Quote:
Originally Posted by jd1020
There's a lot of thing I don't understand with Maddon. There was no reason that Motte shouldn't have been available but for some reason he chose to bring him in the first game yesterday after Ramirez gives up a homerun and strikes out the next batter. 2 outs and still with a 3 run lead that was literally the most useless pitching change and hurt for this game. I can't understand why Fowler is still the leadoff hitter. He's complete garbage against RH pitching. I can't understand why Castro still bats 5th when he's barely a replacement level player this year. But what I've learned from these relief pitchers is that hoping for a 1-2-3 inning from any of them is like sticking your dick in a blender. Rondon has been dealing in his new role. When he was closing it was a roll of the dice. His games were littered with 4+ batters faced. I can't argue with using either Strop or Rondon in that situation. They've both been good and bad. I can only question why Motte was wasted in game 1 yesterday.
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Yeah, I was going to mention going to Motte yesterday in game 1. The strangest part of that was that he went to him to get after Scruggs and Cruz. It's not like either of those guys presented much in the way of a credible threat.
And yeah, you have to believe that's the reason he was off limits today.
Maybe it's just because I'm not vested in the outcome so I don't feel the 'strain' even when Rondon puts a runner on. All I can say is that from an outsider's perspective, but having seen him pitch quite a bit, Rondon's stuff is impressive as hell and his command is definitely good enough. Motte mostly just hopes you hit it hard at people and Strop's delivery is just so loud that I'd never trust him to be consistent enough to close games.
Rondon's track record and stuff make him a no-brainer to me. If you can close games in your first full season in the majors, you have the stones for the role.