Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Royals in 11 innings in the finale of the series was the first game I attended in person since Opening Day…and it left me with some conclusions and some questions:
Conclusions:
1. Yovanni Galardo can compete at the major league level, field his position and deserves at least one more start…as evidenced by his 8 K’s in 7 IP.
2. Ned Yost can do a halfway decent job at managing his line-up and positions players.
3. Ned Yost, however, still has great difficulties managing a bullpen.
4. J.J. Hardy’s injury is possibly a bit more serious than the Brewers are letting on.
Questions left unresolved:
1. Which of the 6 starters gets moved to the bullpen? Dave Bush would seem to be the logical choice…but Gallardo is probably the front-runner, if the Brewers stick to their m.o. of letting young arms develop out of the pen.
2. How come Turnbow is so inconsistent, and, when he’s off, why do they let him keep on pitching? Turnbow gave up a walk and a pair of hits in a third of an inning on Sunday.
3. What does Chris Spurling offer the Brewers that Greg Aquino doesn’t? Spurling walked in the winning run with the bases loaded on Sunday, the biggest cardinal sin of all.
4. The biggest question of them all–why wasn’t Carlos Villanueva brought in the 8th…or the 9th…or the 10th…or the 11th?
Hindsight is always 20/20, but my guess is that Yost thought he could win and save Villanueva for two games versus the Astros, thinking it more valuable to give the Astros losses than the Royals.
Anyway, I’ve got a dozen other gripes with the loss…but kudos to Royals’ manager Buddy Bell for holding lefty reliever Jimmy Gobble until the 11th–the move not only made Prince Fielder face a lefty at the end of the game, but kept Geoff Jenkins on the bench.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
