Pena on Pena

The story of the day is once again Tony Pena's management, and Pena was insistent that he did the right thing yesterday pulling Greinke in the 8th:

"This kid, he was throwing the ball real well. But then he walked a guy and he hit a batter. Right away, that tells you something. That shows you this kid is starting to go in a different direction. When that happens, and you have a fresh guy in the bullpen, you have to go with the reliever.”

I don't expect Pena to say anything differently. He's not going to second guess himself everytime something goes wrong. But I have no idea what he's talking about. So Greinke had some trouble with a couple of hitters after having NO trouble whatsover through the first 7 innings? Hell, he faced the MINIMUM through 7 inning, allowing 2 hits that were both erased o on the basepads.

Why is that grounds to believe Greinke's "going in a different direction"? Again, I'm just having a hard time giving Pena the benefit of the doubt right now. His gut feeling management style is producing nothing but vomit.

And a strong case can be made that Andy Sisco is NOT fresh. Someone over on Kevin's blog pointed out that Andy Sisco is on pace to through 110 innings this season as a middle reliever, and his workload has ramped up even more in past two weeks. Pena HAS done a good job of protecting his young pitchers' arms and I can understand that he doesn't really trust any other relievers but Sisco right now. But he's threatening injury by overusing Sisco.

Hopefully Affeldt will be able to take some of the pressure off when he returns, but if not its incumbent upon AB to find a serviceable bullpen arm for the rest of the season. As of now, I'd rather have D.J. Carrasco on the roster than Joe McEwing unless the team can find a better position player to occupy the 25th roster spot (Pick?). I highly doubt Steve Karsay (designated for assignment by the Yankees) would play for the Royals when he'd pretty much have his pick of teams, but it would be nice to have his veteran arm in the 'pen to work the 7th and 8th. He's injury prone, but there's very little downside for the Royals.