We made it to the finals in '23 and the semifinals in '24. This idea that Sully has gotten complacent or is on "cruise control" is asinine.
As always, it depends on who you’re asking on this subject. For me, I never liked putting a SP in a game on his bullpen day. Your bullpen is your tune up for your next start. To me there’s a huge difference between getting your work in with your bullpen and throwing the same number of pitches in a live competitive game. Agree, disagree—it doesn’t matter. When you take a competitive SP and put him in a game with a certain scenario I don’t care who he is—he’s going to take on a closer mentality. He’s going to dump the clutch every pitch. Those 30 odd pitches (including warmups for the inning) are not the same as his bullpen work. He will recover differently from the game work than he will the bullpen work. If it’s our Sunday SP we’re talking about, well I want him battery acid strong every Sunday—the bullpen work is done at roughly 80% IMHO.
Good Lord I was not comparing the two. Just pointing out that one player’s failure in the bottom of the ninth yesterday could be attributed to coaching at least in the eyes of a legendary coach.
As one poster said, he had a generational player on those teams. Not so in the years prior or this year or so it seems.
Always appreciate your insight. I was thinking since he only went a couple innings on Sunday, that a live fire bullpen simulation wouldn't have been out of the question. We're obviously piecemealing things. I've never managed a pitching staff though, and don't necessarily know all the daily routines. I do understand that starters are treated a little differently.
So he doesn't get any credit for bringing those players in or developing them? One player doesn't get you to the finals or semifinals in Omaha either.
Need to stop the bleeding; @ least get a tourniquet on it. What’s the answer? Will we see the same or add to the “w” column?
Still not the point. But I give up. Sully is the greatest coach that ever lived and the team’s successes were (in the past) all him and the team’s failures are the fault of the players.
I don’t see the need to place all the blame on any individual entity. Coaches, players, and fan support (NIL) likely all shoulder some blame. This years team has also been decimated by injuries.
Wouldnt have mattered tho, our closer was rested and mowed em down in the 8th. Not finding the strike zone in the 9th seems more mental than physical to me.
Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Not a fan of the camera angles for the Jax games, You can't really tell that much about the pitches.
Who knows? If Clemente made it through the 8th, maybe Alex mows them down in the 9th instead of the 8th. Doesn’t really matter as we can’t rewrite history, but I wouldn’t outright proclaim it wouldn’t have mattered. I was thinking Clemente was likely on a very low pitch count and did what was asked of him.
Agreed and I can't recall Sully ever doing that in the years I have been following the team. When someone mentioned Jake was in the bullpen I took that as a sign that his role has changed and he is no longer a weekend starter. In either event to start him on Sunday and bring him back on Tuesday was unexpected.
Mat— To your point of possible role change for Jake, that would definitely come into play when using him out of the pen. I would also have to say at this point that possibility is unknowable, at least to us as everyday fans. With our current injuries to pitchers on this roster the only way to move Clemente to the pen is to have someone in mind to move into the rotation. Yep, I’m drawing a blank too.
I've yet to see consistency from our 'closer' in multiple inning stints. That's all I was saying. Clements at least has pitcher consecutive innings all year.
Don't be discouraged that some knowledgable bsb fans don't care for your analysis. It's just opinion and it's pretty common for people to lose sight that there are a lot more losses involved in being a baseball fan than most other sports. I hate losses, in general, and with last night and the past two weekends, we have faced some pretty painful losses. While you disdain those of us who remain believers in Sully's consistent record of NEVER missing the playoffs and advancing to and in the CWS is far beyond all active coaches and most past coaches, there's nothing wrong with forming a different opinion. However, on this board, you can expect some support and somewhat more disagreement. Your post here is one approach to take, if you think other people are ridiculous, respond with a ridiculous post that may or may not be made seriously.
I read through his response and don't see anywhere where he said. Maybe I'm missing something in another reply. However, most good managers and coaches evaluate their entire program each year. Sully did this a few times in the past when he got rid of Wetzel and Bell. While I'm not blaming this yet on the coaches, something isn't right.
Great post. The only exception I would take is that I absolutely don’t disdain the Sully believers. I pull for all Gator coaches to be successful, every year. I just say some part, however small, of every bad team, or bad game, or bad half inning surely must rest at the feet of the head coach. And I bet Sully himself would agree with that.
