Ok, it's a legit topic, I see your point. However I just have a few questions that I'd like answered. There are no "right" answers, I just want peoples' opinions:
1) How was Rizzo supposed to know we'd definitely be in the playoffs in January? It was likely but NOT a lock.
2) How would have Rizzo kept Strasburg "fresh" for the playoffs? Would he have started him late enough so that he could pitch all the way into the WS? That would be what, six weeks out? EDIT: This is assuming you can't just put him in the pen, since I heard that starting pitchers who have never done relief don't do well converting later.
3) What if we didn't make the playoffs/a high seed because Strasburg didn't pitch until later? Wouldn't we have topics proclaiming we should have used him from the beginning so that we could have gotten INTO the playoffs?
I am not saying that Rizzo did not take some missteps, he did, but I am wondering what he could have done in hindsight. And remember, this is HINDSIGHT- not many teams have "shut down" their players like with consequences like this. I'm wondering is
what can we learn from this?
Please note: I'm still a baseball "newbie", and I'm asking these questions because I don't have adequate answers myself
