Huston Street Joins Brian Fuentes In Chorus

Since Fuentes popped off, a fair number of my baseball-writing friends have suggested, in no uncertain terms, that relief pitchers should quit whining and just $%&@# pitch when their manager tells them to pitch -- save situation, non-save situation, whatever.

Well, sure. It would be lovely if the world worked that way. But one of a manager’s jobs -- shoot, maybe his most important job -- is to know, with some degree of precision, how his players will respond in various situations.

It would seem that either Fuentes — or Geren — or maybe both — could be changing jobs or losing jobs pretty soon.

We outsiders like to argue that managers should deploy their best relievers at the key moments in the games, whether those moments come in the seventh inning or the ninth or somewhere in between. But insiders will tell you that one of the reasons relievers are so tough -- the ones with set roles, anyway -- is that they know when to start stretching, when to start throwing, when to gulp down three cups of strong coffee, etc.

I don’t know who’s right, but if a pitcher comes into the game and doesn’t think he’s ready, he probably isn’t.