Wilhelmsen needs a shorter leash

[blade]

It's hard enough for this team to take a lead into the 9th inning. They can't afford to have a closer who can't close. Wilhelmsen's struggles have going on since mid-May. It's time to give someone else a turn. I'm not sure Capps is mentally tough enough to be a closer. Maybe. Medina might be the guy too.

Now is when we see how truly missed Stephen Pryor is. He was clearly ready for the closer's role before he went down. Now there is no solid choice to replace Wilhelmsen.

 

[blade]

It's hard enough for this team to take a lead into the 9th inning. They can't afford to have a closer who can't close. Wilhelmsen's struggles have going on since mid-May. It's time to give someone else a turn. I'm not sure Capps is mentally tough enough to be a closer. Maybe. Medina might be the guy too.

Now is when we see how truly missed Stephen Pryor is. He was clearly ready for the closer's role before he went down. Now there is no solid choice to replace Wilhelmsen.

In his last 11 appearances, since May 20th, he has 5 saves and 4 blown saves. His ERA over that stretch is 9.27 and his WHIP is 1.95.

If he hadn't blown those four save opportunities, the team record would be 33-34.

 

[Banned 10x]

If he hadn't blown those four save opportunities, the team record would be 33-34.

Wow, that's quite telling. I still don't know why Wedge pulled out Bonderman last night, didn't he only have like 90 pitches or something like that?

 

[SeattleCoug]

With the exception of guys like Rivera, most closers will go through 2-3 week period over the course of the year where they have troubles. Hopefully this is his rough patch and he gets over it.

However last night he shouldnt have seen the field. Bondermann was only at 89 pitches and showing no real signs of slowing down. He should have been given a chance to finish the game. Just because its a save situation doesnt mean your close should automatically be in there. If Bonderman just got out of jam and was laboring or Wil had been lights out lately I would understand the move.
Wedge's bullpen decisions over his tenure here have been questionable at best.

He has burned guys for using them over and over again.

Of all the problem this team has, Wilhelmsen is pretty low on my list. I think he needs to go out there in a few non save situations. However its not like Perez, Capps or Medina have been lights out either so there is not a lot of options anyway.

 

[dude82]

I think it's hard to criticize a manager for pulling the starter in certain situations without knowing the reason for the decision. I think it's also too easy to say "Just because you have a closer, doesn't mean you have to use him for every save opportunity". I know it seems like, at 89 pitches, Bonderman should have been able to go out there and finish the game, but it is not always that straightforward. Maybe Wedge and Willis were looking for certain tells that Bonderman was out of gas, or maybe Bonderman himself indicated that he only had a certain amount of gas left in the tank, or it's possible that he was on a pitch count from the beginning and rather than run into a situation in the 9th where he hits that mark in the middle of the inning and they had to use more pitchers than they wanted to, they simply pulled him before he hit the mark and decided to let Wilhelmsen try to close it out. Now obviously Wilhelmsen imploded again and we lost, but I think teams would always rather pull starting pitchers with a pitch count out after an inning ends to allow the next guy some extra throws in the pen and have him enter the game in a new inning than run into an issue where the starter is sent back out there for the next inning, hits that pitch limit and starts struggling, forcing them to bring the next guy in with guys on.

This is just an example of a situation where the manager made a decision that a lot fewer people would have had a problem with if the guy brought in to relieve the starter had done his job. For that reason, you could make a better argument against the decision to bring in Wilhelmsen there than you could against the decision to pull Bonderman there. Remember, Bonderman is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery and has yet to throw 100 pitches in a game for us (his high is 97). I'm guessing that they don't want him throwing that many pitches yet and he probably would have if they had sent him out there for the 9th, leaving Wedge with the decision to pull him during that inning and giving his reliever less time to get ready for a potentially hairy situation.