Relief Pitching is the Absolute Worst
Another in a series where I take a slightly negative view of each Brewers game whether I happen to watch it or not.
Full disclosure, I did not watch last night’s game. Fuller disclosure, that will more often than not be true of each game I cover. The Brewers are not, shall we say, good, this year. Due to the lack of pennant racing, viewing of each evening’s game falls lower and lower on my priority list. Watching a more meaningful game, such as Dodgers vs. Mets, holds more sway over me.
Call me a fairweather fan if you so desire. As a Brewers fan, I’ve slogged through some losing seasons. In the process, I learned to appreciate the little things even a lost season can offer. This season includes JUNIOR GUERRA!!! (all caps and exclamation points contractually obligated), an impressive Jonathan Lucroy farewell tour and Ryan Braun lineup roulette. I’ve attended four Brewers games this summer and have tickets and I have tickets to a fifth in September. I imagine this is a higher than average number of games attended for someone that live two hours away from Milwaukee.
So, perhaps I cannot be considered a diehard, but you would offend me if you called me a fairweather fan. For whatever it’s worth, I started this series full well knowing that it required at least reading about the previous night’s game. Per the newspaper article pictured here, the Crew lost again, under walk off circumstances (with an assist from the terrible Scooter Gennett). It isn’t true, but I am certain they’ve lost every game since the All Star Break to walk offs. This is always how it feels when something happens twice in the same week.
In no way would I ever suggest that walk offs are the worst, let alone the absolute worst. Walk offs, even if they hurt your rooting interest, are amazing. Rather, I prefer to posit that relief pitching is the absolute worst. Not any individual relief pitcher, but the entire concept, the aura really, of relief pitching.
The only good things relief pitching gave us were the character of Kenny Powers and John Axford on Twitter. Everyone gets all starry eyed about Mariana Rivera, a popular choice for the best reliever ever. However, my most enduring memory of Mo is the 2001 World Series where Luis Gonzalez got the walk off single off of him to lead the Diamondbacks to the victory in Game 7. My second most enduring memory of Mo is the Dave Roberts steal in the 2004 ALCS that lead to the epic Red Sox comeback.
Perhaps stats heads can appreciate an epic K rate, but for your rank and file baseball fan, relievers only exist to let you down. Eventually, they always will. When Trevor Hoffman pitched for the Brewers, he blew a save against the Dodgers in the one game I watched him pitch live. Pitchers like Derrick Turnbow and John Axford turned back into pumpkins. Investing in a relief pitcher’s jersey remains just as risky a proposition as offering him a long term contract.
There’s also that one year I played fantasy baseball where I drafted Johan Santana on the tip that he would soon be turned into a starting pitcher because he was obviously too good to be a reliever. Unfortunately the Twins felt they needed to keep him a relief pitcher because they had a bigger need in the bullpen than the rotation. This made me bitter at the concept of the bullpen and mystified by how the Twins ever won with such poor management skills. And yesterday the goat was Tyler Thornburg, whom the Brewers felt was indispensable not two seasons ago when trying to trade for a respectable first baseman. But relief pitchers are always dispensable, because relief pitchers are the absolute worst.
