7.29.2008

Brief Detour in which Baseball Strategy is Discussed

There have many weird trends this season. Some, like hitting the pitcher 8th, are kind of quirky and negligably important. Others, such as shattering maple bats, seem dangerous and of critical (but non-baseball related) import. One trend, having really good hitters sacrifice bunt, is so mind-numbingly fucking stupid that I have no idea why all the managers who have employed it have not been taken out and shot for the better of society.

Most recent example: Top of the 6th inning, and the Rockies have a 1-run lead over the Pirates. They are out of the playoffs, probably, but on a hot streak in a weak division. Last night, they took an early lead and completely blew it. Tonight, they had a 4-0 lead that the Bucs had cut to 4-3 by the time of this event.There were runners on first and second with no outs. This is a situation where they can be expected to score 1.573 runs in an average inning. Even better, Chris Iannetta is up and he is hitting .281/.383/.536 coming into the game. Nevermind how good those numbers are for a catcher, those are good numbers for anybody. He is a very good hitter. The pitcher's spot is up next, but Seth Smith (who is hitting .226/.293/.377 in a small sample size) has stepped up to replace the pitcher in the on deck circle. Chris Iannetta sacrifice fucking bunts the runners over to second and third, thereby decreasing the run expectancy to 1.467 runs. Still good! Except Troy Tulowitzki made a fuck stupid baserunning play on a Seth Smith ground ball and was tagged out between second and third. So, first and third with two outs brings us to a Willy Taveras groundout and 0 runs scored in the inning.

Post-script: In the bottom of the inning, the Pirates took the lead and are now up 5-4. The Rockies deserve to lose this game. And! Clint Hurdle deserves not to have a job. This is exactly the dumb shit he does all the time and, let's face it, the honeymoon is over. It's part of a maddening trend, though, and that asshole Dusty Baker started it.