I played High School ball with Randy Choate at Winston Churchill High in San Antonio. Followed his career the past few years, and yes, he's a situational pitcher against lefties, first and foremost. He won a ring or two with the Yanks in that role and has bounced around since then. That said, Choate has fantastic control and was among the leaders in Ks and Ws in college for FSU, where he also won a ring.
So, all that said, I think SV ops will trickle toward him when Lefties are dominating that 9th inning lineup, but it wouldn't shock me if he faced a couple righties. What did shock me was seeing that he had notched two straight saves when looking at the box score today. I didn't even have a clue that he was back in the bigs.
babaoriley wrote:I played High School ball with Randy Choate at Winston Churchill High in San Antonio. Followed his career the past few years, and yes, he's a situational pitcher against lefties, first and foremost. He won a ring or two with the Yanks in that role and has bounced around since then. That said, Choate has fantastic control and was among the leaders in Ks and Ws in college for FSU, where he also won a ring.
So, all that said, I think SV ops will trickle toward him when Lefties are dominating that 9th inning lineup, but it wouldn't shock me if he faced a couple righties. What did shock me was seeing that he had notched two straight saves when looking at the box score today. I didn't even have a clue that he was back in the bigs.
Why Choate over Howell against lefties though? I take nothing out of a guy getting a save after not starting the 9th on the mound, even 2 in a row.
babaoriley wrote:I played High School ball with Randy Choate at Winston Churchill High in San Antonio. Followed his career the past few years, and yes, he's a situational pitcher against lefties, first and foremost. He won a ring or two with the Yanks in that role and has bounced around since then. That said, Choate has fantastic control and was among the leaders in Ks and Ws in college for FSU, where he also won a ring.
So, all that said, I think SV ops will trickle toward him when Lefties are dominating that 9th inning lineup, but it wouldn't shock me if he faced a couple righties. What did shock me was seeing that he had notched two straight saves when looking at the box score today. I didn't even have a clue that he was back in the bigs.
Why Choate over Howell against lefties though? I take nothing out of a guy getting a save after not starting the 9th on the mound, even 2 in a row.
It goes to how Maddon uses his bullpen. He is a guy that thinks players are used at set times and/or set situations. Howell is the 7th/8th guy and it appears he is comfortable not moving him. Also, Howell isn't a situational guy, he can get lefties and righties out with regularity
For anyone who somehow still holds some sort of hope that Ziegler is the closer, Bailey got the call again in the 9th and closed out the game to convert the W while Ziegler sat on the sidelines and watched. Surprise surprise. Hope those who held onto Ziegler didnt miss out on a hot FA.
racrzeke wrote:Yikes Aardsma's score line doesnt look too great. Morrow didnt look too good yesterday wonder if Morrow can take the job back.
Granted, Aardsma has been pretty good in the role so far just an ugly spot today. Although 4 walks
I think Aardsma is still fine in the role. Only his 1st blown save of the year and its not like Morrow has been putting up 0's in his innings pitched since he was removed from the closer role.
I watched today's game and Aardsma's control was really off. Not sure of strike %, but it was pretty ugly. 3 BB's (walk to Rivera to tie game was on 4 pitches) and 1 IBB to Hunter. Of course, most people would now question the IBB to Hunter, since Aardsma walked Rivera on 4 pitches, but it seemed like Wakamatsu didn't want Hunter to beat him.
Do note that he has pitched 3 consecutive days and he threw over 30 pitches today (not sure of exact #).
Crippler wrote:For anyone who somehow still holds some sort of hope that Ziegler is the closer, Bailey got the call again in the 9th and closed out the game to convert the W while Ziegler sat on the sidelines and watched. Surprise surprise. Hope those who held onto Ziegler didnt miss out on a hot FA.
As a Ziegler owner in a deep league (i.e. Ziegs will get picked up if I dropped him), I saw Bailey entered the 8th with only one out and then held out hope...only to see Bailey finish the game. I'd say it's a definite role reversal from earlier in the year...Bailey should be getting the majority of saves.
Correction...Bailey got the BS in the 8th (let the two inherited runs scored), but got the W...sorry for the game commentary, just wanted to finish my train of thought.
BitterDodgerFan wrote:so is it safe to assume isringhausen is not the top 2 choices for the closer role now?
Izzy was good again, and got relieved by leftie Howell to create the best match up vs those Twin hitters. It wasnt a save situation but he needed some work, cause havent pitched since Wed. So its not safe to assume.
the awesome sig by soty
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by babaoriley » Sun May 31, 2009 10:44 am 
