They rested their balls on our field and brushed our teeth with their bats

by Dex on Apr 5, 2008 11:36 AM PDT

What the heck happened there last night? That 7th inning was the absolute worst I've seen Buddy in his career thus far. Leaving Thatcher in would be understandable if he was getting hosed on calls, but it was plain as day that he couldn't locate his stuff. Coming in from the angle he was, it was ridiculous easy for batters to lay off the low stuff, and he wasn't fooling anybody with the stuff up as he missed consistently.

I've always thought that managers at the pro level have a minimal effect on what happens during the game as long as they stay out of the way. Pulling Thatcher out after walking two batters in a row should have been obvious. After the third batter in a row was walked, Buddy should have had the words BULLPEN printed on his eyeballs. It should have been automatic and Buddy froze. Absolutely terrible and he deserves to get called out on it, but I can't seem to find anything on MLB.com or SignOnSanDiego that really talks about how horrible it was. Luckily... North County Times comes through with some quotes:

"That was uncharacteristic of our staff, really," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It was uncharacteristic of what we've seen over the last few years.

No kidding? Uncharacteristic? The plane is crashing into the mountain and Buddy figures something "uncharacteristic" is happening. UGH. Thanks a lot, Nancy Drew, for that outstanding observation. Milk and cookies for everyone.

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That inning was awful

"It's inexcusable to walk a pitcher," said Thatcher, who allowed four runs in one-third of an inning. "You just can't do that. I was close. I just didn't have the feel for it. It was just one of those days."

It's inexcusable to walk ANYONE who is trying to give you a free out. Given the fact that this particular pitcher was a TERRIBLE hitter, you could have grooved every pitch down the middle, and the chances of him pulling back and taking a swing were probably -10%.

I felt all last season that Bochy handled the bullpen better than Black is. It seems to me like Bochy looks at it from an ex-catchers point of view, and Black looks at it from an ex-pitchers point of view. That is probably why Black tends to stick with pitchers longer, giving them a chance to work out of it. Maybe Bochy had a better eye for when a pitcher didn't have his stuff.

by osbug on Apr 5, 2008 11:57 AM PDT reply actions