Gearrin Set Up To Fail?

As the final inning and a half of Sunday’s ass-whipping winds down I wonder why Skipper Fredi Gonzalez set rookie Cory Gearrin up to fail.  After Derek Lowe’s departure with the Braves trailing 4-1 the Skipper called on Gearrin instead of the obvious choice of lefty George Sherrill.  Sherrill was the obvious choice because after pitcher Cole Hamels the next five Philly batters were either switch hitters or left handed. All season long that’s been the job of Sherrill when we were trailing and Eric O’Flaherty when we were ahead.

As I noted yesterday, a right handed side arm  delivery is easier for left handed hitters to get a bead on because they see it better and longer. So unless you’re Don Drysdale or Kent Tekulve you start at a significant disadvantage against the likes of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. Yet today Gonzalez chose Gearrin. The question is, why?

There are three obvious explanations I can come up with and two show our Skipper in less than a favorable light.

The first is that on the day before the All Star game, trailing Cole Hamels by three he conceded defeat. I know Hamels is good but he isn’t that good and we’ve beat him before. That just doesn’t seem logical.

The second reason is that with O’Flaherty’s bad back he was not available and Sherrill was unavailable because he was overworked. I don’t buy that either.  Sherril has only 24 1/3 innings this year and threw only one last night and 1/3 the night before. Nope he can’t be tired or unavailable due to workload. Unless I’m missing something the only reason not to bring in Sherrill is to make a point about Gearrin facing left handed hitters or Gearrin in general.

Since Gearrin’s recall he’s been used sparingly by Gonzales and never in situations where Peter Moylan would have been the choice. Since Gearrin is theoretically filling that role – ground ball double play guy off a right handed hitter – there has been a lot of public conjecture about his lack of use. We’ve heard nothing from Gonzales to indicate why he preferred anyone buy Gearrin so the question keeps coming up. This was an ideal spot to answer those questions without directly addressing them and to throw him out there – and leave him  out there an incredibly long time when it was obvious the Philly left handed bats had him teed up – to get his ass whipped; to say without saying,  see, that’s why I don’t use Gearrin.

I really hope I’m wrong. I hope he explains the choice without tipping his hat to the Philly hitters. I hope he does so I can apologize. I hope he does, but I don’t expect it.