Diamondbacks vs Royals series thread

[ajcardfan]

Amen to that.

If they'd blown this one it might of crushed whatever life is left right out of this team.

No doubt. This was an escape from severe embarassment. I was worried about this series going into it. I guess I have no reason to not worry still. It's not out of the realm of possibility to lose the next two games. If that happens, we might see a long term tail spin.

 

[IndyDevil]

After watching ASU get jobbed....er, lose at CSF I couldn't handle the D'Backs blow such a big lead!! THANK YOU, TROY!!! :notworthy :notworthy

 

[bankybruce]

Bruney gets them in order. Maybe Glaus can hit a home run.

Do me a favor and Pick five numbers (1 through 53) plus one number (1 through 42), that is all I ask of you.

 

[devilalum]

After watching ASU get jobbed....er, lose at CSF I couldn't handle the D'Backs blow such a big lead!! THANK YOU, TROY!!! :notworthy :notworthy

They were probably going to loose anyway but that was THE weakest call I've ever seen.

EVER!

 

[AZZenny]

In Cormier's defense - I was appalled they didn't pull him and let Clark hit; was telling my seatmates he was doomed in the ninth after pitching 2 innings last night. (and Oh, hey, let's overwork the one decent arm we do have, BoMel!) He did have 4 or 5 good groundballs in the ninth, but unfortunately, the defense was never quite able to pull off the double play.

Edgar Gonzalez looks like he's mentally exactly the same guy he was last year, and I for one already don't need to see more.

During the game, each of Glaus's at bats felt just slightly better - more confident or relaxed - be wonderful if he and Green could de-slumpify at the same time.

 

[Lefty]

In Cormier's defense - I was appalled they didn't pull him and let Clark hit; was telling my seatmates he was doomed in the ninth after pitching 2 innings last night. (and Oh, hey, let's overwork the one decent arm we do have, BoMel!) He did have 4 or 5 good groundballs in the ninth, but unfortunately, the defense was never quite able to pull off the double play.

Edgar Gonzalez looks like he's mentally exactly the same guy he was last year, and I for one already don't need to see more.

I agree with Cormier. I mentioned earlier he had already pitched a lot the game before.

As for Gonzalez, let's give him a chance. If he shows that he can't handle it after a few weeks, then maybe you look somewhere else. You have to remember, he is a starter, not a reliever.

Thankfully you don't run this team because if you did, we would be seeing an entire different roster every week.

 

[BC867]

...be wonderful if he and Green could de-slumpify at the same time.

De-slumpify. Now there's a great word.

 

[AZZenny]

Thankfully you don't run this team because if you did, we would be seeing an entire different roster every week.

We already are, Zona! Just not always the roster I would put out there. For ex - I would never have put Herges on the roster, and probably not Vargas, either, and if I HAD foolishly gotten Herges, he's shown me enough that he'd be gone by now. Bruney'd be working it out in Tucson.
(I would not pick up pitchers based on the idiocy that "Despite lousy WHIP and ERA, they pitched a scoreless inning against us once this season, so we think they can really help us." Which is pretty much exactly what Joe said about Herges and Vargas. WE as fans know the DBacks can make sludge look like a Cy Young winner in any given game. Goes back to the question - why can't GMs admit their mistakes?)

The thing about Gonzalez is - he's not a reliever. Why they persist in throwing young starters (like Cormier, Gosling) abruptly into the bullpen puzzles me, since everything I read says it's an entirely different preparation, pitch selection, and mind set.

He's been doing decently in Tucson, and they were saying he had developed some confidence finally, not wildly fluctuating attitude from pitch to pitch like before - last night, as soon as he got into trouble, he visibly deflated, you could see it from the upper deck, the Royals smelled it, and he just got run - er...walked - over. If it took them a year to rebuild his confidence from before, think what a couple bad bullpen outings up here will do to him.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

I guess I jinxed him but Cormier has thrown a lot of pitches the last couple of games.

You certainly got that right...

Exhibit A:
June 10th:
1.1 innings-27 pitches

June 9th:
2 innings-23 pitches


June 6th:
3 innings-29 pitches

June 5th:
1 inning-13 pitches

June 1st:
1 inning-10 pitches

How staggering is that? The following is from a post I made back on 7/26/03 in the Season thread. The Diamondbacks start their run to the playoffs tonight:

The bullpen was sharp, especially Valverde, Villarreal, and Mantei.... Just hope Brenly doesn't over-extend Oscar beyond what is necessary, somewhat reminds me of the abuse that the Tigers inflicted on a promising rookie reliever (Sean Runyan) back in '98 when he made 88 appearances and only pitched in 15 games (spanning 2-yrs) after that.....

Unfortunately, I was obviously correct on Oscar.... Last year I post something in reference to the overuse of Brandon Villafuerte who is now pitching in the San Francisco Giants system and probably did suffer from arm-ailments from his improper use....

Now.. it appears that Cormier is the next victim and I thought that all came to an end when both Brenly/Kniffin and eventually Pedrique were all terminated.... But wait.... wasn't Mark Davis the Dbacks Bullpen coach during Brenly's tenure? Yes..... So.. my questioning recently... why did the Dbacks retain coaches from a staff that pretty much is responsible in ruining several promising pitchers careers and now seem to continue on doing so? True.. Mark Davis has some credentials since he had some of the best years that any closer would yearn for in the Majors, but that doesnt siginify that he's qualified to be a coach whatsoever... It's not like he's assisted in really improving any of the Dbacks pitchers (especially homegrown ones)...

I loved how they added Brett Butler (one of my fave players while I was growing-up) and bringing back Carlos Tosca, but it was time to start a new.. Yeah... Melvin obviously isnt new of course to the Dbacks, but he didnt have to bring back coaches who seemed ineffective for the most part.... Time for a clean-slate....They should have never let Bob Welch go..... I won't be shocked regardless of where the Dbacks finish this year that Mark Davis won't be returning next season.......

 

[AZZenny]

Been starting to think about Davis that way myself. btw - Valverde warmed up three separate times last night, so when he comes in tonight, consider him on his second day in a row.

I hear Aquino may arrive tomorrow.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

I hear Aquino may arrive tomorrow.

Oh that is good news... well.. at least until the Dbacks will overextend him!

Who plans on attending tonight's game? I'm going to especially since it's not televised... Also.. I want to see Halsey live in action.. Just hope he shakes-off his last couple horrid outings and reverts back to the form he displayed earlier in the season.....

Also.. I hope the Dbacks capitalize on the fact that the tonight's starter for the Royals, J.P. Howell, who will be making his ML debut tonight.... Unfortunately though.. it seems in recent memory that most rookies starters have dominated the Dbacks hitters, so hope that trend is reverse.....

 

[green machine]

The problem is the Dbacks bullpen is terrible, so they will tend to go with the guy that gets the job done. It looked like they did not want to use Cormier last night, but the rest of the pen blew it, so they went with him hoping he could stop the bleeding. Yeah, he has been overworked, like many of the good pitchers. But it's gotta be tough for BoMel, because he only has confidence in maybe one, two guys tops, and I completely understand that. So what it comes down to is how do we get more reliable bullpen help so that the one or two guys we have that actually get the job done don't have to pitch every day?

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Thank God this game wasn't on TV last night or there would have been a meltdown. I don't need to re-hash all the negative stuff I've been saying about this joke of a bullpen for the pat few months, but it's going to take a lot more than a healthy Aquino and Lyon to stabilize the pen.

And i forgot to mention that Herges is just as bad as Lighterfluid. In fact, they may be the same player.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

The problem is the Dbacks bullpen is terrible, so they will tend to go with the guy that gets the job done. It looked like they did not want to use Cormier last night, but the rest of the pen blew it, so they went with him hoping he could stop the bleeding. Yeah, he has been overworked, like many of the good pitchers. But it's gotta be tough for BoMel, because he only has confidence in maybe one, two guys tops, and I completely understand that. So what it comes down to is how do we get more reliable bullpen help so that the one or two guys we have that actually get the job done don't have to pitch every day?

All of this is true, however, case in point would be what AZZenny posted:

Been starting to think about Davis that way myself. btw - Valverde warmed up three separate times last night, so when he comes in tonight, consider him on his second day in a row.

Why have Valverde warm-up that extensively and elect not to use him? In fact.. Valverde hasnt seen game action since Wednesday (albeit he's been struggling, but did have 1-2-3 inning his last outing), but warming-up a pitcher up in the BP takes as much of a toll on a pitcher than having him out there in live game action.... Why pitch Cormier on consecutive days when Valverde had been available?

Also... Thu's game....Lopez starts the 9th inning by retiring the both the Twins hitters he faced with relative ease, but Melvin playing the percentages elects to bring in Bruney who has pitched even more than Cormier over the past couple weeks and of course with horrid results.... That really didnt make sense either....

I would even consider promoting either Tolar or Almanza up at this point... or even have Vargas pitch in long-relief when needed (heck.. he could have been brought into lastnites game since he didnt pitch many innings in his start).....

 

[devilalum]

Thank God this game wasn't on TV last night or there would have been a meltdown. I don't need to re-hash all the negative stuff I've been saying about this joke of a bullpen for the pat few months, but it's going to take a lot more than a healthy Aquino and Lyon to stabilize the pen.

And i forgot to mention that Herges is just as bad as Lighterfluid. In fact, they may be the same player.

How long are you going to continue to find ways to incorporate the word "Lighterfluid" into your posts?

How about calling Herges "Lighterfluid Jr. " that ought to get you a few more weeks.

 

[az240zz]

Last nights game resembled some of my wifes slow pitch softball games. Our bullpen is really bad ufortunately I don't see it getting any bettar.

I bet Melvin sits Cintron. He doesn't seem to go with the hot player but rather his inefficient starters.

Can someone tell me when the last time Glaus had a meeningful hit. Last nights homer was great but when did he last hit a game winner, be it in the 5th inning or the 9th. He has been very disappointing.

When do they replace Cruz in centerfield??

az240z

 

[Cody]

Omg Clark Is Just Amazing!!!!

 

[devilalum]

The Dbacks scored 45 runs last week and went 3-4. Thats including a shutout by Santana. Its not just the bullpen, we need to get more and better innings from our starters too.

When the Dbacks had Curt and Randy pitching 8 or 9 innings a game it made the bullpen look a whole lot better. When's the last time a Dback starter pitched 8 innings? When's the last Dback complete game?

 

[Cody]

The bullpen still GIVES UP too many runs....They have a VERY high ERA. I understand what you meen by starters need to go deeper, but if each reliever pitched one inning they should be able to get through it

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Also.. I hope the Dbacks capitalize on the fact that the tonight's starter for the Royals, J.P. Howell, who will be making his ML debut tonight.... Unfortunately though.. it seems in recent memory that most rookies starters have dominated the Dbacks hitters, so hope that trend is reverse.....

Okay... I welcome everyone to blame me from lastnight's lost!

I was at the game and lord did those umpires botch those 2 plays (especially the line-drive in the 8th that clearly the 3B didnt catch which lead to eventual inning-ending double-play)... Also, why did Hairston swing at the 1st pitch in his PH appearance in the 9th? Why did Gonzo do the same when it seemed that the Dbacks had finally solved Howell? And..I'm starting to wonder if Halsey's initial success was more of an aberration than anything else.... Of course.. it's too premature to give-up on him, but I wouldnt be shocked if Edgar Gonzalez soon will replace him in the rotation or Gosling will be recalled and given another chance....

Anyways.. the Dbacks obviously must win and salvage this series.... The Royals of course shouldnt pose as a problem as they have... Plus...taking on the White Sox and Indians wont be an easy chore (especially at both of their home parks) either.....And then most not forget the crucial following 4 game series against the Giants at SBC....

 

[Cody]

I wish BA wasnt on DL....He was my favorite player and I wanted to see him pitch

 

[Cody]

Anyone else mis Big Jimmy T (Jim Traber) announcing? Where is he now?

 

[AZZenny]

Had I realized JP Howell is sort of the starter equivalent to Huston Street, I would have been a lot more concerned going in - but once again, rather than patiently work the guy's pitch count up, since for long stretches it was 50-50 ball/strike, we swung like we expected to tee off on a newbie - and you're right KLL- we usually flail against them, esp lefties.

We got screwed out of a rally on that botched call at 3rd, but what was Snyder doing meandering aimlessly 15-20 feet off second, paying no attention, anyhow?

 

[KingLouieLouie]

Had I realized JP Howell is sort of the starter equivalent to Huston Street, I would have been a lot more concerned going in - but once again, rather than patiently work the guy's pitch count up, since for long stretches it was 50-50 ball/strike, we swung like we expected to tee off on a newbie - and you're right KLL- we usually flail against them, esp lefties.

We got screwed out of a rally on that botched call at 3rd, but what was Snyder doing meandering aimlessly 15-20 feet off second, paying no attention, anyhow?

Okay.. it is more assuring that Howell advanced thru the ranks as highly regarded as Street was....

I guess Snyder just had a mental lapse thinking that the ball wasnt caught as well, but agreed he shouldnt have been that far off 2nd and should have scurried back to 2nd quickly..... Just again a lack of fundamentals.....

I question 2 moves Melvin made... first.. the double switch (putting McCracken in for Cruz Jr.)... True.. it was made so McCracken would get an AB earlier so the Dbacks wouldnt have to bring in another reliever as quick as they would have, but no way would I have sacrificed Cruz's HR potential.....

Plus.. I would have lifted Snyder in the 9th for Stinnet who has seemed to have generated some decent numbers since he's promotion....

Also.. why did Melvin leave Halsey in as long as he did? Well... the obvious response to that of course is he wanted to avoid using the BP as early as possible at all costs.... but still.... that's no way to help a young pitcher's arm while in the process you're essentially ruining his confidence....

 

[WizardOfAz]

Clark starting today!