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Brett Myers

By faketeams

Baseball Prospectus has recently made a post in the "Unfiltered" portion of their site.  Mr. Sheehan was one of the few defenders of the decision to move Myers from the starting rotation to middle relief.  (Link here but subscription required.)

However, he notes the same thing I noted earlier this week. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel removed Myers from a 2-2 game for no apparent reason and watched Antonio Alfonseca give-up a three-run HR in the 9th to lose the game.

That Manuel didn't leave Myers in for the ninth indicates to me that he doesn't know how to get the most out of Myers as a reliever, which blows a massive hole in my argument that the move of Myers to the pen made sense.

From my Wednesday morning post:

Charlie Manuel didn't leave him in a for a two-inning appearance in a tie game?  Exactly why was he moved to the bullpen if not to provide valuable innings?....I've been holding out judgment about the Myers move, but, if he isn't there to pitch important innings late in the game, then what is going on?

Obviously, I am in perfect agreement, so much so that I wonder if Joe is reading Fake Teams.  Are you amongst those who cast a vote in your favor as the top MSFM expert? How about a shout out on BP? :)

With Tom Gordon headed back to Philadelphia to get his troublesome shoulder checked, I believe mine may have been the most astute of post-move analysis:

I wonder if this says something about Gordon's health. Moving Myers to middle relief after giving him $25MM to start games? Maybe the Phils are acclimating him to the bullpen in anticipation of Gordon being hurt.

If you didn't get to take advantage of a panicky Myers owner, then your opportuntiy has passed.  Now he is a closer with 32 Ks in 23.1 IPS.  Or more favorably put, 13 Ks in 8.1 relief innings. Extended over 66 closer innings, he becomes a 104K reliever.

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