Riske to DL; Swindle up (Latest, reply 16-ish: Riske may need surgery)

[SeriesFinale]

As per TH

[patrickgpe]

good move, the way Riske has been pitching this spring, i was thinking there may be something wrong. While Swindle is not versatile, he was be good at getting tough lefties out. He seems to be off to a good start in AAA.

[Ennder]

This makes me so happy. Now Stetter can pitch full innings and Swindle can be kept as the LOOGY. Coffey, Swindle, Hoffman, DiFelice, Stetter and Villanueva give us a decent bullpen and we can use McClung and Julio in mop up games.

[Gobias Industries]

It'll be nice to finally have a 25 man roster again.

 

I figured something like this was about to happen after Macha didn't even have the confidence to go to Riske last night up 6.

 

Probably doesn't bode well for Julio's future when Hoffman comes back. I figured Riske might of been DL'd then.

[Never Outhustled]

It'll be nice to finally have a 25 man roster again.

Totally true. Riske just wasn't ready yet. Swindle can be really usefull, and Julio becomes the mop up guy. Julio is similar to Mota, he's wild, but capable of a hot stretch here or there. If he gets hot, Macha will ride him for awhile. I can't wait to see Swindle in action.

 

We see a few sidearmers, like Chad Bradford, that can get righties and lefties out, I wonder why we don't see that more from lefties?

[brewtank34]

2 lefties in our BP! That's what my spring training wish was and now I get it. This is a good day...at the same time, hoping that Riske figures it out and comes back with more strength and confidence.

[GormanHarvey]

This makes our bullpen so much more flexible and seemingly dependable. For some reason I haven't liked Riske since the day we signed him, eventhough he had some good numbers coming over. I was seriously scared at the thought of them bringing in Riske last night even up 6. Luckily they didn't - Macha went with Coffey which I think shows how bad he wanted that win seeing Coffey has been our most dependable reliever so far (along with "Dream Police") as I predicted he would be. 9 pitches later, 7 of which were strikes, and the 9th was over. I truly think Coffey will be a great asset to the team this year in sort of an unexpected way like Torres of last year. I don't know if Coffey will have to close much (hopefully Hoffman can take care of that), but I think he is going to be very solid. Throwing 95-96 with command along with a nasty slider makes him pretty darn effective. I was actually hoping Swindle would make the club out of ST but it wasn't in the cards. I am including some sort of anti-jinx disclaimer with this post because I don't want to put any bad omens on Todd.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

We see a few sidearmers, like Chad Bradford, that can get righties and lefties out, I wonder why we don't see that more from lefties?

Bradford might not be the best example -- he's actually been pretty ineffective against LHB during his career. They've hit .313/.404/.446 off him vs. .240/.278/.299 by RHB. He's walked more lefties than he's struck out, and he's served up homers to lefties at a rate nearly 3 times higher than righties.

 

To your general point though -- basically, I think teams are more likely to let righty sidearmers face LHB than vice-versa because they don't think of RH relievers as ROOGYs, even if their platoon splits would argue for a usage pattern that prevents them from facing lefties very often, if ever. On the other hand, everybody recognizes that LH relievers are routinely kept on rosters primarily just to come in and face one tough lefty, or a couple of them in a span of three hitters, etc. In fact, it seems to me that managers are tending to use lefty RP exclusively as LOOGYs more and more each passing season, even if the particular lefty RP on the team doesn't have a history of large platoon splits. The role defines the pitcher, rather than the pitcher's skills determining how he should be used.

 

I don't have any idea why everybody seems to think Swindle can't get righties out. He's been pretty good against righties in the minors. His platoon splits are just a tad large because he utterly annihilates lefties. Over the last 3+ minor league seasons, LHB hit just .150 off him, have never once took him deep, and have struck out in a remarkable 48% of their PA against him. He has a better than 10 to 1 K/BB ratio against LHB. So, if you absolutely must have a LOOGY on the roster, he's your guy. But righties have only hit .228 off him, and his peripherals against righties are good enough that his MLE FIP vs. RHB over that 3+ year span is a totally respectable 3.53. There's no reason Macha should be afraid to let Swindle face righties from time to time.

 

If I were the manager, both Swindle and Stetter would be conventional short relievers instead of LOOGYs. I'd just let the other team's lineup dictate which inning they pitch. If the other team's best two lefties are due up in the 8th inning, for instance, then that night either Swindle or Stetter is my setup guy. If the heavy LH portion of the opponent's lineup comes round in the 9th, well, guess who gets to be the closer tonight. I know it's a pipe dream that anybody would actually manage a MLB team that way, but it's just so much less silly than what they actually do.

 

At any rate, hooray for Swindle! The bullpen just got significantly better.

[dadofandrew]

If they can get both LH's and RH's out, they are guys like CC and making a bijillion dollars. Relievers, almost by definition, have flaws. Most only have one or two pitches they use 90% of the time. It's rare they can have success against the opposite hand with no variety.

 

Even if they have 3-4 decent pitches, no one wants to get beat with their 4th best pitch when you're pitching to 3 batters. Being a reliever in itself lowers how many pitches you throw.

[monty57]

Good to see they'll have two lefty relievers against Philly's ridiculously LH lineup, plus I think it will be fun watching the sloooow curve.

That said, I really hope Riske can get fully healthy. He had good numbers before coming to the Brewers, and our pen could use the help. I have to agree that Julio looks like the odd man out when Hoffman comes off the DL... barring any other injuries.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

If they can get both LH's and RH's out, they are guys like CC and making a bijillion dollars. Relievers, almost by definition, have flaws. Most only have one or two pitches they use 90% of the time. It's rare they can have success against the opposite hand with no variety.

 

Even if they have 3-4 decent pitches, no one wants to get beat with their 4th best pitch when you're pitching to 3 batters. Being a reliever in itself lowers how many pitches you throw.

Swindle throws 5 pitches. Low 80s heater, mid 70s change, slider, and cutter, and the famous 55 mph curveball. Go here and here for some interesting Pitch F/x analysis of his pitches.

 

I don't think it's anywhere near as rare as you think it is for LH short relievers to be pretty darn effective against righties. The wikipedia entry for "Left-handed specialist" has a list of 19 "famous" LOOGYs. I figured that was about as biased (in favor of your view) a place as possible to start looking at some data to see whether it's true that LOOGYs are seldom able to get righties out -- I mean, some of these guys (like Orosco) were instrumental in the very invention of the LOOGY role.

 

7 of the 19 pitchers (Cormier, Honeycutt, Lefferts, Orosco, Radinsky, Rhodes, and Schatzeder) had a career tOPS+ against RHB no greater than 110 and held righties to, at worst, something very close to a league average hitting line.

So, nearly 40% of the guys that wikipedia-contributing baseball fans regard as prototypical LOOGYs were actually, at worst, average pitchers against righties over the course of their careers. A few I'd even call good against righties (Orosco, Radinsky, and Schatzeder). Now, some of the others (like Fossas and Shouse) were so bad against righties and so awesome against lefties that a true LOOGY role is not only the best way to deploy them, it's probably the only rational usage pattern for them. But the fact that guys like that are out there doesn't mean that every LH reliever with unimpressive stuff should be typecast and deployed in an obviously suboptimal fashion.

[bcf5575]

when they showed suppan on tv during the game wednesday I thought his elbow looked tight too...

[Roderick]

Probably doesn't bode well for Julio's future when Hoffman comes back.

They could just send Swindle back down, he has options.

[Yeti73]

I like this move a lot. Swindle is very intriguing. Phils and Mets haven't had a chance to scout him at all; so long as he has his control I see him giving us about 4 scoreless innings during this trip.

[And That]

Swindle is very intriguing. Phils and Mets haven't had a chance to scout him at all

Swindle played in the minor leagues for Philly in 2007 and 2008, and pitched briefly for Philly in the majors last year.

[pogokat]

Apparently Riske's got looseness in his elbow...rotoworld suggests he's going to try and feel it out, but tommy john is likely.. i remember when signing him was a good idea

[GormanHarvey]

Bad news on Riske: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/43487497.html

 

Has anyone heard anything on how Gagne's rehab is going? I would much rather have him than Julio, although that will probably be moot when Hoff gets activated sunday. It would be nice to have Gagne waiting in the wings though.

 

(edited to make link clickable)

[PeaveyFury]

Apparently Riske's got looseness in his elbow...rotoworld suggests he's going to try and feel it out, but tommy john is likely

 

Perhaps more concerning is that our medical staff thought it was ok for him to pitch all spring for some reason even though almost everyone else could tell he was hurt....

[Invader3K]

Sounds like he's done for the year at any rate. Boy, that was quite a bunch of salary down the toilet. Too bad.

[RyDogg66]

Insurance?

[Crew2323]

Apparently Riske's got looseness in his elbow...rotoworld suggests he's going to try and feel it out, but tommy john is likely

 

Perhaps more concerning is that our medical staff thought it was ok for him to pitch all spring for some reason even though almost everyone else could tell he was hurt....

Perhaps this would explain why the medical staff thought it was ok for him to pitch:

"Riske, who signed a three-year, $13 million free agent contract prior to the 2008 season, had surgery to remove a bone spur in the elbow last September. As it turned out, that spur prevented the laxity in the ligament from being symptomatic.

"Apparently, the bone spur prevented him from extending his elbow, which prevented the laxity from being exposed," said assistant general manager Gord Ash."

JSonline Notes

 

[joepepsi]

Insurance?

Yup, that should cover at least 60% of his 2009 salary.

[PrinceFielder28]

wow he has been a huge bust

[Team Canada]

Was a name ever so fitting in hindsight?

[razzzorsharp]

Shame that this signing didnt pan out, I really did like the move.