Quote Originally Posted by smootness View Post
I would be much more ok with saying, 'We'll never know what would have happened had we not brought in Kimbrel,' than, 'We'll never know what would have happened had we brought in Kimbrel'.

Again, I don't know how much you watch of the Braves, but Kimbrel is historically phenomenal. He is undoubtedly the best RP in the game, and is already putting up some of the best numbers of all-time. Carpenter had a very good year, but he had an ERA of over 8 last year, he didn't pitch very well in AAA to start the year, and it was the playoffs; given the fact that he had already been lit up earlier in the series, Carpenter, in a do-or-die situation, was nowhere near as good an option as Kimbrel.

Please stop trying to evaluate whether it was a good move or not by what I would say had Kimbrel blown it. First, I would not be complaining; it would have been the right move, and it would have been the move that I wanted him to make. Again, I didn't start complaining after the fact; I was already ticked that we didn't immediately bring him in, before the HR ever occurred.

And regardless, what fans will criticize someone for has nothing to do with whether it was the right move. Bringing Kimbrel in was the right move, period. If fans had criticized him for that, they would be the dumb ones. Instead, Fredi is.
You really want to throw what Carpenter did in AAA as evidence that you are right? LOL. How about what he did in MLB? Which is more relevant since that is against the hitters that he actually faced.

I don't watch the Braves all the time- but I do know enough about Kimbrel to know that he starts to lose his command after about 25-30 pitches. I know enough that if Mike Matheny had done the exact same thing, I wouldn't be upset at him. I know enough that Kimbrel hasn't pitched two innings in a game since 2011 and has done it THREE times in all of 230+ MLB appearances.

But please, keep telling me how you were somehow right despite all of the mounting evidence that CLEARLY shows how huge of a risk bringing in Kimbrel would have been- while all the while you had another guy that had an ERA of 1.78 and over a K an inning sitting in the bullpen. Kimbrel has been phenomenal in ONE inning situations- not two.

You blame your manager for a move that pretty much every other manager in the game would have made and talk about how "dumb" he is- when you really need to be complaining about the pitcher hanging a breaking ball AFTER the batter pretty much gave him an 0-2 count, and the catcher that called three breaking balls in a row.

And by the way, I do think it's very fair to "evaluate what you would say had Kimbrel blown the game" because you have proven over and over on here that you like to argue for the sake of arguing no matter what.