Thoughts for a Tuesday

 If I had told you before the season started that two of our starting pitchers would have pitched 6+ innins of shutout ball each and we lost one of those games,  but that our other 3 starters would have gone 1 inning/6 runs, 3+ innings/4 runs and 4+ innings/5 runs, Ramirez and Bell didn't have an RBI through 5 games, what would you have thought our record was through 5 games.  Well, an optimist might have thought 3-2 but a pessimist would have thought 1-4.  I don't know if anyone would have thought 4-1 but that is where we are.  

The only problem after 5 games is that our bullpen has been taxed greatly.  Through 5 games Clase, Stephan, Morgan, De Los Santos and Karinchak have pitched 3 times and Sandlin and Herrin have pitched twice.  The other reliever, Curry, went 5 innings last night so he should, essentially, be treated as a starter and not be available for the next 5 days.    Remember that last year Clase pitched 77 times, less than 1/2 of the games...and he pitched more than anyone else (Stephan 66 games, De Los Santos 60 games (plus 4 in Columbus), Morgan 60 games.  Right now every reliever we have on the roster outside of Curry is on pace to come close to or exceed what Clase did last year.  

So, here is the problem, one that existed last winter and was not corrected.  We really should send Curry down unless we plan to have him start in Plesac's spot next time around.   However, there is no relief pitchers available on our 40-man to bring up.  If we wanted to add someone to the 40-man roster (like Daniel Norris) we have to DFA someone.  I am OK with DFAing Viloria and bringing up Freeman (or even Naylor) and then adding a guy who is not on the 40-man.  Last year we did this many times as we would bring a guy up for some short period and then DFA him and bring someone else we didn't worry about DFAing the next time.

But that is where we are at.  Only Sandlin and Herrin should really be pitching tonight and we currently have no one to go long relief if Beiber has a bad game.  That is, unless we tax people more than we already have.   It is a ticking time bomb and I don't see a reasonable way out of it for tonight.   

Plus, I don't want us to panic and DFA Palacios or Lavastida just for a short fix in the bullpen.

Finally, I don't want Francona to overtax Beiber just because we are short in the bullpen.  With his injury history I would rather overtax one of the relievers.  

So tonight if Beiber can give us 6 before he exceeds his pitch count limit than I go with Sandlin, Herrin and De Los Santos whether we have the lead or not.  Heck, if he gives us 5 innings I still go with the same relievers.

That's it for right now.  Time to finish the dishes and have my first MLB experience with a minor league game.  

Go Clippers!  Go Guardians!