It's tough to find too much fault with Pirates manager Derek Shelton. After all, his team is supposed to be bad.
In fact, the Pirates were expected to be pretty awful even before their top prospect (Ke'Bryan Hayes) suffered a thumb injury two games into the season which then lingered for two months. They weren't supposed to be any good even before their alleged top pitching prospect (Mitch Keller) regressed to the point that he finally earned himself a trip back to the minors.
Injuries to Colin Moran and Philip Evans haven't helped; neither has the absence of rehabbing LHP Steven Brault. Shelton has one major league caliber outfielder on his roster (congratulations Bryan Reynolds).
So the sub-.400 record is to be expected. Even the current 7-game losing streak isn't completely out of line. But Shelton's moves in the sixth inning of Sunday's 5-2 loss in Milwaukee are drawing a decent amount of heat. One of them should, but not for the reasons you may think.
To reset - after falling behind 1-0 two batters into the first inning Wil Crowe retired the next 15 batters. He was so effective that even when his spot came up with the bases-loaded and two outs in the top of the sixth Shelton let him bat with a 2-1 lead.
Some people (in hindsight) had a problem with that, but the odds weren't much better that, say, Erik Gonzalez would get a hit instead of Crowe. Crowe, of course, grounded out but it was his game to win and he had retired 15 in a row! That was the right move.
The problem was in the bottom of the inning when Crowe walked the lead-off hitter on the 10 pitches and Shelton took him out of the game. David Bednar gave up an RBI triple and a two-run homer which lost the game.
Even bringing in Bednar wasn't the wrong move – if Shelton was going to make a pitching change, anyway. Bednar has been the team's second most reliable reliever and there is a good chance he will be the closer once Richard Rodriguez is traded.
Shelton's mistake was not giving Crowe a chance to continue. More to the point, it did not give Shelton and the organization - and for that matter Crowe himself - a chance to see how Crowe would have reacted in that situation.
Shelton's reasoning was that the extended at-bat put Crowe's pitch count at 82. So what? In May, Crowe had four straight starts with pitch counts of 97, 93, 94 and 94.
Shelton's other argument is that those 10 pitches had taken a lot out of Crowe. Again, so what? Didn't you want to see how a relatively inexperienced pitcher – not to mention a pitcher you acquired in the Josh Bell trade – would react when finally faced with a bit of adversity after retiring 15 straight hitters?
Oh yeah, after the walk Crowe would have faced the top of the order for the dreaded third time in the game. Can't have that these days. To which I say - again – so what?
Too many times, it seems major league managers – not just Shelton – will replace an inexperienced pitcher because he doesn't want to hurt that pitcher's confidence if something were to go wrong. I would submit that taking the pitcher out in that situation damages his confidence even before the pitcher can damage it himself.
I will give Shelton credit for bringing in one of his best relievers to give Crowe a chance at his first major league victory. I have no doubt his motive was well-intentioned.
At some point, Crowe will get that win. Maybe he will get it sooner if the manager shows Crowe some confidence that will help him develop his own.
