Quote:
Originally Posted by BWillie
Ventura is no more of a rookie than Kevlin Herrera. Herrera only has a slight amount more innings than Ventura even though he's been around for 4 years. Not all rookies are created equal. I don't buy the rookie thing at all, unless it's like their 3rd or 4th game played or something. After that, you are a professional. You've played baseball your entire life, nothing has changed.
Like I said, I would have preferred Duffy, but I can certainly see why Yost went with Ventura. Absolutely. Ventura actually does induce alot of ground balls AND has the most strikeouts of any starter on the team. He also just came off of the longest innings pitched without a HR streak in the majors. He's let up the LEAST amt of home runs of ANY starting pitcher on the Royals. Based on his career splits, he actually pitches well to left handed batters, better than Shields. Just as good if not better than Herrera. And, combine the fact that he should be MORE EFFICIENT as a reliever than as a starter, ESPECIALLY with his gas and stuff, it's not a bad decision. Look at Hochevar and Davis. All mediocre starters, but very good in the bullpen. A starter will be even MORE efficient as a reliever. I don't buy the argument, he's not a reliever, so you don't use him bullshit. Hoch and Davis were immediately great in the pen when they were demoted.
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Yost going to Ventura - a guy with little relieving experience and no experiencing coming out of the pen with men already on base - when he had two dynamic lefty options in that pen is just ****ing criminal.
It's an egregiously terrible decision on several levels.
First, it puts a talented but young pitcher in a completely unusual situation, which makes the moment more challenging. Pitchers and especially starters are creatures of habit. The more experience they have, the more they can overcome being outside normal habits.
Second, it completely ignores the fact that Oakland had its 4-5-6 guys coming up, and all three are RH killers. If you go to the pen there, you HAVE to go get a lefty.
Third, he was willing to go to Herrera that inning and willing to let him pitch two innings. Makes going to Ventura first look even worse.
Fourth, considering Brandon Finnegan dominated the Oakland lineup through an entire turn through the batting order - and handled Brandon Moss with ease - shows in-game evidence that he should have been the call.