Flame Out

So far Davey Johnson has desperately tried to cultivate an air of trust amongst the clubhouse - letting certain pitchers stay in, going to veteran players, etc. - something that many claim that Riggleman never did (but that's all a story for another post). One of the players that has been left in there a little bit too much has been flamethrower-in-residence, Henry Rodriguez.

I began to notice recently that our relief pitchers have been coming back out to pitch after waiting a half inning; for instance, comes in to record 3rd out and comes back out for the start of the next inning. Most of the time however, this hasn't worked out.

Rodriguez has taken the brunt of multiple inning appearances in the pen. So, to research this post, I checked out FanGraphs Play Log to look at what happens when Rodriguez comes back out after sitting.

Let's go in reverse chronological order starting with Saturday night:
(Results will be for coming back out after the break)
7/23 - Flyout, Walk, Groundout, Walk, Wild Pitch
7/20 - Walk, Wild Pitch, Walk
7/17 - Strikeout, Flyout, Groundout
- Came back for a 3rd IP - Double, HBP, Single, Groundout
7/7 - Single, FC, FC, Double, Flyout
7/3 - Groundout, Flyout, Flyout
6/27 - Single, FC, Flyout, FC
- Came back for a 3rd IP - Walk, Double Play, Groundout
6/22 - Single, Flyout, Groundout
6/18 - Flyout, Flyout, Walk, Groundout
6/6 - Walk, SAC, Walk, FC, Groundout
5/20 - Double, Wild Pitch, Strikeout, Strikeout, Groundout
- Came back for a 3rd IP - Single, Flyout, Flyout, Flyout
5/5 - Single, CS, Strikeout, Strikeout

A few snap judgements...
- Aside from the last two games listed (5/20 and 5/5), where are the strikeouts? He has 0 in these situations since May. Not good for someone that has a career 9.89 K/9.
- In very limited duty he has 3 of his 9 Wild Pitches.
- In his last 0.2 IP of duty coming back out of the dugout he has allowed 4 walks and thrown 2 Wild Pitches.
- When logging more than 1.0 IP in an appearance, he has allowed 5 of his 12 Runs Against.
- His last 4 appearances of more than 1.0 IP have been "Meltdowns" - having a -0.060 WPA (Win Probability Added) per game or worse.

So, while I, and the players, appreciate the fact that Davey Johnson is a so-called "Players Manager" - once again, expect a story coming on this. HRod is the type of player that ends emptying his tank at 100 mph throughout his outings. He uses all his adrenaline to do this, and when he comes down during the half inning in between, it gets ugly when he returns. Sometimes sticking with your guns isn't such a good thing in the case of Henry Rodriguez...