Venable’s Bullpen Deployment (aka Old Man Yells At Cloud)
Let me preface what I’m about to say with this: I recognize that Will is going to be a strong, maybe even the leading, Manager Of The Year candidate. And for good reason. Also, I understand that he can only work with what Gets gives him. That said…
The reason the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, is so taxed is because the starting pitching doesn’t consistently go deep enough into games. We all know this, but it’s an issue throughout the league in this era and not just a White Sox issue. But the other reason is because they haven’t solved the closer problem.
Let’s be honest though… they have. It’s Grant Taylor. But instead of deploying him like a traditional closer, they’re relegating him to “get us out of this jam in the 6th, 7th, or 8th” duties. And it feels like every week I’m seeing him enter the game earlier than the previous week. And don’t get me wrong, I fully understand the perks of using your best reliever to get what you perceive as huge outs in back half of the game.
The trade off is that you are now counting on lesser relievers to cover the final 1+ innings of the game. And when you do that, your lesser relievers are going to surrender tying and go ahead runs. Which leads to…EXTRA INNINGS! And thankfully the Sox have performed well come extra innings. But in my opinion, this isn’t a long term winning formula. Your ballclub needs to decide if it’s going to win in the 6th, 7th, and 8th and your middle relief is by design meant to cover middle innings. If you can’t count on Brazoban, Hicks, Hudson, or Richards to cover key outs in the middle of the game when there is still time to add insurance why would you hand them the game in the 8th and 9th?
Again, I understand the argument for using Taylor for big outs that aren’t in the 9th. I just don’t think this is a formula that consistently good teams follow. We have played Also, I prefer to give relievers clean innings. If you have the option stop making them clean up each other’s messes and just give them the inning for better or worse. You can give up a run or two in the 6th or 7th and come back. But giving up dumb runs in the 8th and 9th is backbreaking. And when it leads to extra innings it just brutalizes your entire pitching staff.