Not decadent and depraved, but close enough.
When I am Supreme Overlord, the save statistic shall be forever abolished. It's a goddamn stain on the game because it leads managers to deliberately choose strategies that are antithetical to winning. Today's game is a fine example, but we could scan baseball on a daily basis and find this monstrousness all over the league.
In a tied extra inning game on the road, it's sudden death for the visiting team when they're pitching. The optimal strategy would thus be to use pitchers who are most unlikely to give up runs first, then move to the guys more likely to do so. This maximizes your chances of winning, because you need to prevent runs as long as possible. Most of the time, the pitcher least likely to give up runs is the closer. Logic dictates using him in a tie game on the road, since he's least likely to give up runs (obviously, all factors like rest and usage being equal).
There was no earthly reason for Barnes to have been brought into a tie game in extra innings on the road today before Kimbrel was used. In every way Kimbrel is a vastly superior pitcher, far less likely to give up a run than the thoroughly mediocre Barnes. In a situation when a single run means a loss, Farrell brought in a sub-optimal choice of reliever because of this insanely misguided school of thought that closers have to be saved for save situations. So Kimbrel sat unused in the pen while Barnes coughed it away. And nearly every manager around the league does this. Hell, back in the 2013 playoffs the same thing happened to Kimbrel when he was with Atlanta, he sat unused in the pen as Carpenter coughed up the elimination game against the Dodgers because he was being saved for a bottom of the 9th that never arrived.
I know Farrell used Koji far more optimally in the 2013 playoffs. Multiple innings, 5 out saves, etc. Koji's 1 run allowed that postseason came in the bottom of the 9th on the road in a tie game. But it's OK to push the envelope just a little bit in the regular season too.
It's insane. It's bad baseball. And it's going to kill me if I have to keep watching it. Get rid of the save statistic, it's led to total madness.
When I am Supreme Overlord, the save statistic shall be forever abolished. It's a goddamn stain on the game because it leads managers to deliberately choose strategies that are antithetical to winning. Today's game is a fine example, but we could scan baseball on a daily basis and find this monstrousness all over the league.
In a tied extra inning game on the road, it's sudden death for the visiting team when they're pitching. The optimal strategy would thus be to use pitchers who are most unlikely to give up runs first, then move to the guys more likely to do so. This maximizes your chances of winning, because you need to prevent runs as long as possible. Most of the time, the pitcher least likely to give up runs is the closer. Logic dictates using him in a tie game on the road, since he's least likely to give up runs (obviously, all factors like rest and usage being equal).
There was no earthly reason for Barnes to have been brought into a tie game in extra innings on the road today before Kimbrel was used. In every way Kimbrel is a vastly superior pitcher, far less likely to give up a run than the thoroughly mediocre Barnes. In a situation when a single run means a loss, Farrell brought in a sub-optimal choice of reliever because of this insanely misguided school of thought that closers have to be saved for save situations. So Kimbrel sat unused in the pen while Barnes coughed it away. And nearly every manager around the league does this. Hell, back in the 2013 playoffs the same thing happened to Kimbrel when he was with Atlanta, he sat unused in the pen as Carpenter coughed up the elimination game against the Dodgers because he was being saved for a bottom of the 9th that never arrived.
I know Farrell used Koji far more optimally in the 2013 playoffs. Multiple innings, 5 out saves, etc. Koji's 1 run allowed that postseason came in the bottom of the 9th on the road in a tie game. But it's OK to push the envelope just a little bit in the regular season too.
It's insane. It's bad baseball. And it's going to kill me if I have to keep watching it. Get rid of the save statistic, it's led to total madness.