Why was relief pitcher in 8th inning relieved?

#1
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m9000

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#1
I admit, I am a bandwagon baseball fan. When I was an undergraduate in the early 70s, you could go to a UT home baseball game and it would be a big crowd if there were 200 people in attendance.

I am curious why the relief picture with a handlebar mustache was relieved after his two strikeout effort in the eighth inning? Was he limited by number of pitches or some rule? Obviously, the guy that replaced him in the 9th got the job done, but it looked like the guy with a handlebars was in complete control.
 
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#2
#2
m9000 said:
I admit, I am a bandwagon baseball fan. When I was an undergraduate in the early 70s, you could go to a UT home baseball game and it would be a big crowd if there were 200 people in attendance.

I am curious why the relief picture with a handlebar mustache was relieved after his two strikeout effort in the eighth inning? Was he limited by number of pitches or some rule? Obviously, the guy that replaced him in the 9th got the job done, but it looked like the guy with a handlebars was in complete control.
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He had pitched in all 3 finals games.
 
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#3
#3
m9000 said:
I admit, I am a bandwagon baseball fan. When I was an undergraduate in the early 70s, you could go to a UT home baseball game and it would be a big crowd if there were 200 people in attendance.

I am curious why the relief picture with a handlebar mustache was relieved after his two strikeout effort in the eighth inning? Was he limited by number of pitches or some rule? Obviously, the guy that replaced him in the 9th got the job done, but it looked like the guy with a handlebars was in complete control.
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I think there was just more confidence that Combs could close it out. Almost backfired as you could tell he had a tired arm was up in the zone and lacked his normal control. He got the job done so no need to speculate now. I had the utmost confidence that Kirby could've closed them out as well.
 
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#4
#4
I think it’s just how Tony uses Kirby. He pitches most games and gives a solid inning, does his job and then heads back to the dugout. Hes a reliable utility pitcher. I also think Combs had a ton of confidence and Vitello knew it. He was very loose to the point of laughing about the balk and then proceeding to close out the game.
 
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#6
#6
NighthawkVol said:
He had pitched in all 3 finals games.
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SO,,,, like the poster said he seemed to be in complete control. Like Gump said "life is like a box of chocolates" you never know what you are gonna get. Had it been me, he would have at least started the ninth to see if what I had was better than trying to get a bird out of the bush.
 
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#7
#7
m9000 said:
I admit, I am a bandwagon baseball fan. When I was an undergraduate in the early 70s, you could go to a UT home baseball game and it would be a big crowd if there were 200 people in attendance.

I am curious why the relief picture with a handlebar mustache was relieved after his two strikeout effort in the eighth inning? Was he limited by number of pitches or some rule? Obviously, the guy that replaced him in the 9th got the job done, but it looked like the guy with a handlebars was in complete control.
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Matchups, stats and gut feel. All about Coaching making the calls and knowing the game and his players.
 
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#8
#8
savannahfan said:
SO,,,, like the poster said he seemed to be in complete control. Like Gump said "life is like a box of chocolates" you never know what you are gonna get. Had it been me, he would have at least started the ninth to see if what I had was better than trying to get a bird out of the bush.
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As Rucker tweeted before the 8th, I think V had a plan to go Kirby then Combs. Yes, Kirby was in control in the 8th, but the fear was he'd hit a wall after throwing for 3 straight days. Also, and this is important, he got up to warm up at least twice. Looked like he threw a ton of warmup pitches. It would have been a lot to ask of him to go 2 innings after pitching the prior 2 days and it being as hot as it was.

I think Tony felt like Kirby had an inning and Combs had an inning. That's the answer to the OP, whether we agree or not.
 
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#9
#9
savannahfan said:
SO,,,, like the poster said he seemed to be in complete control. Like Gump said "life is like a box of chocolates" you never know what you are gonna get. Had it been me, he would have at least started the ninth to see if what I had was better than trying to get a bird out of the bush.
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Only on VN do we get intense criticism of a coach the day after winning a natty.
 
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#12
#12
savannahfan said:
not meaning to criticizing, just wondering and expressing what I would have done.
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You got to get there first.
You offering what you would have done indicates to me that you would not have been in that situation to do it.
Knowing the team and players is the most important part of coaching.
Second or questioning a coach after winning a NC with an insert of what you would have done is just dumb.
You see what you want, but CTV has been with this team and some of its players for 3+ years daily.
Take the win without the expression of what I would do. He is winning his way, not yours.

So you are going to Armchair coach a National Championship Game, Coach and Win?
 
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#14
#14
Tony made the right moves, that's all we need to know...The rest is just conversation.
USATSI_23616182.jpg
 
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#18
#18
vegasvolfan said:
He apparently pitched in 9 straight games. I didn’t know this. He seemed fine though. Las thing Tony wants is to ruin a kid’s arm.
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IIRC. Kirby only pitched to one guy on Sunday and 3 guys on Monday - doubt his arm was completely spent. Coaches made their call which they thought was the best to win the game and it was. Switching pitchers is an art not a mathematical calculation.
 
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#19
#19
walkenvol said:
IIRC. Kirby only pitched to one guy on Sunday and 3 guys on Monday - doubt his arm was completely spent. Coaches made their call which they thought was the best to win the game and it was. Switching pitchers is an art not a mathematical calculation.
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This postseason really demonstrated for me how difficult it is to manage pitchers through the double elimination brackets and the short series. You really have to have depth and manage it well or you can leave yourself in a bind. Vitello and Anderson did a great job.
 
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#21
#21
I was at a loss when Burns left the team. Still don't know why nor do I care, but in the long run I think it was a blessing.
More to the story, I suppose. He did what he had to do and we grew as a result of it.
 
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#22
#22
Managers usually try to match up LHP with Lefty batters as historical batting averages prove this to be a good strategy. Vitello had a game plan and he stuck with it so VOLS National Champs. Those guys deserve it and it will certainly help recruiting and transfers too. Can't wait to get my Knoxville New Sentinel paper framed to go along with my 1998 Natty FB one.
 
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#23
#23
There's a traditional way to look at it too, settings analytics aside. There's these archetypical roles in the bullpen of the setup man who typically pitches the 8th, and then a closer who pitches the 9th. Doesn't really matter if the setup man was setting the world on fire. You could make a case that bringing in your closer is saying okay, we're shutting the door now, this is over. And not bringing in a closer maybe puts out some signal of hey our bullpen is gassed and we're riding this arm 'til it dies. And you don't want to give them anything to hang any belief on.

In other words, if you can have Mariano Rivera come on to "Enter Sandman", why would you not do that?
 
#24
#24
I think the plan was to always finish out with Combs. Kirby was brought in during a high stakes situation and was able to throw strikes and calm everyone down. At the same time he faced the bottom of the lineup, and as the commentators alluded to, A&M was able to make good contact against Kirby this series.

To start the 9th, we were about to face the top of the order. So I think the strategy was to start that last inning with a fresh arm and our top closer.
 
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#25
#25
Vitello has forgotten more about baseball than I will ever know. And we just won a National Championship. But I wondered the same thing. In terms of number of pitches, I believe Kirby's pitch count was well below Combs. Go Vols.
 
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