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Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Defined Roles

It is not fun watching several of your favorite players struggle.  I've touched on McCutchen's struggles a ton, but another Pirate has been a shell of his former self.

Tony Watson was probably the best reliever in baseball you never head of because up until the trade deadline last year he had never closed games. If you ever watch those MLB Network shows where they rate the top 10 at each position, Watson would show up every year for relief pitchers.

Late last year he started to show some cracks in the armor. While he still never gave up a ton of hard contact, balls were still going into play a ton which lead to some rough outings.  This year has been more of the same, but with the added addition of becoming more susceptible to the long ball. He blew his 4th save tonight.

I'm one that hates defined roles for pitchers. Several people are calling for Watson to move out of the 9th inning role.  To me that thought process never makes any sense. Let's move a guy that is struggling to the 7th inning and he can give up homeruns there.  It is all about high leverage situations. Watson just needs to pitch in some games where the score is already out of hand. The inning doesn't matter. Just as the Pirates moved Cutch down in the order, Watson can pitch in mop up duty for a while.

It is fun to vent via showing off a baseball card.....


7 comments:

  1. I cannot stand defined rolls. Drives me nuts. Girardi is the king of that. It's all because of the goofy save stat.

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    1. Sometimes it feels like they treat it like a union and base things off of seniority instead of skill set.

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  2. I read somewhere that Watson will probably stay in the closer role, because the next best option is a young guy (Felipe Rivero?) who is arbitration eligible. Giving the young kid save chances will only raise his salary for next year.
    The NL Central is up in the air right now and this is what the Pirates are worried about? Ugh.

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    1. Rivero and Nicasio have been the best relievers on the Pirates. They both have been used really well this year coming in to put out fires because they can strike out guys with ease. Watson on the other hand has seen his k rate plummet. I think he can still be highly effective playing to his strengths, but he is probably more of a loogy in high leverage situations. Right now he probably doesn't need to sniff one of those situations for a few outings.

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  3. Reading this post reminded me that relievers are volatile as heck.

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  4. As an O's fan i debated razzing you via twitter these past two nights, but knew if I did the baseball gods would bless us with another 7 game losing streak...

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    1. You can always make fun of the Pirates. They deserve it right now.

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