Stone on the debacle

[Juliooooo]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

So even though ALL of us were saying, 'Oh No....not Ray....he's a HR pitching machine' BEFORE the AB on this forum, you still think it was the right decision????

Wow.....that's insane.

I thought it was a series of bad options, and understand why they would go with Ray, hoping to get good results in a short outing with the stuff he has.

[Michael K.]

Matthew Boyd's numbers against Lefties this year.....

3-24 with 0 doubles, 0 triples, 0 home runs, 1 Walk and 7 K's for a .125 AVG, .317 OPS and a 0.46 WHIP

And zero Cy Youngs. I don't get this idea that because a pitcher has never pitched as a reliver that he can't do it. We act like Robbie Ray gives up a leadoff home run in every game he starts or something. He was asked to face one hitter. Why does whether it was the first hitter of the game or the last hitter of the game matters. Every time he starts a game he throws to a hitter after warming up. Are you saying that his bullpen session is so much more advanced when he is going to start then when he comes out of the pen that he couldn't possibly be ready? If so, how do all these other starters do it in the post season?

[Juliooooo]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

Yes it was. I commented on it in the game thread at the time it happened. There was no reason Swanson shouldn't have been out there in that game. Servais is trying to be overly clever. He got away with it that time but not with Ray.

So we disagree, cool. One worked out and one didn't.

[Cascade Kid]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

Then what didn't make it "work out" if RR was the best bullpen option? Something happened here. Do you know what it is? IMO it is 100% pitch sequence. Ye ole straight ball, ye ole straight ball by RR. Should've been a series of sliders away. But I think SS got caught up in the moment with him bringing in RR and wanted to go right after Alvarez. But I don't think SS took a look at RR 16% flyball/HR rate for the month of September. Major miscalculation by SS.

[XpertDBA]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

So even though ALL of us were saying, 'Oh No....not Ray....he's a HR pitching machine' BEFORE the AB on this forum, you still think it was the right decision????

Wow.....that's insane.

I thought it was a series of bad options, and understand why they would go with Ray, hoping to get good results in a short outing with the stuff he has.

No, using Ray was a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad option that most of us recognized BEFORE the AB.

Walking Alvarez, using Swanson, doing anything but that was WAY better than the option that was chosen. Come on man.

[bpj]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

Yes it was. I commented on it in the game thread at the time it happened. There was no reason Swanson shouldn't have been out there in that game. Servais is trying to be overly clever. He got away with it that time but not with Ray.

Agreed, using Kirby was stupid also. You don't get to the playoffs and all of a sudden change everything...

[D-train]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

Yes it was. I commented on it in the game thread at the time it happened. There was no reason Swanson shouldn't have been out there in that game. Servais is trying to be overly clever. He got away with it that time but not with Ray.

Same...

[bpj]

I thought that using Ray for just a few outs as a lefty out of the pen was the best option for him this series, and a good option against Alvarez. It didn't work out, and they may need to do something different in the future. That was my opinion before yesterday, and I'm not going to use hindsight to act like it was a stupid decision.

Kirby had never been a reliever, was it a stupid decision to use him instead of Swanson against Toronto simply because he hasn't been a reliever and Swanson has? I liked that decision at the time as well.

Then what didn't make it "work out" if RR was the best bullpen option? Something happened here. Do you know what it is? IMO it is 100% pitch sequence. Ye ole straight ball, ye ole straight ball by RR. Should've been a series of sliders away. But I think SS got caught up in the moment with him bringing in RR and wanted to go right after Alvarez. But I don't think SS took a look at RR 16% flyball/HR rate for the month of September. Major miscalculation by SS.

That ones easy.

Ray wasn't our best bullpen option.

[Michael K.]

Walking Alvarez,

Can we please stop this. Put the winning run on the the tying run in scoring position? This place would have exploded with SS hate if he did this and it didn't work.

[Captain 97]

Matthew Boyd's numbers against Lefties this year.....

3-24 with 0 doubles, 0 triples, 0 home runs, 1 Walk and 7 K's for a .125 AVG, .317 OPS and a 0.46 WHIP

And zero Cy Youngs. I don't get this idea that because a pitcher has never pitched as a reliver that he can't do it. We act like Robbie Ray gives up a leadoff home run in every game he starts or something. He was asked to face one hitter. Why does whether it was the first hitter of the game or the last hitter of the game matters. Every time he starts a game he throws to a hitter after warming up. Are you saying that his bullpen session is so much more advanced when he is going to start then when he comes out of the pen that he couldn't possibly be ready? If so, how do all these other starters do it in the post season?

Have you even watched the last month of Baseball. Robbie Ray has literally been one of our worst pitchers on the entire roster over the last month. In my opinion He should have been left off the roster after his performance in Toronto. Instead he gets put into a situation like that. Its mind boggling.