[sterlingice]

Someone at RR summed it up well. It's not that this was just bad luck and hindsight that people are jumping on. Everyone in the gameday thread knew- we didn't all just think- we all knew- what was coming when he came in to start the 8th. The problem wasn't that pitching Farnsworth was the worse of two bad options. I remember Soren talking once about Buddy Bell and his criticizing his bullpen management when all he had were guys who could add gas to the fire and saying "would you like death by shark or death by alligator" or something to that effect. This isn't the case here- they have some bullpen depth and even had the option of sending Gil out for the 8th.

Hillman picked the fifth best option he had and they go something like this (in order of preference):
1) Juan Cruz- he should be your setup guy as he's your second best bullpen arm. Oh, and he's a lefty which helps when 3 of 5 guys coming up are lefties.
2) Bring in Soria for 4 (or 5 or 6) outs. He hasn't pitched since Sunday. Easily this is the most high leveraged situation in the game. Put in your best player.
3) Go to Mahay to face Thome. Again, Thome kills straight fastballs and Farnsworth throws- you guessed it. Mahay is a lefty and Thome's lefty/right splits are quite pronounced. You take him from a 1.050 OPS hitter down to .750.
4) Pitch Meche for the 8th. He was cruising and only had 91 pitches thru 7. I'm ok with bringing a guy out too early to keep wear from his arm, tho, so this is not the best option.
5) Go to the pr0FF3ss0r

SI