4/13/08 Brewers (Suppan) at Mets (Perez): 12:10 PM CDT

[LaprilOne]

It is amazing that we all share such angst after pulling out a win from our nether regions.

[Gobias Industries]

1. Suppan should have been pulled in the 3rd because he "didn't have it"

2. Torres, Shouse, and Mota all should have been pulled earlier because they "didn't have it"

1. I was fine with Suppan staying in until he did. Sure, he looked horrible. But your starter can't go just 2 2/3 innings when your long man is Seth McClung. Putting in McClung is pretty much conceding a game in my eyes.

 

2. I was fine with Torres and Shouse staying in. With Beltran in the middle of that lineup, Yost has pretty much no choice but to leave in Shouse to get the lefties that bat right behind Beltran.

 

Mota today was a textbook example of not having it. Delgado did him a favor by swinging at ball 3 and the double play was the absolute best thing that could have happened. After that double play, two batters reached and that's when I definitely pull him. Riske is our relief ace that Doug signed for Ned. At this point, we really needed to win this game. It was one of those crucial 42 games that we would have been kicking ourselves in September for losing.

 

I think we can all agree on this being a huge win for the Crew. On the road with struggling hitters with a clear pitching matchup disadvantage.

[Menotti80]

we won. we are 8-4. i am happy.

no game tomorrow. i am sad.

[LaprilOne]

Hey Gob,

 

Your call on now to manage the inning is very reasonable, and if Ned did it , I would have been fine.

 

Yet, who knows how it would go?

 

My frustration is that if Ned had done that, and Riske blew up, many would be all over Ned for over using Riske. It just at times it seems to me we just can't give the guy some credit (note: some folks have).

 

Nonetheless, we won. Thanks for the conversation. Signing out on this thread.

[BrewCrewForever]

I would have to say that if we were not a good team we wouldn't have found away to come back and win this game. No way the Brewers of a few years ago win today. This team did and I'm very happy for that. When we were down 6-2 I thought, no way do we win today. Somehow it happened. Props to the bullpen today. Gagne now has more saves then blown saves which is awesome, knew he would be fine. Gabe Freaking Kapler, can't say much more then that.

[RightFieldCoder]

I will admit that I do not believe Ned does a good job managing in game. I would have pulled Mota. But I believe the decision was 6 one way, a half a dozen the other. I don't think there was a "right" decision, you just had to flip a coin, take a guess, and go with the decision. It worked in the Brewers favor this time. Sometimes it will work against them. I try not to criticize those type of decisions. I will criticize times when Aquinos come in to tie ball games or Menches bat while Jenks are on the bench. Sunday's decision was not anywhere close to as bad as those.

 

Here were the choices as I saw it:

 

Mota: Had a lot of demons in his head from pitching at Shea from last year. He could totally implode. But if he succeds, he probably drives all the demons from his head. He might straighten himself out and become the pitcher of old.

 

Gagne: Gagne's a closer. CoCo was a closer that was horrible when asked to go multiple innings. Gagne imploded last year when asked to pitch in non-closing situations. I think there is no way you put him in the game at that time.

 

Turnbow: Small chance of him coming in and getting the out. The Bow sometimes doesn't have it, and has been historically bad when coming on in the middle of an inning.

 

McOnTheBusToTheMinors: Ned would have been fired before the end of the game if he makes this decision.

 

Riske: Probably the best alternative to Mota. However, he had pitched two innings on Friday and had already warmed up in the 7th. If Riske comes in and gives up a single and then gets out of the inning (a likely senario) you don't have much left for extra frames.

 

Staying with Mota was slightly more risky than, um, Riske, but the rewards were higher. There are a lot of times when a manager doesn't have a clear decision and has to guestimate like Sunday's game.