Big change for tonight, GDT 5/10

[nsacpi]

Whitey Herzog's rule-of-thumb was: Never more than three days in a row and never more than three days rest for relief pitchers. One can't hold to that fast-and-true with 7 men in the pen on the rest part of the equation, but you have to give your high-leverage guys sufficient rest during a 162-game slog. Good to see this from Jackson. Quality arm that has never quite put it together.

PS--As the season wears on, Newcomb could become a very valuable piece provided his new-found control holds in place. In the era of essentially piggy-backing pitchers, Newcomb may be the kind of guy who can come in relatively early in the game and provide multiple innings. I'd keep him where he is for now and hope he can build on what appears to be pretty decent progress.

Four of our starting pitchers are righties. It makes sense to build a pen with enough lefties (including a couple who can go multiple innings) to be able to flip the platoon advantage around when the other team has stacked its lineup to face a righty starter.

[Enscheff]

it's not so much number of innings as pitching consecutive days...there is research on effectiveness of relievers by days of rest...it is a thing

plus the RHHs coming up in the 9th

Newk is good enough to go more than an inning and face a couple RHH, but I agree he should be used in the highest leverage spot where he will face predominantly LHH. If that spot is in the 7th or 9th, it doesn’t matter.

Modern BP usage is still something Snit struggles with, so hopefully the FO can help him out.

[nsacpi]

Newk is good enough to go more than an inning and face a couple RHH, but I agree he should be used in the highest leverage spot where he will face predominantly LHH. If that spot is in the 7th or 9th, it doesn’t matter.

Modern BP usage is still something Snit struggles with, so hopefully the FO can help him out.

It will be interesting how Snit plays it tonight. Winkler, Newk and Jackson have all pitched consecutive days. Could see Venters or Blevins in to get a lefty if there is a high leverage situation.

[bravesfanMatt]

It will be interesting how Snit plays it tonight. Winkler, Newk and Jackson have all pitched consecutive days. Could see Venters or Blevins in to get a lefty if there is a high leverage situation.

He will use Venters for one inning and Blevins for lefties.

[nsacpi]

He will use Venters for one inning and Blevins for lefties.

Yeah. Blevins shouldn't face any RHHs in any sort of high leverage situation. He should probably be only used to get Peralta out in a key situation.

[salmagundy]

It's funny how Whitey Herzog's name has come up. He taught me a lot when he was still playing. I was fortunate to have him, Mickey Vernon and a host of others helping me get my career in baseball onto a higher level.

It's to bad his fear of flying got in the way of his career.

[Acuña’s Bat Flip]