I'm sympathetic to the argument that it's easy to waste money on relievers, when the results can often be just as good from youth or fungibles. But it's also hard to believe they thought they would get good health and results from Seranthony, Arano, Hunter and converted starters.
Brass tacks though, Middleton said he'd only pay the tax if it made the team a World Series contender, and one $10 million reliever probably wasn't gonna do that either.
Girardi certainly doesn't seem any smarter than Kapler when it comes to bullpen management. At least today he (probably) lost the game with his best available reliever at that point in the game. In a nine-inning game it probably would have been Pivetta before Hunter.
Kind of had a bad feeling about our bats in the second game after the explosion. Maybe they'll get the split, which I wasn't expecting anyway.
I don't think you let Nola throw more than 90 pitches given all the circumstances (the short spring training, the layoff). Good chance you get the same result, or worse (i.e. it affects him later).