Pierzynski offers no relief on ’pen use

FOX’s Pirates-Mets telecast, Saturday, was brutal.

Highlights included playby-play man Joe Davis claiming that Lucas Duda, playing his 34th game, “is having a career year.”

Analyst A.J. Pierzynski seemed eager to say anything when saying nothing would have been in our and his best interests.

Beyond that, Pierzynski, a former catcher, apparently adheres to the hocus-pocus, by-the-book, by-the-inning pre-fabricated pitching parade.

Of the Mets, he said, “You know, the trickle-down from these starters not being nearly as good as anybody expected is that that bullpen has been taxed, and is struggling mightily, as well.

“When you use your bullpen, every manager has an ideal plan for every game, as far as their bullpen. So when they have to keep going there, you get out of plan. It messes everybody up and gets them off their schedule and routine.”

OK, we get that, have for years, but why? Why bother scripting games before they’re played? We now regularly see 10-12 pitchers per game, creating near four-hour hazes as effective relievers are pulled as a matter of “routine.” Why would managers think the next reliever will be as good? Why not allow that effective reliever continue in order to both win and not tax the bullpen?

Pierzynski caught for losing teams; he watched that “ideal routine” make many messes. Why not explain why managers began and continue to regard relievers as plug-in, fail-safe robots? Why not play to win rather than to follow a fantasy-driven, once-in-awhile script?