Did any of you get worried when Henderson start monkeying around with the pitching...

[Jack Lambert]

on Saturday?

[Goat from MSU]

Nope

[fader2103]

I actually think he did the right thing with changing the pitchers on saturday

[BulldogDX55]

It felt like moves that would only be sanely made by someone who was 100% confident that they would win the game. He clearly had full faith in the team to get the job done.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

The game thread was a melt-fest.

You can't anything in it seriously though, if you post in a game thread you're apparently allowed to have the emotional stability and control of a 3 year old.**

[MarketingBully]

This is where it gets tricky. Yes. I was worried and had the first guy been patient at the plate against Gordon he would have walked. He wasn’t and the rest is history. Henderson did the same thing the first game against Oklahoma in the first game of the regional and it backfired. This time it worked. Like I have said a few times over after this season is over Henderson should go to Las Vegas because most of his gambling with our bullpen has paid off.

[bostondawg]

I was terrified and didn't think it was the right choice. I still don't think I support it in hindsight even though it paid off. If that game goes to extras, our bullpen would be screwed.

[BrunswickDawg]

The only reason for me to second guess it was the the score was 0-0. With the score tied, you never know if the game will go 9 or 18, and so you are taking a risk of running out of pitching if you go extras. If we had been up 1-0, then I would have thought it was a good strategy - our guys were fresh, but have a a grind coming up. Use them a little so you can use them all again if needed today or Wednesday. It shows Hendo had confidence in our pitching and the fact we had been hitting the ball well all night - just right at people. Eventually we would start finding gaps - and we did. If I were to change anything, I would have used either JP or Gordo, but not both. That way you had 1 if the game went extras.

[sleepy dawg]

I was a bit worried, but it's hard to argue with 0 runs.

[msbulldog]

I saw no sense in pulling France who was throwing smoke and bringing Gordon, who is just as likely to come in cold as he is to come in hot.

[Liverpooldawg]

It worked...….and I'd guess pretty much everybody but the starter can pitch today....which means it worked even better.

[msbulldog]

But what if we lost, be a lot of Hendo cussing going on today.

[LC Dawg]

We only won 1-0. A good coach would have given up less runs.

[Johnson85]

I saw no sense in pulling France who was throwing smoke and bringing Gordon, who is just as likely to come in cold as he is to come in hot.

I'm not sure if this was Henderson's reasoning, but by getting a few different people looks, we presumably got any CWS nerves out of people we need to rely on.

Of course if you are worried about people having nerves, you don't take out a guy that came out on fire just to get other people looks in a tie ball game.

I assume he was looking at splitting up the pitching so that we keep everybody available going forward. Small might as well have thrown a complete game as far as our pitching use is concerned. A risky move but one that obviously paid off.

[Pit Bull]

on Saturday?

Not really.....his 30+ years baseball experience trumps me and everyone else on this here board. Think I'll let him decide instead of a bunch of Keyboard Cowboy wannabe coaches. Will he be right every time? Of course not. Neither will the other 7 coaches in the CWS.

[Todd4State]

The only reason for me to second guess it was the the score was 0-0. With the score tied, you never know if the game will go 9 or 18, and so you are taking a risk of running out of pitching if you go extras. If we had been up 1-0, then I would have thought it was a good strategy - our guys were fresh, but have a a grind coming up. Use them a little so you can use them all again if needed today or Wednesday. It shows Hendo had confidence in our pitching and the fact we had been hitting the ball well all night - just right at people. Eventually we would start finding gaps - and we did. If I were to change anything, I would have used either JP or Gordo, but not both. That way you had 1 if the game went extras.

This is my reasoning as well. If it's 1-0 instead of 0-0 it would have made sense.

[Todd4State]

It worked...….and I'd guess pretty much everybody but the starter can pitch today....which means it worked even better.

France could have thrown 40 pitches and would have still been available.

[Liverpooldawg]

France could have thrown 40 pitches and would have still been available.

But he is pretty much fresh now.....and it worked.

[Jarius]

Not really.....his 30+ years baseball experience trumps me and everyone else on this here board. Think I'll let him decide instead of a bunch of Keyboard Cowboy wannabe coaches. Will he be right every time? Of course not. Neither will the other 7 coaches in the CWS.

His 30 plus years of experience put in a guy who was pulled after 3 batters because he was not throwing well when the guy before him looked like Roger Clemens. Neff bailed him out, but pulling France for Gordon was dumb as shit. Just because Neff was able to bail him out doesn?t mean it was the right decision.

[Bulldog1]

His 30 plus years of experience put in a guy who was pulled after 3 batters because he was not throwing well when he guy before him looked like Roger Clemens. Neff bailed him out, but pulling France for Gordon was dumb as shit. Just because Neff was able to bail him out doesn’t mean it was the right decision.

I agree.

[Jarius]

But he is pretty much fresh now.....and it worked.

He was going to be fresh either way because he was never going to throw to the big lefty we kept striking out on sliders. Facing another 2 or 3 batters was going to have zero impact on him today. It was a really uneccessay risk. We were a guy not making a terrible swing on ball 4 away from having guys on first and second with no one out.

[NCDawg]

He was going to be fresh either way because he was never going to throw to the big lefty we kept striking out on sliders. Facing another 2 or 3 batters was going to have zero impact on him today. It was a really uneccessay risk. We were a guy not making a terrible swing on ball 4 away from having guys on first and second with no one out.

I agree. France was pitching great. No need to change pitchers at that point.