On Rocco Baldelli’s Bullpen Management Last Night

Like I said before, Shoe would be ok when the starter doesn't have it. He can eat 3-5 innings in middle relief- depending on whether the Twins can get back into the game. Using some relievers on consecutive days when you had others available is a gamble. Last night it didn't pay off. So we move on and look towards what can be done for next year.

Shoemaker?  Really?  I actually saw Rocco's face/demeanor while he was pitching?  Did he give up an HR on the very first batter?  If so I would have yanked him out by the hair.  When is enough is enough of Shoemaker?  Sorry to be so mean but I am not great with stats and numbers  so I could be dead wrong. 

Put Rogers thru the warmup and then burn an outing for one batter?  Agree, not desirable move.

But why should we expect more from this field general?

In a rotation of Ober, Happ, Dobnak, you need other guys to be capable of 2 innings stints.  I don't know who I'd trust to do 2 innings.  I like the Shoemaker idea but feels Spring Training-ish.

My agreement with the post is pretty complete; Rocco and this Twins leadership are under the microscope. While I continue to listen to most of the Twins games, I am surprised at how little attention the inexperience of their management team receives and was taken aback last winter at how much fans seemed to fawn over the Twins decision-makers.

Like Celestino and the host of other inexperienced Twins, management struggles when tough calls or plays need to be made. The current regime can and will improve with more experience and I would say that their knowledge far exceeds that of the public, but this year does expose how much more experience and knowledge our former leaders possessed. Looking forward, I hope Baldelli and Falvine (yes, two people) learn  from their mistakes and apply that knowledge in a humble fashion. The bullpen usage last night was just a microcosm of the season as is the current handling of Buxton.

Rocco makes decisions for the future at the expense of the present. A worrier instead of a decisive leader

Just because he has tons of data doesn't mean that he can interpret it well and/or quickly during the flow of the game.

He cannot.

I would have paid good money to be in Cruz's head when Rocco "let the other shoemaker drop" for the last two innings of a close/tied game. I'm sure there where some great expletives strung together followed by an added sense of urgency to play well so as to showcase himself for a trade to get the !@#$ out of this clown car.

It is concerning that Baldelli refuses to acknowledge a questionable decision WITH the benefit of hindsight. The other side however is that asking Shoemaker to hold the lead & throw 2 innings isn't that unreasonable in my opinion. The guy didn't execute in the 9th, hung a couple of splitters & they did not miss them.

The season is lost. Shoemaker has no future with the team. He should not be on the roster let alone the mound in a winnable game unless you argue that you just don't have another warm body.  That is Rocco's only defense.

From the OP...

And Rocco didn’t have any regrets over his decisions

This one may get me the most. It’s one thing to make decisions that don’t go your way, look back with the benefit of hindsight and admit you would have liked to do things differently. Instead, Rocco said “there’s really nothing that we would do differently.” Uh, okay ... 

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I have zero problem with this response from Rocco.

Everyone knows that not every decision a manager makes is not going to turn out right, but I want my manager to be confident in his decisions. He's going to get enough second-guessing from everyone else -- I don't want him second-guessing himself, at least in public.

That he said this to the media could also have been very different than the conversations he's having with his bosses, and I'm okay with that too. I appreciate that he doesn't throw his players under the bus. What did you want him to say? Something like, "Well, if we'd known that Alcala was going to give up a homer, that Duffey was going to suck, and that Shoemaker was going to struggle in the second inning, we wouldn't have gone with those guys"?  

Regarding Baldelli’s lack of regret: I don’t think it’s implausible that he would say one thing to the media and mean another, especially when it comes to strategy. 

These are adult men, making millions. There is no need to throw them under the bus but enough with the endless, silly excuses from the broadcast teams and especially Rocco.. Of all the things that offend me about this season, that is probably #1.  Enough.  

The thing that I noticed that I hope Ober changes, is the meatball he likes to throw on the first pitch to each batter.  By the 5th inning, they all were waiting for it, they all swung (Maldonado deep fly to center, Altuve home run - barely - to left, Brantley fouled it off, Bregman grounded out) except Alvarez, and Altuve didn't miss it, and knew it was coming by that point in the game.

Tom, this is a fine review that covers many of the considerations around how the decisions could have been made differently.  Some thoughts:

• This is not the first time the Twins have found themselves out on a limb without enough rope - the question of Baldelli's total plan for covering the mid- to late- innings deserves more study; looking forward to reading more of what you have to say on that topic
• "If the Twins had scored" is more of a consideration when the bottom of the order is coming up, but a manager has to have some faith in his lineup; Gordon's average was .370, Simmons' a not too shabby .250 and even Celestino could have delivered - all they needed was one guy to get on base to get back to the top of the order
• The whole situation would not have come about had Duffey not surrendered the go-ahead run; it would be worth a few words to describe the pickle that presented Baldelli
• There was already a lively discussion on this issue in the Game Recap; besides acknowledging the contributions of other members of the press, to the extent this article covers some of the same ground we read in those comments, you might wish to recognize a few them as well

Thanks again.  Please keep 'em coming.

Good review - Shoemaker is consistent from SP to RP.  His starts were more like an opener as far as innings is concerned, but not results.  He just does not have it.  Why keep using him, is it just hope he will show something so we can trade him at the deadline?  I saw an ESPN note on some of the teams that need pitching and the names from the Twins that show up are Pineda and Happ.  No Shoemaker.  There has to be an evaluator on the team coaching staff, which is larger than ever, who can see that Shoemaker does not have MLB stuff.  Keep robbing St Paul, rotate everyone who can relieve until we find some real relief. 

I don't understand the "not putting Rogers back out there because they are losing".  That makes zero sense, always, but ESPECIALLY when the dude only threw 3 pitches!!   Just because they are losing, suddenly Rogers isn't going to know how to pitch??  This type of thinking always drives me nuts.  It's not like you can bring Rogers back in again if you score the following inning after you pulled him.  You brought him in, you didn't score, you can absolutely get another inning out of him.  

5 minutes ago, spycake said:

I think you might be misinterpreting that line of reasoning. It is about conservation of resources. Rogers absolutely could have thrown another inning after his 3 pitches, but that could have impacted his availability/effectiveness for the following game. So Baldelli made the calculation that it wasn’t worth it, down by 1 at that point. Folks can and do still disagree with that, of course.

Sure, I mean, I get that...but if you are gonna get a reliever warmed up, and throw him 3 pitches, surely another inning, and roughly another 20 pitches, isn't gonna preclude him from pitching the following day.  I guess that was the angle I just don't get.   

6 minutes ago, spycake said:

There's some data that Rogers isn't as effective back-to-back. And letting him go another inning would preclude even attempting to pitch him for more than 3 outs the following day, if necessary.

The Twins may have still done it (let Rogers pitch a full inning down 1 Friday) except that they had already used Farrell and Robles while trailing the night before. There are some limits to how often you can pursue that strategy!

Yup, I get it.  Perhaps my frustration is more diving back in the the Shoemaker pool, then the actual Rogers usage