A week ago the Chicago Cubs were in the middle of playing five games in a four-day span and with a double header looming the next day Joe Maddon decided to use three position players to close out an 18-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Maddon didn’t stop there, as he once again used Victor Caratini and Anthony Rizzo during Monday night’s 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks after Luke Farrell allowed six runs in 3.1 innings.
On this week’s episode of the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast, our very own old man yelling at clouds, Matt Enuco, was distraught over Maddon’s use of position players pitching in games.
Remember, during that blowout 18-5 loss, Jon Lester started the game and allowed eight runs in three innings. Anthony Bass, James Norwood and Brian Duensing gave up seven more runs in 2.2 innings before Maddon went to Tommy La Stella, Victor Caratini and Ian Happ. Again, the Cubs had a double header the next day and in the previous game Kyle Hendricks only went 4.2 innings. That forced Maddon to use six relievers.
So, pretty simple, Maddon was saving his bullpen arms for the rest of the weekend series.
But not everyone agrees, as “Nuke” like we call him on the podcast, claimed Joe Maddon is disrespecting the game.
I don’t know, I think it’s just called being a good manager, who wants to save his bullpen. And by no means is Maddon safe from criticism because he’s made plenty of questionable decisions his entire career and that includes his time with the Cubs, but this one? I just don’t buy how it disrespects the game, when he’s doing what’s best for his team and that’s really all that he should and does worry about.
But who knows, maybe you agree with Matt and if you do let’s hear it. Send us a message, tweet us, we might even reference it on our next show.
As always, we invite you to listen, as this week we have Bob Nightengale from USA Today on the show. That interview was recorded a few days before the trades on Thursday, but the national MLB columnist still gave us some good info on the rest of the trade market and what the Cubs and White Sox might do in the next week.
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No, but really, I won the argument over Nuke.
