Thank You Dale Sveum!

For your incredibly boneheaded decision to start CC Sabathia in game 2 today on three days rest, again. Your decision-making is positively Bud Selig-like and may well hand the NLDS to the Phillies.

 

Sabathia may pitch effectively for 7 innings today. But there is a greater likelihood that Sveum has gone to the well once too often with Sabathia on short rest during the Brewers stretch drive and he will pitch about as well as Ben Sheets did on 3 days rest last Saturday, lasting just 2 1/3 innings. What then for the Brew Crew?

 

Sveum is pitching Sabathia today so that he can pitch again in a game 5 if there is one. Trouble is, that would also be on 3 days rest. The chances are even greater that Sabathia will be ineffective on Tuesday (if needed).

 

Aren’t any of the Brewers other fully rested starters better than an exhausted and overused Sabathia? Sveum obviously doesn’t think so.

 

What would have been the smarter play on the Brewers part would have been to pitch their 3^rd starter in the rotation (now their 2^nd guy after Sheets was left off the playoff roster) and try to steal the game today versus Brett Myers. That way, the Brewers get to rest Sabathia and pitch him on Saturday in game 3 with an extra day of regular rest.

 

If the Brewers win today, they would then get to pitch their ace in game 3 that could put them one win away from winning the series and really ratchet up the pressure on the Phillies.

 

If the Brewers lost today, they would still get to pitch their ace in game 3 to stave off elimination.

 

I suppose some of this was dictated by yesterday’s result. Maybe Sveum would have had second thoughts after a win and moved Sabathia back a game in the rotation. Obviously, after the loss he doesn’t want his team to go down 2-0 in the series.

 

The problem is that game 3 is the pivotal game, not game 2. And don’t discount how demoralizing it would be for the Brewers – and what a momentum builder it would be for the Phils – for their ace to lose and be on the brink of elimination with little left to backstop Sabathia in the rotation.

 

My guess is that Sabathia doesn’t last five innings today. And the Brewers will find themselves in a 2-0 hole with no help on the horizon headed back to Milwaukee for the pivotal game 3 that could very well decide the series.