This Week in Baseball

[DMann2003 0]

We hit that brick wall HARD!

[geniusMoment 0]

I admit it looks bad, but its only one series. Hopefully this is not the begining of the end, maybe it is, or maybe it was just a bad series.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Cubs come within one hit of tying a major league record for consecutive hits. They send 14 men to the plate, get 10 runs, nine with two outs and nine straight hits. Amazing.

[geniusMoment 0]

Its nice to see someone else get rocked around, once again the Reds are back in first place. Thank you cubbies.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Phillies-White Sox coming up. The teams have combined for 48 runs in the first two games of the series.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Possible rainout, so the offense gets stopped somehow.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Odd Cubs fact. The last time they followed a playoff run with a winning season was 1946.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Possible rainout, so the offense gets stopped somehow.

Yeah they're calling for tornadoes around here so I don't think they'll be playing much more tonight

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The game's been postponed. Here comes a real problem of interleague play. They have to re-schedule, somehow finding a day where both teams are off.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Ah, I remember the last Interleague makeup game that involved the Phillies. One of Mesa's finest.

[Vern Gagne 0]

3 consecutive quality starts by Twins pitching. If Santana, and Lohse can keep it up that's great news for the Twins.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

http://www.tangotiger.net/welist.html neat win expectancy chart done by Tango Tiger. Really amazing how detrimental a bunt is in the bottom of the 9th with 0 outs and a runner on 2nd and down by 1 run vs tied where it improves a bit.

[sfaJack 0]

http://www.tangotiger.net/welist.html neat win expectancy chart done by Tango Tiger. Really amazing how detrimental a bunt is in the bottom of the 9th with 0 outs and a runner on 2nd and down by 1 run vs tied where it improves a bit.

What's so amazing about it? Bunting with a guy on second and nobody out IS a dumb play, and has been for years.

 

The only time you might possibly bunt in such a situation is if the pitcher is batting, but even then, depending on the game situation, a pinch hitter is probably the order of the day.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I've always known it's detrimental, I meant it was more amazing considering most coaches tend to employ that tactic more in those situations.

[sfaJack 0]

Oh, well, alright then. Fair enough. I know what you mean about managers that do that crap. Makes me glad I'm not a Cardinal fan; all Tony LaRussa's micromanaging bullshit would probably drive me completely insane.

[geniusMoment 0]

I would look at many things such as if the pitcher is a strike out pitcher or not and whether the next guy up is a good handler of the bat. I would look at whether or not they would walk that guy to put runners on first and third, that would depend on who is up next.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

funny you said that sfa, here's a study done recently from The Hardball Times looking at the number of stolen base attempts, sac. bunts and intentional walks. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/manager-scorecard/

 

Baltimore, Detroit and Tampa Bay led the AL while Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Montreal led the NL.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Ah, the old sacrifice bunt debate.

 

The first real critique of the strategy was done by Pete Palmer and John Thorn in The Hidden Game of Baseball, back in 1983. Subsequent studies done have backed the conclusions reach in that book. Here it is....

 

The sacrifice bunt is a bad strategy. Not just with a runner on second. With a runner on first, its a bad strategy. With runners on first and second, its a bad strategy. The problem is, your gains from advancing runners are completely negated by giving up outs. Palmer and Thorn printed a run expectancy chart, and EVERY situation found that more outs = less chance of scoring a run. Palmer and Thorn gave one situation where the sacrifice bunt is a suitable strategy: Its 1968, late in the game, and Bob Gibson is pitching.

 

The sacrifice bunt is a relic of the Dead Ball Era, and it has somehow survived to this day. One might have thought that Earl Weaver's success would have killed the strategy, but apparently not.

 

If you can find them, The Hidden Game of Baseball, and Weaver On Strategy are excellent reads. See also Total Baseball, a new edition of which comes out next month.

[geniusMoment 0]

In general I do not agree with the sacrifice bunt. But Al do you think there are any circumstances when bunting is useful, sans the pitcher. I feel with the right hitters up the bunt can still be useful, especially when you only need one run to win the game.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

But Al do you think there are any circumstances when bunting is useful, sans the pitcher. I feel with the right hitters up the bunt can still be useful, especially when you only need one run to win the game.

 

Almost never. If you have a specific situation you can come up with though, I'll evaluate it.

[geniusMoment 0]

I was not really thinking of one. One situation where I may bunt is if I have the leadoff man on second in the bottom of the 9th, tied or down by one. I have Ryan Freel at bat, or any great bunter, and a great handler of the bat on deck. If I have faith that the guy behind Freel can get solid wood on the ball it would be a consideration, especially since Freel is so fast there is a chance he could beat out the bunt or the pitcher could hurry and throw it down the line. The only problem is the pitcher could then walk the great handler of the bat and be a ground ball double play away from ending the inning, in which case you just gave away an out. I guess it depends on how much faith you have in the part of your lineup coming up. For the Reds it would be (when healthy) Freel, Larkin, Casey and then Jr. I would not mind Casey coming up 1st and 3rd with one out even though he is a possible double play candidate.

But I could also see why you would not want Casey in that situation, its a puzzling question for me.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

In that situation, you have a better chance of scoring a run if you just let Freel hit. He could move the runner to third on a single, or even score the runner on an extra-base hit. Use the sacrifice bunt, and you take away an opportunity.

[NoCalMike 0]

I'll be at the A's game tonight. Hopefully Hudson no-hits the Pirates

That might be asking a bit much, but he is pitching great right now and hopefully the A's can keep the abnormal offense going full blast!!

[Guest FrigidSoul]

Make sure to get me a pair of Spidey Gloves and the Mask too.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Tony LaRussa's micromanaging bullshit would probably drive me completely insane.

Tony should keep his sunglasses on at all times, he's got unfortunate eyebrows or SOMETHING...my sister was around when I was watching the Cubs blow out St. Louis and when he came up to the mound and took the shades off she was liek AHH!

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

He says the Cubs had an advantage in the series because of The Cards missing a Marquis and Pujols, but I guess he doesn't realize we're missing SOSA and WOOD.

[DMann2003 0]

That was a numbing loss.

 

Let's face it Reds fans, it's over, the ball has been dropped.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I imagine Anglesault will get here any moment now to bitch about the Yankees.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

On a better note, Akinori Otsuka is a damned good pitcher.

[Hektik 0]

Yeah, that was good win. Padres beat the Yankees 10-2. Otsuka is definetly a good pitcher but I was realy impressed by the pitching of Adam Eaton. He got off to a slow start this season but has really stepped it up in his last two starts. San Diego now has sole possesion of 1st place in the NL West. I would like them to start pulling ahead of the other teams in the west but they can't seem to shake the Dodgers.