Why Does Roberts Keep Relying on Madson?

Unless things take a dramatic shift, the story of this World Series will come down to one thing – Dave Roberts reliance on Ryan Madson in critical situations.

Actually, perhaps they don’t start out as critical situations but they quickly turn into them as Madson does everything in his power to give Boston opportunities to do something. Boston may be a good team but if Roberts stopped bringing in Madson the series would have a completely different look. But it doesn’t seem that the Dodger manager can see what everyone else in the baseball world (and even President Trump) can – Ryan Madson is not the pitcher you want on the mound in the World Series right now.

In 11 games this postseason, Madson has compiled a decent 2–0 record with a 2.08 ERA but those are just the crude statistics that our fathers used to use to rate pitchers. It’s 2018 and the statistical analysts are all over the place. In my mind, the key stat of his postseason is Madson’s percentage of inherited runners that this guy has allowed to score.

When a reliever comes into a game they’re often placed in a high impact situation. Many times they’ll have to deal with the mess that the previous pitcher created so they tend to be good at pitching from the stretch and dealing with runners on base…that is if they’re a good reliever. With all the numbers floating around baseball players these days it’s not hard to find out how many runners a pitcher has had to deal with when they come into a game. For a starting pitcher, they get the lucky ZERO inherited runner count since they come into the game with no one on base, a pristine situation. When a reliever comes in at the start of an inning, they get lucky too – ZERO inherited runners. These are both great situations to be in since the pitcher is responsible for his own fate. If he gives up a run, it shows up in a pretty obvious way even in his traditional stats as his ERA will be impacted. Relievers who come into a game partway through an inning though have a different possibility. They might come in with runners on base already.

These are the situations where you separate the great relief pitchers from the mediocre.

I’m not sure where Dave Roberts gets his stats but I’m pretty sure someone on his staff had to have known that Ryan Madson is not the pitcher you want coming in when there are runners on base.

In 11 postseason games this year, Madson has come into the game inheriting 14 runners. 9 of those have scored. 64% of runners that are on base when he comes into a game have scored. And if we look at the World Series, he’s allowed all 7 runners he’s inherited to score.

When Roberts claims “He’s done it time and time again for us” in reference to Madson I’m wondering what exactly he’s talking about. Time and time again he’s blown the game for the Dodgers? Time and time again he’s allowed runners to score? Time and time again he’s come into a game and NOT done his job? What exactly has he done for the Dodgers?

Well the game is in the books and the 2018 World Series is almost over as well. It’s a been frustrating year being an Angels fan with all the injuries they had and it’s even more frustrating to watch a team you don’t really like, but are rooting for, make really poor decisions. I just hope that with all his misplaced confidence Dave Roberts has learned that Ryan Madson is not the pitcher you want to bring into the game when there are runners on base. If he can learn that, maybe the Dodger have a chance.

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