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Man, making my sports blog round is pissing me off this morning. It's going to be a while before I make my peace with last night's game.
This is just so typical of the luck Nate Robertson has had this season. He threw a one run complete game against the Yankees and lost. He threw one pitch against the Devil Rays and got ejected because our first batter had gotten hit, and so Nate threw behind their first batter (behind, mind you, there was no contact), and the umpire jumped the gun even though a warning had not been issued, and then in the third when Kazmir threw behind Vance Wilson, the umpire did nothing in spite of the warning he had finally issued before the second inning.
And now Nate throws a beautiful two-hit two-run gem against one of the scariest lineups in baseball, leaves with the chance to actually get the win for a change, and the Tigers lose 10-7 in extra innings. Nate has a 5-10 record in spite of his abilities because this is the kind of shit that has happened to him all year long. It makes me want to fucking cry, it really does.
Some people are insisting on being reasonable about Alan Trammell, which annoys me because the rationality with which they are arguing leads me to suspect that they are probably right, and I would rather be mad.
It's just - yes, your closer exists for a reason. Yes, absolutely, have him ready to go if Nate so much as gives up a base hit. But Nate has plenty left, and he has two complete games this year, and we know he can go the distance if you ask him to. So ask him to. Don't use your closer just because he's there, especially when your starter has shut down a major offensive lineup with little effort and said closer has been a pretty big question mark since you put him in the role.
I'm not going so far as to say Tram should be fired. Obviously, the front office knows a little more about his qualifications than I do, and they are working on building a winning team, so if they think that Alan Trammell can helm that winning team, I'm not gonna question 'em. And if they think Alan Trammell needs to be fed to piranhas and they decide to bribe the Devil Rays into firing Lou Piniella so they can scoop him up - okay, I would wonder about that, because what the fuck, but my point is, I'll bitch and moan about Tram all I want, but I'm not going to demand his job. I won't be especially surprised if he does get fired after the season ends, though, and I know that if he does everyone will point to last night as the straw that broke the camel's back.
Oh, and check out how defensive he is in this article. Sounds like he knows he fucked up and won't admit it. No one gets as defensive as someone who doesn't want to admit to a mistake. News flash, Tram: No one is "second guessing" you. That term implies that we are only questioning you after the fact, when, in fact, we started questioning you the second we saw Rodney warming up in the bottom of the eighth. We are first guessing you, because everyone on the planet except for you knew what a Grady Little move that was. We all saw disaster coming.
And just because I don't want it to get lost in the mess, I will end by mentioning Craig Monroe's grand slam one more time. Craig, that was hot, and I love you, and I'm sorry it was wasted, but thank you for making the final score rather less humiliating.
This is just so typical of the luck Nate Robertson has had this season. He threw a one run complete game against the Yankees and lost. He threw one pitch against the Devil Rays and got ejected because our first batter had gotten hit, and so Nate threw behind their first batter (behind, mind you, there was no contact), and the umpire jumped the gun even though a warning had not been issued, and then in the third when Kazmir threw behind Vance Wilson, the umpire did nothing in spite of the warning he had finally issued before the second inning.
And now Nate throws a beautiful two-hit two-run gem against one of the scariest lineups in baseball, leaves with the chance to actually get the win for a change, and the Tigers lose 10-7 in extra innings. Nate has a 5-10 record in spite of his abilities because this is the kind of shit that has happened to him all year long. It makes me want to fucking cry, it really does.
Some people are insisting on being reasonable about Alan Trammell, which annoys me because the rationality with which they are arguing leads me to suspect that they are probably right, and I would rather be mad.
It's just - yes, your closer exists for a reason. Yes, absolutely, have him ready to go if Nate so much as gives up a base hit. But Nate has plenty left, and he has two complete games this year, and we know he can go the distance if you ask him to. So ask him to. Don't use your closer just because he's there, especially when your starter has shut down a major offensive lineup with little effort and said closer has been a pretty big question mark since you put him in the role.
I'm not going so far as to say Tram should be fired. Obviously, the front office knows a little more about his qualifications than I do, and they are working on building a winning team, so if they think that Alan Trammell can helm that winning team, I'm not gonna question 'em. And if they think Alan Trammell needs to be fed to piranhas and they decide to bribe the Devil Rays into firing Lou Piniella so they can scoop him up - okay, I would wonder about that, because what the fuck, but my point is, I'll bitch and moan about Tram all I want, but I'm not going to demand his job. I won't be especially surprised if he does get fired after the season ends, though, and I know that if he does everyone will point to last night as the straw that broke the camel's back.
Oh, and check out how defensive he is in this article. Sounds like he knows he fucked up and won't admit it. No one gets as defensive as someone who doesn't want to admit to a mistake. News flash, Tram: No one is "second guessing" you. That term implies that we are only questioning you after the fact, when, in fact, we started questioning you the second we saw Rodney warming up in the bottom of the eighth. We are first guessing you, because everyone on the planet except for you knew what a Grady Little move that was. We all saw disaster coming.
And just because I don't want it to get lost in the mess, I will end by mentioning Craig Monroe's grand slam one more time. Craig, that was hot, and I love you, and I'm sorry it was wasted, but thank you for making the final score rather less humiliating.
