GDT 9/26/21 Pittsburgh Pirates (Kranick) @ Philadelphia Phillies (TBD)

[bkox]

He will be the 17th pitcher to start a game for the Phillies this season. I havent researched but feel that has to be a club record.

I was wrong:

Thanks to bullpen games, the Phillies have had 17 different starting pitchers so far this season.

That's the most by a Phils team in 75 years, and 2 short of the franchise record of 19 set in 1946.

The Dodgers lead MLB this year with 19 @TheGoodPhight https://t.co/O9MG40Z6fF pic.twitter.com/4i5Bl2P10A

— schmenkman ( @tgpschmenk ) September 27, 2021

[Philsmania]

Your killer for the 2021 Phillies is probably this: a combined 19-22 against the Diamondbacks (3-4 against a team with 106 losses and counting), the Rockies (2-5 against a team with 84 losses and counting), the Mets (only 10-9 against a team with 82 losses and counting) and the Pirates (only 4-3 against a team with 97 losses and counting). Even if you turn that record around to 22-19 which would not be great, they would be a half game up and we would be bemoaning how the bullpen prevented us from putting the division away before this series.

[andyb]

The decision to start Crouse was puzzling. Not that Medina is much better, but you don't mess with player preparation on short notice when there does not seem to be a crying need. Looking at Crouse I get the people that think he is destined for the bullpen. He really needs better 3rd and 4th pitches and the ability to mix speeds. Those pitches are just not ready yet and without him he had to be too fine with his other stuff.

[mdougherty12]

I suspect it came down to Pittsburgh’s lefty heavy lineup. Medina’s numbers vs. lefties are terrible.

[andyb]

Medina's numbers against left-handed batters are not good, but that is kind of what you expect with a guy that has a 5 AAA ERA for whatever reason. Crouse's numbers were against AA hitters though and are not really that comparable.

I think Girardi thought both options were mediocre and just gambled on the hot hand who the other team may not have seen much. Not that the decision ultimately mattered. Maybe this team should have been keeping Falter in a 2-3 inning mode all along and that is the big decision that gets glossed over.

[VoteForKalas]

This was painful to watch....

[California_Dreamin]

Poppycock! Lefty-smeftly, just another example of the Phils seemingly having NO idea how the mind of a young player works. Gosh, it is getting so tiresome talking about this. All week Medina was told he was starting on Sunday, all week he prepared for it, all week he talked to Neris and others about how to prepare, how to mentally and physically get ready for what he knew was an incredibly important start. Heck, its not out of the realm of possibility that Medina even envisioned a solid start giving him a leg up on a possible rotation spot next spring.

Even as of Saturday afternoon Medina believed he was starting. Then at the last moment, with no explanation, no real reason other than the Phils seemingly enjoying adding names to their neverending list of "failed prospects", Medina is pulled for a hurler who has never even smelled the green grass of Citizens Bank Park. And unless my eyes deceive me, Crouse was every bit as right handed as was Medina, so the Pirates predominant lefty lineup holds no water as an excuse.

I found this whole episode disgusting on both a team and personal level. If grades were passed out for a teams ability to continue to pull phans in while at the same time give said phans a reason to simply believe nothing will ever change, the Phils would get an A+.

And it would be the only A they have earned in this once again most frustrating and unappetizing season.

[andyb]

This is what I was getting at. They prepared Medina mentally to start. He had been decent 5 days ago and then they pulled the rug out from under him. FWIW I think Medina is destined tor the bullpen too, but the mission here was to go once around the lineup and pitch 2-3 innings. Medina was better prepared for that than Crouse even if the Phillies value Crouse higher in the long term.

Girardi rolled the dice and lost. He might have been acting analytically but there are real people involved (BTW good to hear from you).

[zambonir]

They said it was because of the lefties and because Crouse had never worked in relief, so he'd be more comfortable as the "opener." But it's not like Medina has worked in relief that much, and yes, he was prepped to start.

I gotta think this decision was made above Girardi's head (obviously the decision to add Crouse to the roster was, and that's also basically the case if starting him was an analytics-driven decision).

Just another day of panicky moves and least-good options. You do you have to wonder if the clubhouse felt it - both not liking how Medina was treated and not feeling good about putting a must-win game in a AA rookie's hands (even though he did okay).

It really stinks that for all of Girardi's supposed bullpen management skills and emphasis on not overusing guys until you need them most at the end of the season, he doesn't seems especially good at it, and doesn't actually have the arms when he needs them most. The bullpen games don't help obviously. My guess is there's no way they don't move Wheeler up if the team's not eliminated in Miami.

[BostonRoss]

I think the discussion of how the pitchers have been used is overblown. The bottom line is that most of the people who have pitched for the Phillies this year aren't very good. And in many of the losses, more blame should go to the offense and/or defense.

[Austinfan]

Yep, when you have no good options, even the optimal move will backfire more than not.

[zambonir]

I mean, sure. And also injuries happen. Girardi's not to blame for Bradley's oblique. And with Hoskins and Eflin everything would be different (better offense, no bullpen games).

But still... we also often criticize managers for treating every game like it is a must-win. But wasn't yesterday? To have Kennedy unavailable and applying traditional closer logic (don't pitch him if you don't have a lead, don't pitch him before the 9th) to Neris when neither of them pitched Saturday and won't today seems pretty questionable.

[Sabin]

But wasn't yesterday? To have Kennedy unavailable and applying traditional closer logic (don't pitch him if you don't have a lead, don't pitch him before the 9th) to Neris when neither of them pitched Saturday and won't today seems pretty questionable.

To me this is what made the Suarez win Saturday more impressive: it provided a bookend off-day around an important bullpen game. Making the way that game was managed... odd.