How would MLB tonight be in the deadballera ?

[ctownboy]

fkw,

From what I ahve seen, both Bruce Bochy with the Giants and Bud Black with the Padres are being tooooo aggressive and giving away unneccessary Outs.

Take the game with the Reds tonight.

Cueto is having control problems in the First Inning and what happens? Torres gets on and is then thrown out trying to steal Second Base. In that Inning, the Giants get two Hits (including a Double) and a Walk and score ZERO Runs.

In the Fourth Inning, there are men on First and Third with Two Outs and Bochy lets Brandon Crawford swing away on a 3 - 0 count. Crawford has been in the Majors less than a month so WHY do you let the kid swing away in that situation? He has had only one At Bat against Cueto and surely doesn't know what type of stuff Cueto has so why not MAKE him take at least one pitch?

In the Sixth Inning, Miguel Tejada leads off with a Double and what does Bochy do? He asks Freddie Sanchez, a good hitter who doesn't Strike Out a tremendous amount (less than 15% of his At Bats) to Bunt. He does and Tejada goes to Third. What happens next? .223 hitting Aubrey Huff Strikes Out and Nate Schierholtz grounds Out and NO RUNS SCORE.

In an era when Home Runs are down and playing in the ball parks they do, Bochy and Black are GIVING AWAY TOO MANY OUTS by trying to be aggressive. They are NOT letting their players play. They are asking them to do things they either are not good at doing or shouldn't be doing in the first place.

Neither of these guys has apparently read the info put together either by a SABR guy or one of the other stats guys that says more Runs are scored in Innings when a lead off hitter gets on and NO BUNTS are laid down than in Innings when the lead off hitter gets on and a Bunt is executed.

Freddie Sanchez had already gotten a Hit in the Game and can handle the bat so WHY do you ask him to Bunt? Unlike Adam Dunn (who Strikes Out about 40% of the time this year) allowing Sanchez to hit seems like a smart thing to do.

With Tejada already on Second, letting Sanchez swing away probably isn't going to result in a Double Play. At worst, Sanchez Strikes Out and Tejada is still on Second. If Sanchez hits a ground ball to somebody other than the Third Baseman or Pitcher, Tejada goes to Third Base, just as if a Bunt was laid sown. If he hits a medium depth Fly Ball, Tejada goes to Third Base, just as if a Bunt was laid down. Even better, if Sanchez gets a Hit, Tejada most likely scores and ties the Game. At worst, it would be First and Third with no Outs.

Nope, in the Post Steroid era, too many Managers and players are being DUMB. They don't know what to do if they can't hit Home Runs and score.
Instead of being smart they are trying to be aggressive which is the WRONG thing to do.

David

[itjclarke]

Good points, but Boch is definitely doing something right. They're able to consistently win games/series, like this weekend against the Rockies with only 6 runs in 3 games. Don't know totals off hand but the number of 1 run games they've played in is crazy, and their winning percentage in them crazier. A little bit of well timed small ball goes a long when it nets a run or two.. see Darren Ford's contributions this year. He's been integral in 4-5 G wins with super aggressive base running, all a product of Boch's well timed pinch running substitutions. As a life long SF fan, I could not be happier to still be perched in 1st place, even after losing our two best hitters. Beware when Pablo comes back and they can eke out 0.15 more runs per game!

[jp1216]

Reminds me when ESPN ran those throwback Sports Center shows from different decades using the current anchors. They didn't quite make it back to the prewar era.

[ctownboy]

itj,

It might be nice to be hanging on to first place by your fingernails but think how much nicer it would be if the Giants were in first place by five or six games?

Just think how much less pressure would be on your pitching staff if they didn't think they HAD to throw a Shut Out each and every game.

As a former Reds fan, I know what that type of pressure is like on a pitcher.

Aaron Harang was the ace of their staff in 2006 and 2007 but starting in 2008, he became the Pitcher that the team didn't score any Runs for. Game after game was an offensive drought for him and even though his peripheral stats (WHIP, K/9, BB/9, K to BB ratio) were just as good and sometimes even better than in 2006 and 2007 (when he won 16 Games each year) his Won - Loss record was bad.

At one point he even got so frustrated he came out and said it was mentally tiring to know that going to the mound each start he would have to basically throw a Shut Out to have a chance to win. Then, of course, Dusty Baker misused him in both 2008 and 2009 and he suffered arm injuries which didn't help his cause.

But the point is, your Pitchers, even as good as they are, are going to start having mental letdowns because of the stess your impotent offense is causing them. Having players making Outs because of being overly aggressive or having Bochy giving away Outs because of Bunting too much is not going to help.

Once the starting Pitchers start having these mental letdowns, they are going to start giving up more Runs and leaving Games earlier. This will lead to the Bull Pen being used too much and the Giants losing more Games. Then, all of a sudden, you will find your team has a losing record and being eight or 10 Games behind in the standings.

If I were the Giants Manager or Hitting Coach, I would tell the position players to STOP trying to Bunt and STOP swinging from the heels trying to hit Home Runs. I would instead tell them to focus on making contact and hitting the ball gap to gap.

In your home ball park this would lead to a LOT more Doubles and Triples and on the road in smaller ball parks (places like Cincinnati and Philadelphia) some of those line drives would go over the fences for Home Runs.

David

[BleedinBlue]

Well, it would be a lot shorter. Only 16 teams to cover instead of 30.

Instead of a West Coast Bias, there would be a Midwest Bias The Chicago and St. Louis teams would be complaining that they don't get enough air time because they so far away from NY.