Quote Originally Posted by smootness View Post
No. By definition it isn't hindsight if it is foresight.

I said before the inning that we should go with Carpenter until he allowed a baserunner. I said when he allowed the double that we should bring Kimbrel in. We didn't, we lost.

You can say that it doesn't prove bringing in Kimbrel would have been the right move, but it definitely isn't hindsight.

I don't know how much you watch the Braves, but I promise you, Fredi's decision was simply on 'feel'. Kimbrel has actually pitched 2 full innings 3 times before in the majors, he did it multiple times in the minors, he was too fresh in game 2, he had pitched one time in 10 games prior, it was an elimination game, he's the best pitcher in baseball, he said he could go 2 innings, and he wanted to do it.

You can tell me he would be second-guessed either way; I don't care about that. I care about making the right move, and the right move wasn't to leave Carpenter in there.

I'm not kidding, if you think Uribe might swing away with 2 strikes, you let Carpenter throw one off the plate, and if Uribe doesn't square to bunt, you bring Kimbrel in right there. It was our last game of the season, assuming we didn't win. We had to win. We had to give ourselves the best chance to win, and that was to have Kimbrel on the mound as soon as he could go. Period. Everything else is just trying to make excuses for it.

You can't manage game 4 in a 5-game series when down 2-1 like you do game 114. That is the kind of thinking that has held the Braves back for years in the playoffs, and it has to change or we will keep doing this. Over and over and over and over.
Kimbrel has pitched more than two innings three times in his career including the postseason (I'm assuming that's the third game because I only found two two inning appearances during the regular season) Two of those were in 2010 when he first came up- one was a blow out loss to Tampa and one was in the postseason against the Giants. The LAST time he went two innings- 2011. He blew the save. And unless I'm overlooking it, he hasn't had a two inning outing since in a regular or postseason game.

I agree that you don't manage an elimination game like you do game 114- but you also don't put your players in a position where they are not likely to succeed either. And let's not act like David Carpenter is a garbage pitcher- this is a guy with an ERA of 1.78 who had 74 K's in 65 IP and had only allowed 5 home runs all year. His WHIP was 0.999

And maybe this is my foresight kicking in here- but I have a feeling that if Fredi had brought in Kimbrel when you wanted him to he would have blown the lead in the ninth from being worn out, and you would probably be complaining about the fact that he hasn't pitched two innings since 2011 and how stupid it was and how he should have pitched Carpenter. Let's be honest here- it's quite possible you were screwed either way. The only thing that is known is what happened with Carpenter, and we'll never truly know what would have happened with Kimbrel.

But I also don't think you can sit there and say "oh gee, that was a stupid managerial decision".