Preview, #122: 8/15 vs. Giants

Bit busy today, so it’s all Jack. :) But there’s a lot to discuss, so that’s okay.

Torey Lovullo pre-game briefing

• Robbie Ray: MRI was clean, no recurrence of last year’s oblique injury. Simply back spasms. No cause identified. Not expected to need to be on IL more than 10 days. They just didn’t want him trying to push through a bullpen in between starts this week while receiving treatment at same time. Ray said if it were game 163 he would push through it.
• Monday’s starter is still TBD
• Jon Duplantier: He’s here to throw out of the bullpen, along with Stefan Chrichton, as bullpen is fatigued after the Colorado series.
• When asked if Duplantier were a possibility for Monday, if Torey were able to stay away from him over the next 4 days, Torey seemed to indicate that is not likely. He really seemed like he would need to use Duplantier. He also indicated that Duplantier is unlikely to transition back to rotation at this point. He will be used as a reliever, most likely till the end of the year
• Jack comments: At this point, one can begin to question the handling of Duplantier. It seems like he has lost an entire year of development, never properly getting stretched out to throw 100 pitches and be a starter. He’s only thrown thrown 61 innings in 16 starts and 8 relief appearances, majors and minors combined. He will be 26 next year, and it’s hard to imagine him being able to throw more than 130-150 innings next year either.. In other words, if, and it has to be a big if at this point, Duplantier is ever going to be a 30+ Starts, 170-80+ innings starter, the absolute earliest you are possibly going to see that is 2021 when he is 27 years old.
• Tim Locastro optioned: ”It was brutal to send him down”, but just came down to needing the pitching depth. He told Tim to hold his head up in the clubhouse. He will be back when rosters expand.
• Josh Rojas: Expect him to play a lot, but will use match-ups to determine when. Torey was impressed with his ability to talk advanced hitting.
• Archie’s blown save: Torey had not gone back and looked and had no desire to look at the last pitch he threw to Arenado yesterday. ”You throw the wrong pitch, poorly located to one of the best hitters in the NL West, you are going to pay the piper. I watched the ball go over the fence, saw the umpires call it fair I walked in, and I haven’t even thought twice about looking at it.......just the wrong pitch at the wrong time in the wrong spot and a good hitter got it” He did not speak with Archie afterwards, but knows AB will be accountable.
• Ketel Marte is out of lineup tonight, but no health issues. Just a scheduled day off to get him off his feet after the Colorado series. He could be used late in the game tonight depending on circumstances however.