Evan Grant on the Ranger bullpen

Just kidding.

Frankies health issues and strugles on the mound are both shortterm and longterm problems. Might the seemingly SP depth force Feliz to be a closer?

Especially Feliz who right now should be going multiple innings anyways. No point in having him only go out there and throw 10 pitches a game

but is three instances really a large enough sample to justify such a conclusion? not that you have the time in the middle of a pennant chase to gather a whole lot of data. but aside from his performance on back-to-backs is there any biomechanical reason to believe he would be so effective with rest and so ineffective on back-to-backs?

Anyway, yes, loosen up the “roles” in the bullpen please, o’day-wilson would have probably worked out yesterday (of course cj-frankie probably would have too).

Frankie can’t be counted on to carry a heavy work load. That leaves the bullpen without a situational lefty (one that’s worth a shit, that is), so I’m advocating A.J. Murray being called up. He can take Arias’s spot on the 40, let him do mop-up duty until we figure out whether or not he can be counted on. Solved.

But did Lewin say who was covering him tonight?

Is it Nadel?

could we bring in Feliz. It was fleeting because Happy is knew to the majors and the pen. I reckon he could handle it, but I’m scared because of a couple “if’s.” What if he does well, does the FO keep him there? What if he fails? Can he handle to adversity and pressure that comes with the position?

He got to a 100+ pitches pretty fast

In fact, I’m rather shocked to find out that he has failed to go at least seven innings in eight straight starts. In his last six, he’s only been able to go six or fewer

Any chance the big guy is beginning to wear down?

This is the time of year when the bullpen has to step-up. Yesterday was the second key game they’ve blown in a week. We’ve been fortunate: Feldman and Hunter have been going deeper in games.

But all you need is a few ‘un-quality’ starts in a row and bam, your bullpens gassed

but i was at the game last night. i observed something that was quite disturbing in the 9th. frankie stepping off the bag like 4 times in the ninth. perhaps it was b/c he was tired/ not feeling well/ knew he was screwed or whatever. just seemed to me that anytime the crowd got really loud “playoff loud” he had to step off then he couldn’t locate his pitches. prolly just overreaction on my part but it seems to me that cj pitches better under pressure situations. new york and boston series over the past couple years come to mind.