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I continue to be mystified with Marmol’s use of his bullpen.
With a 4 day break for the all-star game you would think that our key bullpen guys would be fresh and ready to pitch.
Helsley has 32 saves and Kitteredge and Romero both have 26 holds.
So far with 3 of the 4 subsequent games within one run in the pressure 7th, 8th and 9th innings he has used Kitteredge 2 innings and Helsley one inning in a non save situation.
In the meantime he has used Fernandez 2.1 innings, Roycroft 1.2 innings Leahy 2 innings and King one inning in tonigts loss. Fernandez, Leahy and Roycroft are rookies and King has 141 major league appearances with 29 holds.
It doesn’t matter whether his gambles with the inexperienced guys works or not. It is foolish use of a strong bullpen. Ollie has been pretty lucky with this approach but in the last four games we had two losses in the games with lesser experienced guys taking the loss.
Ollie is putting young untested pitchers into critical situations. Close, late. Is has and likely will cost a win here and there. He is also putting young hitters into the heart of the order where veterans have previously been used. I get that a few wins might matter as to seeding in that stupid WC playoff format. I don’t think I really care about that as much as I’d like to see what guys can do. Hopefully he doesn’t back us out of post all together.
Someone has to pitch some of these higher leverage innings with all the close games we play. If they don’t the other guys will be burned up by September. Maybe score more runs might help.
I’m 100% in line with using the young guys in a balance. We have to. Generally, a full season of innings for a reliever is around 65-80. Guys start wearing down when they get into this range.
Innings Pitched to date:
Helsley – 43
Romero – 40 2/3
Kittredge – 45 1/3King – 38 (King does have a few innings in the minors as well)
Fernandez – 45 2/3The big 3 each has around 25-30 innings max left. And those need to be spread out to get them to the finish line. Could the Cardinals have used Romero last night instead of King? Sure. But I think that’s splitting hairs given that King has been far more effective to date.
I actually am a fan of Ollie’s bullpen usage this year other than at the beginning of the season he overused the big 3 and underutilized Fernandez. But since then I think he’s been excellent in this one particular area of management.
We have a big 3, and it doesn’t include Kittredge and his 4digit ops vs lefties, for me. I’d rather Fernandez gets the heavy righty inning in the 7th or 8th, even though he’s “inexperienced”.
Kitt had a good first month (47 ops+ allowed), but struggled since (121 ops+ allowed in May, 119 in June and 132 in July. Burly is a 128 ops+ for the season, if a story pole helps.
Helsley, Romero, Fernandez and King are good vs both L and R handed batters this season.
King just took the loss on a couple seeing eye grounders. Kitty leads the Cardinals active pitchers in HR% allowed.
I guess we see the pen differently. Roycroft and Lahey are replacing GG and that reliever we signed for 5mil, due to the failures of the experienced GG and what’s his name.
Sooner, Oli’s usage of Kittredge to date, has you endorsing Kittredge.
That’s managing a pen arm as good as possible, in spite of Kitts flaws.
Speaking of Kitty. Palacios is sporting an OPS+ 103 after the first half. He’s playing a good bit of 2B in addition to outfield. Reaches free agency in 2030 according to baseball reference.
Kitty is the cat’s meow. This man needs to be extended for a year with a club option for year #2. It’s an option that I bet will be exercised.
First season back from surgery. Likely has surpassed his last seasons IP total at all levels.
This season he’s been very good vs righties (67 ops+ allowed), but building arm strength now for next season. Kitt has had better seasons vs lefties. That split may wash away next season. I’d expect his 2025 to be better, overall.
It’s a minefield with the 3 batter rule now, unless you can face both L & R effectively.
After last year I couldnt stand to even look at Oli. Maybe extending him was a good move? He surly would have been shot out of the saddle after our poor start this year. He’s quitely started to earn some respect. I think the younger players like him. I have no quarrel with his handling of the bullpen. As much as I @@##$$’ and moaned about leaving Goldy in the middle of the order, i think it was the right thing to do.
For the OP
Ryan Fernandez has been a good reliever for us. Honestly next to Helsley IMO our most reliable for most of this year
Meanwhile Oli has taken a kid glove approach with Romero the last month or so for the most part. He has been hittable. Kitridge has put us in some rough spots as well. Remember Andrew only threw 10 innings last year.
I think Oli has done a solid job with trying to limit innings to his big 3 the last month and trusting the other guys we have in crucial spots. They have done well. Bowtie and his scouts have done a good job assembling this staff and bullpen since last year was an unmitigated disaster in the pitching department. They deserve credit seeing as most everyone wrote this team off as not playoff caliber. Well it’s almost August and they look way better than last year and look like a team that could make it if they get a little help at the deadline.
The pen has come together and I think Ollie has mostly done a good job. He makes some questionable decisions, but most every manager does that. Last night I thought he should have left King in to face Grandal – turn Grandal around to bat righty which would be a bit more of a. DP chance. Turns out Kitty got the DP ball anyway, so Ollie looked like a genius.
Which is really how it goes. If the players execute, the manager looks good. If not, the manager looks bad.
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