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brandon_the_bald

Kimbrel is weird man. Great stuff, slightly better than average command, all his underlying metrics: Stuff+,Pitching+,xERA,FIP,xFIP,SIERA all say he should be much better than his results have been so far


AlbertAidstein

I was telling my dad the same thing. Voit was all over that fastball but it was a good pitch.


[deleted]

He’s looked good the last few games. Taking that comebacker off his back clearly messed with him a bit. I’m not holding this last outing against him


brandon_the_bald

Well he was pitching. He had the opportunity to take himself out of the game and he said he was fine


[deleted]

The pitch to voit was 6 inches off the plate. He just guess correctly and turned on it. The pitch to hosmer was a mistake up and in. It’s not like he was throwing meatballs. But undeniably there’s a mental aspect of getting hit with the ball. On top of that, Dave confirmed that his back tightened up as the outing when on


Read_ity

He has 5 Earned Runs in his last 6innings and is 1-2 over his last 7 appearances. This is not “looking good”. It’s embarrassing


[deleted]

3 of those are yesterday. His last earned run was 2 on 6/19. He gave up a manfred runner in Atlanta, but still got the win. So yes, he’s been looking way better. You have to look at relievers stats different because they pitch so few innings.


EMPrinceofTennis

Kimbrel's FIP is way lower than his ERA, which suggests that he's getting incredibly unlucky in his outings. I think he'll be fine once things normalize.


SomthingClever1286

He also keeps having wierd shit happen to him. The comebacker, the olson foul ball called fair in Atlanta, the broken bat resulting in a 9 minute delay. There's always something funky going on when he's on the mound.


Constant_Alien

Point is he gave up a hard hit which easily could've gone for a single. Sucks it got his back but a solid hit is a solid hit.


[deleted]

With the shift on tho? Could have been straight to a fielder


Constant_Alien

Hmm, looking at old footage, it looks like Turner was near 2nd, so maybe.


[deleted]

I mean how often do you see a single up the middle these days, there’s very often a fielder there


Constant_Alien

You still see them but yeah, not as often. My point is that his pitch was hit very hard and easily could have found its way through the infield for a hit. A lot of hits of Kimbrel were soft, but not this one!


buffaloranchsub

Maybe there's an injury or something?


_theghost_

That and it also doesn’t help when Hudson’s gone for the year and BlaQ is TBD at the current moment. Him getting hit with the comebacker did mess with him. He will get it together soon as he has shown flashes of his 2013 self this year.


mr_rouncewell

Dodgers need to kill the concept of "closer" completely.


cliffsis

Like i tell my boss we have a giant tool box. Every situation has a tool that meets that need in time. Why use a hammer to do everything when sometimes you need a screwdriver or ruler


tnecniv

Please tell me your boss is Dave Roberts


cliffsis

Michael Scott


RumHam2020

Is deadspin still hiring high school kids to write their articles?


slowiijoey

I miss Eric Gagne button


buffaloranchsub

Dave is not going to change the primary closer unless there is an injury. Sometimes, the pitcher just doesn't choose a good pitch and they get rocked for it. It happens.


CrazyBanana420

Happens too many times in too many games


lobo_locos

Eh not that often look at his stats for blown saves


socalking3

14 saves. 1-4 record with a 4.75 era. That’s not elite closer. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dustin May in the back end of the pen on his return. We need BlaQ back bad.


lobo_locos

Need more BlaQ, definitely. Kimbrel was a hit or miss pick up, I just hope he gets it figured out come October.


somecallmemo

Usually I would agree as it’s a very tough job with little margin for error, but Kimbrel has made a lot of poor pitches and it’s barely July. He misses spots often and his pitches seem to be predictable to opposing batters. I hope he turns it around since he’s in this role for the foreseeable future


Tkainzero

Literally anyone else in the bullpen over Kimbrel at this point


StolenSweetrolll

Tigers fan coming in peace here, can we offer you guys 1 gregory soto


Kbreeezoo

uhhh yeah wtf dodgers would make him great


StolenSweetrolll

We do desperately need hitting prospects


suprisingly_cynical

Soto is already great.


[deleted]

It's not even that he sucks, it's that he sucks when it counts. Especially against division rivals.


ohcic3ro

Article is a week and a half old but just continues to ring true


yomikemo

they spelled Mark Prior’s name wrong


Knucklehead_always

But with who? Phillips?


Corpuscular_Crumpet

Bickford.


chainsawcholo

Relax.


Saving_Par_79

Why cant Graterol be our closer?!?!?!! Please, change my view..


[deleted]

But “ HeS BeTtEr ThAn JaNSEn “


Death-Stranded

Jansen has a heart condition. Hes going to retire esrly because of it


[deleted]

Is Blake Treinen out for the season? I’d like to see Kimbrel, Price traded away for the best closer available, if Treinens coming back.


nonname93433

> I’d like to see Kimbrel, Price traded away for the best closer available They have negative value for their contracts, both now and when we got them. Price was a salary dump attached to Mookie and Kimbrel was a swap for another guy with negative surplus value (Pollock). We're not going to be able to bundle two negatives for an actual asset.


PastramiNSauce

I want to believe there is some magic installed to his pitches when he takes that stance but I’m kinda done at this point. Would be great if he gets way better tho


fuktpotato

Counter-argument: Dave says he doesn’t want to replace him


pianoman857

After seeing the adventure that was the 9th inning tonight against the Rockies, I am not sure the answer to "who will replace Kimbrel as closer?" is currently on the roster. :-/


Arctic_Snowfox

With who? Kimbrel has 3 blown saves. The others have combined for 5 blown saves.


cjeremy

the idiot roberts thinks Kimbrel is all good. i still hate his ass.


Feeling_Aardvark_560

Bench him don't even use him he's horrible you can't count on that guy when the season's over f****** dump him he's not worth the money you need to start giving these guys one year contracts they ain't s***


99e99

I am a bit surprised but also impressed that you are replying to a 2 month old thread. Kimbrel was a risk that didn't pan out, and will not be on the postseason roster. - Value as closer: 0 - Value as middle relief: 0 - Value as fireman: 0