Torey Lovullo may turn out to be a wonderful manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks but he’s already made two questionable decisions.
The first: Making Archie Bradley the long reliever instead of giving him a more prominent role in the back of the bullpen. Bradley was electric Tuesday, striking out seven batters in 3 1/3 innings and hitting 99 on the radar gun.
That performance wasn’t an aberration, either. Bradley was dominant the last couple weeks of the Cactus League, allowing just two earned runs in 13 innings while striking out 10 batters. Given the Diamondbacks’ set-up men aren’t exactly Andrew Miller, why not let Bradley pitch the seventh or eighth inning rather than mopping up in an 8-4 loss.