From: gritter@cs.purdue.EDU (Carl R. Gritter)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: morris stunk, jays win!
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:47:10 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University

In article  <199211.4235.46190@dosgate> stephen.dawson@canrem.com (stephen dawson) writes:

>Jack Morris was as bad as I had feared.

>Cone should win on Monday to put the Jays in the World Series.

>I hope that Atlanta finishes Pittsburgh tonight, so that the Series
>will start on, what, Thursday? That way Gaston should go with Guzman
>instead of pitching Morris again.

With Toronto now holding a 3-1 series lead, why not switch the
pitching rotation?  Rather than pitch Cone on 3 days rest, start Jimmy
Key today, with Cone and Guzman going on Wednesday and Thursday if
necessary.  If one of those three games goes the Jays way, start
Morris in the first game of the World Series.

Why?  Morris seems tired to me.  He's been the workhorse all year and,
imho, overused.  A weeks rest will do him good.  Also, why tempt fate
and start him in game 7, should it come to that?  He certainly hasn't
been pitching well lately.  To heck with last years heroics.  That was
last year.  He was in an awesome groove last year.  This year he isn't.

The Jays do have the luxury of having a well-rested Jimmy Key on the
bench.  Why let him waste away on the bench.  He's been great in
September and there's no reason to think it can't continue.  With all
the years he has put in for Toronto, he deserves a chance to clinch it.

Why pitch Cone and Guzman on 3 days rest.  Especially Cone, who's also
had an enormous work load this year and who Cito left in way too long
in Game 2, imho (especially the 9th when you plan to use him 4 days
later and when it looked like he was starting to lose his control in
the 7th and 8th).  When you have Ward and Henke in the pen, use them
(especially Ward, in whom Cito seems to have no faith).  You can get
burned.  LaRussa did for taking out Welch and putting in Eckersely in
Game 4 but the move was a sound one.  All a manager can do is to try
to make sensible moves as the situation dictates.  Sometimes sensible
moves backfire but the odds are against it.

Not using Ward for a week caused him to pitch badly in Game 3 (Ward
even said so himself).  He did pitch very well in Game 4 and I would
use Ward in a save situation today (if it happens).  He only made
about 15 pitches in 2 innings yesterday and shouldn't be too tired.
Henke has to be tired after 3 saves in 4 days.  In fact, with Ward
pitching so well, I wasn't so thrilled to see Henke pitch the bottom
of the 12th yesterday (but the move was a logical one, nonetheless, as
I argue above).

If the series continues as it has been and the Jays win, the A's fans
might be moaning "remember the Alomar" for a long time.  Alomar has
been awesome!  The best thing about the first 4 games is that the
whole team is contributing on offense (at least all 12 of the people
who Cito has used).  Every game it seems there's a new hero.  Game 1
it was Winfield.  Game 2 it was Gruber.  Game 3 it was Maldanado.
Game 4 it was Alomar.  Devon White has also been tremendous
throughout.    Carter, Borders, and Lee have also contributed.

Carl
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball