ERA which we know doesn't always tell the whole story.

[fish16]

The idea behind the Yarbrough’s and Josh Fleming going 4-5 innings after the opener is that, yes, they don’t have to go through a lineup 3x around the order, but a different power arm before them can make them more effective.

We could be doing the same thing with Castano, for example, but we’d rather pretend he can go deep into ballgames.

Jordan Holloway isn’t a starter, but we were trying to get 5 innings out of him last night regardless of how many times he went through the order. It was a bad plan.

What the Rays do is more like what we did last week when Detwiler went 2 innings and then Holloway followed up with 3. We have the personnel in the system to do this and not burn out the bullpen imo.

The day we have 5 real starters which will be some time soon...great, let’s go with that, but until then we’ve wasted a lot of games this year trying to get guys to start that aren’t starters. Be more creative.

the order isn't relevant. whether detwiler goes 2 innings and then holloway/castano for 3 as opposed to the other way around is irrelevant. The key is not letting the "long guy" face the order more than 2 times. that's the biggest difference in what the rays do. MLB hitters aren't all of a sudden lost at the plate because one guy pitched before the other instead of the other way around. The key to the opener shit is no one being seen for a 3rd time through as the stats show that to be the biggest difference between a good long reliever and a potentially good SP who can go deeper into games.

[Erick]

the order isn't relevant. whether detwiler goes 2 innings and then holloway/castano for 3 as opposed to the other way around is irrelevant. The key is not letting the "long guy" face the order more than 2 times. that's the biggest difference in what the rays do. MLB hitters aren't all of a sudden lost at the plate because one guy pitched before the other instead of the other way around. The key to the opener shit is no one being seen for a 3rd time through as the stats show that to be the biggest difference between a good long reliever and a potentially good SP who can go deeper into games.

You don’t think different looks in a game makes a difference? It seems like a lot of teams disagree. Including the Marlins actually, Kim Ng talked about it when she was building the bullpen.

[Erick]

Furthermore, I’m not sure the order is irrelevant. I think it’s been said that the Rays like Yarbrough starting the game against the bottom of the order.

They use the reliever at the beginning of the game in those cases similar to high leverage reliever usage. The high leverage reliever is facing the best hitters, just so happens to be in the 1st inning. They feel like every inning is of equal importance.

[gustavopim]

Sierra's gotta go. He doesn't contribute anything to the team and is pretty much the worst base runner I have ever seen.

[fish16]

Furthermore, I’m not sure the order is irrelevant. I think it’s been said that the Rays like Yarbrough starting the game against the bottom of the order.

They use the reliever at the beginning of the game in those cases similar to high leverage reliever usage. The high leverage reliever is facing the best hitters, just so happens to be in the 1st inning. They feel like every inning is of equal importance.

That's the best case for that. I like that rationale but in that case who do you use as that opener? It has to be both a guy you can trust not to blow up but you also don't want to lose one of your best relievers for a crucial late game situation.

[fish16]

Sierra's gotta go. He doesn't contribute anything to the team and is pretty much the worst base runner I have ever seen.

I think he is in his last week here. He's out of options so he will be DFA'd because while Isan's numbers don't look great he has made a lot of great contact and they will start to drop eventually. He has crushed quite a few balls that just so happened to be hit right at a fielder. I think when jazz comes back this weekend Isan stays and they try to find him 2 starts each week while letting him be a much more competent bat off the bench in pinch hit situations. That's why sierra makes no sense. We keep using him as a pinch hitter and the guy flat out cant hit.

[Erick]

That's the best case for that. I like that rationale but in that case who do you use as that opener? It has to be both a guy you can trust not to blow up but you also don't want to lose one of your best relievers for a crucial late game situation.

I’m hoping that eventually Bender handles more high leverage innings, but right now we seem pretty set on having Yimi closing, and I think Floro has settled in to the middle innings. I think they’d like for Bass to figure it out too based on usage, and he really hasn’t been that bad since the beginning of the season. So those seem to be the top 3 relievers based on high leverage usage.

Bender can be used as an opener type on certain days. It’s what the Rays like to do, start with a hard throwing righty and shift to the soft-tossing lefty. They’ve done openers with Stanek in the past, and even Diego Castillo who is their closer this year opened a lot before.

[Nick]

Top of the 1st Jumbo Shrimp recap. Jazz hits an absolute missile out to left-center that's probably gone in most ball parks but it didn't have a lot of height and Durham has a high wall out there in left, so he settled for a double. Jesus Sanchez who's hitting about .600 right now, hits an absolute bomb off a 1-2 fastball. Would be very curious to hear a distance on it, my guess would be in the 450 range. Durham pitcher has good stuff, but Jazz and Jesus just teed off on him. I think you gotta start thinking about calling up Jesus especially if Marte's return isn't imminent.

[fish16]

do we maybe start thinking about sending cooper down to get himself right for a few weeks and see if sanchez's improvements are for real? Then when marte comes back all of a sudden if cooper can get himself right in AAA you can have cooper on the bench along with isan, and duvall/dickerson on any given night? that's a pretty unreal bench if we can stay healthy.

[rmc523]

I get the Cooper thing, but I'm not sure why everyone's ready to anoint Diaz and Sanchez beyond ready after 3-4 games or whatever it's been.

[Nick]

I get the Cooper thing, but I'm not sure why everyone's ready to anoint Diaz and Sanchez beyond ready after 3-4 games or whatever it's been.

7th game, it’s a small sample size, but our lineup is hurting so badly for offensive production you gotta at least consider calling up Sanchez.

[rmc523]

7th game, it’s a small sample size, but our lineup is hurting so badly for offensive production you gotta at least consider calling up Sanchez.

yeah, I guess that's a fair point.

[Nick]

Sanchez pulled from today’s game. I haven’t watched the last couple innings so not sure if it’s an injury or what.

[Nick]

Max Meyer got roughed up a little bit 3rd round pick Zach McCambley is dealing.