I had diarrhea this morning, so what's the difference between me and Brandon Lyon? I at least made it to the bathroom.
But does one blown save justify what every Ed Wade Hater already thought? No. Lyon could post a Rivera-type season, and some numbnuts is going to say, "Yeah, but he isn't a long-term closer."
Take David Schoenfeld for instance:
And Brad Mills: I don't care if he's your "closer," when you give up five consecutive line drives ... maybe you don't leave him in to give up a sixth. Final suggestion: Maybe your closer shouldn't throw 89 mph.
Oh, and Fernando Abad - with his many plethoras of ML experience - should have faced Rollins and Howard. According to Everyone Else. Because labels shouldn't matter. The situation should determine who pitches. Ibid.
Maybe there shouldn't be a pre-determined 9th inning guy, but I'm likely to let the guy who has been in the situation before get the final outs. Only twice before in his career had Abad pitched in the 9th inning when the margin had been +/- 3 or fewer runs. I'm not sending him out on Opening Day to face Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard in the bottom of the 9th. And if Mills had done that, with the same result, what would the reaction have been?
I watched the game on ESPN and on Twitter, and while it was great to get our yearly dose of the Astros on the World Wide Leader, it also meant that every national writer had the opportunity to talk about the Astros, which - you could tell - some treated like they could take shots at Joe Morgan in a dunk tank. And it's asinine, like this topic.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
