I think that all around Phillips is the best 2nd baseman in the NL and has been for awhile now (his defense is amazing). His offensive numbers are pretty good, not incredible, but you don’t typically get wow-type numbers from the 2B position…in general.
And I think the Reds are just pissed that LaRussa rode off into the sunset with a World Series win so now they don’t have a bogeyman to blame for their own shortcomings. Well that and Tony is an asshole.
I noticed that with about a week to go before the All-Star break, the bottom team in the AL East (Toronto) heads into today at 40-39. Has any major leage division ever had every team above .500 at the All-Star break?
Good question. Its pretty impressive that all the teams are above .500.
I could probably be talked into him, but after the players voted in a second 2B there really wasn’t room to add one unless you did that instead of a 3rd SS. The fans voting in Uggla was really the problem. And the players voting in Lance Lynn (before his last two bad starts) didn’t help with the pitcher selection either.
We discussed this a bit in the May thread.
In 2005, every team in the NL East finished the season at .500 or above (the Nationals, at 81-81, were at the bottom).
And RickJay pointed out that “At the conclusion of the 1991 season, every team in the 7-team AL West was .500 or better.”
I’m glad he has stopped slamming his head into a brick wall. I think it would have been interesting to have turned him into a position player after his first couple of years of his struggling to pitch.
Pirates hit back to back HR’s again today for the third time in about two weeks or so. Against the Astros in the 4th inning both Garrett Jones and Neil Walker hit HR’s off the right field foul pole. Anyone ever hear of this happening before? Records only seem to go back 20 years or so.
FU Dodgers.
We have no Votto? We will still beat you! Yes, I know, no Kemp or Eithier either (those two words shouldn’t be used one after the other!) but…you got beaten on Star Wars night! STAR WARS!
Keep up the good work, Reds! Hopefully the Giants will see you again in the NLCS!
I was at the Lincecum game where the Giants shut out the Dodgers for the 3rd straight game! Totally awesome. A surprising number of Dodgers fans there, saw 2 fights in person. Almost as much action off the field as on the field. MLB needs to do a better job of policing the stands or limited alcohol intake. Its not really safe to take your kids nowadays.
It should be duly noted that the announcers in question are Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler, who speak only in generic, vanilla-flavored platitudes. I cannot remember either of them saying anything insightful, ever. The radio team of Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby is far smarter but they prattle about the running game too, though Ashby at least calls the Jays out when it screws up (or when anything screws up; Ashby is refreshingly honest.)
The baserunning thing just mystifies me. I have been to 4 games this year and two were lost because of bad baserunning - well, probably. I’ve seen another few games on TV that were very likely blown due to bad baserunning. I cannot remember the last Jays game I saw that was WON because of aggressive “making things happen” baserunning. Maybe there’s been one, but they’re way outweighed by the losses.
Of course it IS possible for great baserunning to win ballgames. Dave Roberts, Game 4, 2004, obviously. The Cardinals in the 1980s won games with baserunning; I don’t think the 1985 Cardinals even make the playoffs if they stay still. But, and I think this is stupid obvious but it needs to be said, you actually have to have the personnel to do it. Dave Roberts was really fast. Most of the 1980s Cardinals were really fast, and the guys that weren’t didn’t go off running like maniacs; they were handled carefully. BP did a study about taking extra bases a few years back where they found that some players were just incredibly effective at it; Rod Carew, as I recall, was just ridiculous, taking 50 extra bases every year with virtually no cost. But he was Rod Carew. Despite what every new goddamned manager says when they take the job in Toronto, you cannot just run your way to better results if you don’t have guys who can run.
The Blue Jays basically have two really fast players, Rajai Davis and Brett Lawrie, and Lawrie is a total bonehead who negates his speed with stupidity. Other than that they have guys who range somewhere between a 4 and a 6 on the speed scale; none are guys who should be taking risks. Trying to turn a team like that into a baserunning machine is every bit as stupid as assembling a team of 9-homer-a-year guys and announcing you’re going to have them become a home run powerhouse by having them swing harder. If you want more homers or more stolen bases, you have to put guys in the lineup who can hit home runs and steal bases.
I don’t know why professional managers and announcers continue to advocate this imbecilic “run like a nutcase and ignore it when it fails” strategy, especially when it’s not only proven to be dumb, but it’s so obvious that it isn’t important to winning. Last year’s World Champions were dead last in the NL in steals and didn’t steal a single base in the World Series; the only AL team with fewer steals, the Tigers, won their division. Meanwhile, the best basestealing team in the majors, the Padres, were 20 games under .500. The 2010 Giants were not a fast team… I’d guess the number of World Champions who were slick on the basepaths is no greater than the number that were not.
I don’t know why they’re so dumb about this, but I guess:
It’s just easier to make it sounds like We’re Going To Do Something To Win than it is to be honest about it. If John Farrell comes out and says “Look, we have what we have, and our starting catcher strikes out seven times for every walk and the first baseman’s a bozo, so unless we get some breaks things won’t go well 'cause the only things that matter are getting on base and hitting homers and we’re not so good at the first one,” people would scream for his head. It’s hard for fans to accept that in terms of in-game strategy there isn’t a great deal you can do that isn’t already being done.
In the developmental baseball years aggressive baserunning DOES work. In every level up to the high minors it’s a game changing ability, because the defense can’t deal with it efficiently. A fast high school team will murder an opponent by running their defense to death. So it’s something you learn for years, but in the major leagues (by AA/AAA, really, at least) the calculus no longer works. In the majors, to a nearest approximation, fielders basically don’t make mistakes. Errors are very rare. In rep league baseball going second to home on a single is almost always a good gamble because somewhere between the outfielder, infielder and catcher someone will probably screw the play up; if they do execute it correctly it’s the exception. If you do the same thing on a short single in the big leagues expecting a mistake, you’re thrown out by ten steps 19 times in 20. So maybe it’s a hard habit to break.
Ah, the dreaded TOOTBLAN (thrown out on the bases like a nincompoop). Ryan Theroit (the acronym’s namesake, I think from his Cubs days) was a master at it.
Great post, Rick (I especially like point one - I think that in most cases the manager should just sit on his hands the whole game and let what happens happen). In addition to your two points there’s also a healthy dose of confirmation bias. We remember successful hit and runs, and not so much the strike out throw out DPs. Successful steals often lead to big, memorable innings - failed steals are just another out (or at least seem that way). A good sacrifice bunt feels right even if it’s idiotic.
There was actually a boneheaded baserunning call in the game I was at lat night. Still close, runners on first and second with one out and Yadier Molina up with a full count. Matheny decides to send the runners to avoid the double play - Yadi strikes out and the runner is thrown out at third. I have to think that the chance of a GIDP is less than the chance of a strikeout there. And it’s not like the pitcher was even up next (which would make it a bit more understandable to press your luck).
Dammit Dodgers! You’re supposed to roll over and let the Reds win!
This isn’t really unique to baseball though. In every sport there are things that work for highly talented players in developmental leagues that don’t in the pros. I guess the difference is that if a young NHL player keeps trying to skate the puck through the whole team and turns it over time and time again, the coach will glue him to the bench. If the manage encourages being aggressive, you’ll never learn to play smart.
That’s a good example, and of course you could find an anology in any sport. On my high school football team we had a guy who averaged three sacks a game; basically he lined up where he wanted and laid waste to all he surveyed. I don’t know how it worked out for him in college but he’s now managing a pizza joint so I assume that approach did not get him to the NFL. Even Lawrence Taylor had to follow the playbook to be successful.
The difference is that what I’m talking about are people who should know better actually advocating the stupid approach. Baseball people calling for slow players to be “more aggressive on the basepaths” is precisely akin to hockey commentators saying “the Senators should pass less and stop using this whole cycle business, and just try to carry the puck end to end alone. All the time.” And then Paul MacLean actually gives it a shot one night, and after they lose 8-0, not a single announcer says “Boy, was that ever a stupid idea,” but instead they go back to saying exactly the same shit during the following game.
Astros finally find a taker for Carlos Lee - to the Marlin’s for 3b Matt Dominguez and LHP Rob Rasmussen. Anyone know anything about the two the astros got?
And the Dodgers move back into first place in the NLWest after splitting a series with the Reds. Losing Dee Gordon for who knows how long in the process. Whoever taught these guys to slide head-first ought to be horse-whipped.
Alternatively, you won’t. Even with Votto.
Bad example. Didn’t MacLean just try that for a season with Karlsson? 