An idea worth considering, at least for this season

Until this season I never realized the high regard I held for pitchers.  Not the starters or the closers, but the blue-collar middle inning guys who, on a good day try to hold the lead for a starter and on bad ones mop up in surrender just to get through nine innings.  My awareness of the value of these laborers comes from seeing what happens when you have a bullpen missing this workaday but essential talent.

Think about this last three games in Minnesota.  The starters, Leake, Milone and Kikuchi did well... against a very potent offense.  Adding in Bautista's one inning open, they pitched 19 innings and gave up 7 earned runs, a respectable, not great, but okay, ERA of 4.77.  The guys who relieved them pitched 5 and 2/3rds and gave up 15 earned runs, a shameful 23.81 ERA.  It's probably not fair to them I took out Elias' scoreless inning for Wednesday's save.  But even if I charitably give them that one scoreless inning, the bullpen's ERA drops to a dismal 20.24.

It is quite possible that these bullpen pitchers, who like the perpetrators of mass shootings will remain unnamed to deny them any acclaim, took wins away and busted a possible sweep for  their team, Leake and Kikuchi.  I try to be understanding and compassionate, but these bullpen meltdowns have occurred all season and some of these pitchers do not appear to be learning from their mistakes (or are incapable of applying the lessons learned).

To avoid insanity, I have adopted a new way of following M's games.  Feel free to try it.  I'm breaking the game into two parts.  The first I call the "starter" part and, for me, this is the real baseball game.  And depending where the game is when the starter departs, I'm awarding him a win, loss or no decision.  The second part of the game I'm calling the "charnel house" and following the rest of the contest  like a mystery waiting to see just exactly who will give up the worst pitch, walk, hit, hit batsman, error, fielding misplay, whatever.  I'm just waiting in suspense with genuine curiosity for the worst to happen and to determine who is responsible.

Kind of like that kid's game, I forget the name, where you try to take apart a stack of blocks, removing one at a time, hoping against hope your move doesn't bring the whole thing down.  Try it.  It can't be any worse than what happened this afternoon.