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I hate to tell you this, but it is not June 28. Your bullpen is not reliable. Anthony Banda is falling so far off the mound to the right that it is almost impossible for him to know where the ball is going. As such, he is also prone to pulling the ball to the right side of the plate. So when you set up your defense for a dead pull hitter and you have a pitcher who can’t throw the ball inside, you might have a problem. If you need proof, look at Game 4’s slow dribbler down the left field line to a vacant third base position.

Yes, the pen managed to go nine innings two nights ago, giving up just the one run. But did you really think that all of the bullpens issues were cured magically? Overnight?

Which brings us to this point about Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers babied him throughout his entire return from Tommy John’s surgery, which is fine. You managed to make it to the World Series doing so. However, he has more than shown the ability to throw 100 pitches in a game and has shown that ability since early September. Of course you don’t want to overuse one of the franchise arms and injure him again. But 91 pitches was not the pitch count ceiling for him during game four of the World Series. Was it? He should’ve been allowed to face at least two if not, three more batters if the magical 100 number was in play. Just because your starter gives up one hard hit ball does not mean he is out of gas or has lost all control.

There is a reason your bullpen has been at the top of the league in innings-pitched over the last two years. That reason is you keep pulling the starters at the first sign of trouble. Again, you made it to the World Series and congratulations. And you have had enough arms in the farm system to keep bringing up new relievers when the overworked relievers have broken down. But this is the World Series. You’ve been here before. You know or should know from the National League Championship Series that you have to ride your starters. This means letting them pitch as deep into games as humanly possible, and then bringing in more starters out of the bullpen in relief rolls.

Now I know that as an avid reader of Thespitter, you are saying to yourself, “Self, this seems to run contrary to what Moffitt has been saying all these years about doing what got you here.“ Au contraire, mon frère. What got you here was running your starters out there for as long as possible during the postseason and then running more starters out in relief rules because, once again, you cannot trust your bullpen.

Remember Game 1 when you pulled Snell and the bullpen allowed nine runs?

My final piece of advice (and thank you for hanging on every word): talk to your catcher. Will Smith seems like a bright young lad. he should be able to tell you what is going on with your pitcher better than you can.  He is looking at the pitches coming straight at him. He knows where they’re supposed to go. He can tell you if they’re going where they were supposed to go. He can tell you if your pitcher has lost his mojo. He should be involved in that process. No offense, but your ability to gauge a pictures effectiveness is limited significantly by simple geometry. You are at a 90° angle to your pitcher. You do not have the best vantage point to gauge his effectiveness. Please start using your catcher’s wisdom and expertise to help you.

That’s all I have for you, sir. Thank you for reading and good luck.

Sincerely,

Bob Moffitt

Publisher

Thespitter.com.