Scapegoating Melvin would be a mistake

Forget for a moment who the author is. There's a couple of good points to consider, but sadly, they are not expounded upon...

almost 3 years ago unnamedDBacksfan 7 comments 0 recs |

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I'm not sure

about the “great communicator” bit, but he does have some good points. With his placid facade and vague-to-the-point-of-madness press conferences, it is easy to blame Melvin. But the players should share the responsibility for the last year of exasperating play.

I almost think we have a perfect storm of flaws right now. A reserved (I would say “meek”, but reserved works too) coaching staff, and a flock of players who are either inattentive, stubborn or unable to take criticism. Whatever the cause, it makes for some ugly at bats and, occasionally some players who look like they’d rather be anywhere but at the ballpark.

But there is hope. Aside from a few incidents, the D-Backs are playing hard and not giving into their frustrations. And they are making some (occasional) adjustments. As long as they keep inching forward, teh season isn’t lost.

"We...probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." — Terry Bisson

by Scrbl on May 2, 2009 12:16 AM EDT reply actions

After Gordon's blowup the other night

and the groundswell against Bob’s RP usage, I found some stats at b-r that hopefully lend some useful league context.

1. Our pen’s 3-1 record (Wqr Lgr) is the third highest pen W/L% in the league
2. The one loss is tied for fewest pen losses (Lgr) in the league.
3. Our relievers allow 26% of inherited runners to score, fifth best % in the league (IS%)
4. Despite our starter’s 3.90 ERA (one of the lg’s best after park adjs), they’ve handed off fewer leads (AHD) than any NL rotation (18). Conversely, our relievers have entered more situations behind (BHD), forty six, than any other pen.

Point four indicts our offense, more than anything, and hopefully these stats shed some light on the perception our pen is consistently blowing games. They’ve certainly been up and down, but the vast majority of our games have been “blown” before then.

If the FO is the focus of anything, something is seriously wrong with the picture ! - unnamedDBacksfan 2/20/09

by Diamondhacks on May 2, 2009 12:59 PM EDT reply actions

I misinterpreted

#4. The AHD and BHD figures, which tally relievers’ inherited game scores, dont provide a clean accounting between starter handoffs v reliever handoffs. In other words, those paltry 18 lead “handoffs” include not just what the starters gave us, but also lead handoffs from one RP to another. Which sounds about right for a team with ten wins…most wins involve multiple lead handoffs, a come from behind walkoff wouldnt involve any.

Dont think it negates the general thrust of what I was saying, but it’s an important distinction.

If the FO is the focus of anything, something is seriously wrong with the picture ! - unnamedDBacksfan 2/20/09

by Diamondhacks on May 2, 2009 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Using W-L to judge a bullpen

Is very flawed, especially over a month. If the starter leaves with a lead, the bullpen can’t hold it and then the offense gives them run support, the bullpen gets an unjustified win. On the other hand, if the bullpen takes a small deficit and blows it up [paging Jon Rauch…] their W-L record takes no damage, despite an ineffectual performance. That’s “blowing” a game, almost as much as turning a lead into a deficit.

I do agree that the offense is more a problem than the pitching, but the bullpen is much more a problem than the rotation.

"Win, or die" -- Marquise de Merteuil

by Jim McLennan on May 3, 2009 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not employing

W/L to illustrate the bullpen’s effectiveness, I’m employing it to counter mob wisdom that this ineffective pen has been used ineffectively. Their group ERA exceeds 5! Yet after today, they’re 4-3. Wouldnt you expect a bad bullpen, used badly, to lose most of their decisions?

Hasnt happened. Quite the opposite.

Or wouldnt you expect this motley crew to allow an unusually high % of inherited runners to score?

Hasnt happened.

The only thing you can say is the bad relievers should pitch better or the good relievers should pitch more (or in higher lev situations). Qualls and Pena are already paced at 65 and 82 IP, for a sub .500 team. Chad’s on pace for 39 saves, Pena has 3 wins and we’re barely out of April. It’s hard to imagine them being used much better. The problem is, somebody else has to pitch a bunch of innings, and those somebodies have been pretty sucky.

There’s a leverage argument in there somewhere, but it’s a tiny argument. Since we dont score much and our starters have been great, the pen is in a lot of close games – sucky relievers are going to pitch in them, even with the game on the line. There’s no getting around that – not unless Tony or Chad pitch 100 innings, and that’s not going to happen.

The other thing that’s frustrating, but absolutely necessary in a 162g season, is that Melvin and Josh need time to assess who they’ve got out there. Young, unproven arms. Veterans hanging on. That evaluation isnt static and doesnt happen overnight. It evolves. Big Jon Rout is a good example. Some of us were inclined to release him (and some clubs may’ve done so), but he’s starting to make small contributions, and based on his history could be an integral part of this team’s success.

If the FO is the focus of anything, something is seriously wrong with the picture ! - unnamedDBacksfan 2/20/09

by Diamondhacks on May 3, 2009 11:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Piecoro chimes in with player comments:

But Melvin’s players don’t understand how the manager can get blamed for the poor start. (me: we just had our second worst opening month in history)

“You want to point fingers, point them at me, point them at the other players,” outfielder Eric Byrnes said. "We’re the ones out there who haven’t been getting it done.

“This has nothing to do with Bob. Bob and the coaching staff are very meticulous about giving us the information that we need to go out there and win. I think they do a very good job with that.”

Catcher Chris Snyder said the same.

“Our whole (coaching) staff, from top to bottom, does everything in their power to make sure that 25 guys are ready to play,” Snyder said.

Sorry, Chris, I’m disagreeing with ya on this. I fail to see how having 140 different line ups a season is a good thing for the development of young players. Melvin probably could be a great manager, on a team of proven veterans©. you see talented kids come here via trades (CY) or brought up and they may start off fast, but always end up struggling or slumping, really bad. Yeah, some if this has to fall upon the players, but some has to fall upon Melvin. Is it enough though to demand his job? I don’t know. Very recently, I said to fire melvin if we wanted to have a season. Right now, I am more interested in them turning this around than pointing fingers.

"If you'd need to know, you'd know. but they decided that you don't need to know,so you don't. So stop thinking about what you don't know because you don't need to know what you think you need to know about!"

by unnamedDBacksfan on May 2, 2009 3:29 PM EDT reply actions

To be honest,

I tried and tried to find something with which to fundamentally disagree with here, simply because it’s Bickley, but I feel like for the most part he’s right. So, I’ll just do what I normally do when I’m at a loss for words: