So it is highly unusual when a manager goes to the mound and makes a seriously dumb gaffe.
Brewer manager Ron Roenicke went to the mound on Thursday night and signaled for a relief pitcher. The problem? No one was warming up in the pen.
The Braves took advantage, scoring three runs in the seventh inning, coming from
behind to take the lead before winning 5-4 at Turner Field.
"I feel bad about everything," said Roenicke, who took the blame for the botched communications in the Milwaukee dugout and bullpen. "It's going to be hard on me."
Ryan Doumit's pinch-hit single brought home the tying and go-ahead run after the Brewers summoned Smith, who was just sitting around in the bullpen with his jacket on.
This loss clearly goes into the "manager's loss" column. His decision clearly changed the outcome of the game.
Different pitchers have different warm up needs. Steve Stone was recently on the radio discussing the question of why some starters get roughed up in the early innings, then settle down. Stone said that it because they don't warm up enough in the pre-game. Stone said the average starter throws around 70 warm up pitches before the game; some from the wind-up and some from the stretch. However, some pitchers (especially coming off an injury) cut back on the tosses and only throw 30-35 pitches. Stone thinks that is not enough to stretch out an arm or get a rhythm. As a result, it takes a luke warm pitcher two innings on the mound to get warmed up and in control. But by that time, the opponent may have scored a lot of runs.
It is up to the pitching and bullpen coaches to make sure their pitchers are sufficiently warmed up to play. Ryan Dempster was also quoted as saying recently that he believes pitch counts are overrated. He said he felt the best when he pitched 8 games in a row as a closer, than pitching every five days as a starter.
There are some "quick start" relievers who can quickly toss 6 or 7 bullpen pitches and they are ready to go. But that also may be that they have trained themselves through "over use" to be ready quickly. Now, since many relievers are getting big money deals, management keeps pitch counts on relievers too. Some times a reliever will not throw three games in a row for fear of injury.
A manager should know how many pitches it takes each pitcher on his staff to warm up. He should be able to anticipate when to get a reliever up in the pen and into the game several batters ahead of the actual game action. The worst thing for a reliever is being told to warm up, sit down, warm up, sit down over the course of a few innings. It leads to overthrowing in the bullpen, and being ineffective when called to the mound later in the game.
With all the technology and communications equipment available to a manager, there is no excuse for a call to the bullpen be such as gaffe as seen in the Brewers contest. It cost the Brewers a victory, which could loom large in a close pennant race.
