Tracer Bullet

I'm not hoping for a mistake (well, I am hoping for a mistake, I almost always hope the opposing pitcher makes a mistake, but I'm not expecting one). I don't trust Fontenot against a good reliever more than I trust Fox right now. I'm not sure what your last sentence means.

That may be, but Fontenot looked pretty ridiculous against at least one slider last night. The other problem with using Fontenot, is even if he gets a pitch he can really drive, he wasn't likely to do much hitting into that wind. I guess I just don't like the idea of leaving Fox on the bench with the way he's been crushing RHP when the tying run is on base in the 9th. You don't need a HR though, you would've needed an XBH to score Soriano against a defense that was shaded back. The most likely outcome would've been back to back hits, not HRs, especially with that wind and Fox vs. that slider. I could've hit those sliders Fox hit on Sunday. His weakness is still sliders low and away as he's a dead pull hitter, he happened to get two up and out over the plate and crushed them. and that's fine. Let your best PH'r hit and if he gets on, let the next best PH'r hit. If Soriano happened to make a mistake, Fox could have made him pay. I don't think Fontenot could, not hitting into the wind.

That may be, but Fontenot looked pretty ridiculous against at least one slider last night. The other problem with using Fontenot, is even if he gets a pitch he can really drive, he wasn't likely to do much hitting into that wind. I guess I just don't like the idea of leaving Fox on the bench with the way he's been crushing RHP when the tying run is on base in the 9th.

down 1 with 2 outs in the 9th, you'd rather have Fontenot up than Fox right now? As I'm sure you know, Fox has a reverse split (in his time in the majors, an admittedly small sample, it's pretty extreme). And I think the wind was blowing in from right, which makes Fox the better choice to try to hit it out or hit a gapper to left-center and score Soriano from first. With Fox available and raking and down to our last out with a guy on base, I'd much rather have Fox up there.

I wish I wasn't Photoshop-illiterate

How can you possibly suggest I'm refusing to consider the details of the situation? b/c (a) you're suggesting that a tactic that involves a LHP pitching to Franco instead of anyone pitching to Blanco was a benefit to the Cubs in some way. Not having Blanco bat last night did not increase the Cubs chances of winning. Once he walked out of the dugout, the Cubs should have done everything in their power to make him hit (or, much more likely, make an out); and, to a lesser extent, (b) you're suggesting that saving 6 guys for extra innings was better than using a PH for the pitcher in the bottom of the 6th when you're taking the SP out.

You have serious issues. I don't understand why you would get so worked up over this move. The point is there was a little benefit of using a PH there and a little benefit of letting them think Wells was pitching that inning. They more or less cancel each other out. Lou decided to go with the latter option. Personally I'd have probably PH for him there. The point is this wasn't simply a Dusty thing where he clearly just didn't think 2 steps ahead and therefore wasted an opportunity. In all the crappy decisions that the decision makers for this organization have made, this just doesn't register. I'm not worked up over this move and I don't have serious issues at all, though thanks for your concern. My issue has become your refusal to consider the details of the situation, though the decision is not a good one. It's quite simple. Even for the relatively small increase in the chance to score another run, it's worth using one of your 6 players rather than hold all of them for extra innings. There's also absolutely no benefit to "wasting" Blanco as a pinch hitter. The best outcome for the Cubs would be to have Gregor Blanco come to bat as frequently as possible. What makes the move worse for me is when Blanco came up to bat, Lou, who was going to bring in Marshall, should have allowed Wells to pitch to Blanco. In 3/4 to 4/5 of his ABs against RHP this year he's made an out. Wells throws maybe 5-10 more pitches, still leaves under 100 and Marshal pitches to McClouth with no one on base. By itself, it would be a little consequence, I suppose. But it's just another example of Lou not giving his team the best chance to win.

Over 100 points of OPS difference (Franco v LHP - Blanco v RHP). And Blanco has 1 career HR, so the chance of him getting lucky and parking one was pretty low. A solo HR wouldn't have exactly killed the Cubs there. Neither would Gregor Blanco. No, but that's not the point. They were bringing in Marshall. If they wanted to keep Blanco, fine, if they wanted to use both guys, fine. Either way, they benefitted from waiting to pull Wells, and probably would not have benefitted from using a PH. This is insane. How do you know the benefited from waiting to pull Wells? What's the benefit of a .500 OPS player not coming to bat for the other team? If Blanco is the first PH against a RHP, I don't want them to waste him. I want him to bat. Besides, Franco, got a hit. Would you rather have Franco on 1B with 0 outs in a 2-run game or 1 out and no one on when McClouth comes up? It also seems like you're suggesting we never PH with 2 outs and no one on because the chance of scoring is so unlikely. I imagine you make an exception for 2 outs in the 9th, at least when we're behind, but probably not if we're tied b/c what if the game goes into extras? We may need those 6 guys. Would you PH in the top of the 9th when we're up by a run or two? What about the 8th? At what point is it no longer waste to use your bench to improve your chances of scoring?

Over 100 points of OPS difference (Franco v LHP - Blanco v RHP). And Blanco has 1 career HR, so the chance of him getting lucky and parking one was pretty low.

I'm not ignoring anything. I believe the point of the move was getting the Braves to burn through their bench quicker moreso than saving the Cubs bench. Had Wells hit for himself, but never went out to the mound, yes, that's pretty stupid. But that isn't what happened. I take issues with much of what these guys do, but I don't see the point here. If the point is to get to face Jeff Francoeur rather than Gregor Blanco, than the move is even more stupid than it was. Once you see Blanco step into the box, you don't let him leave.

I think saving your bench guys for better situations than 2 out nobody on and forcing Cox to burn 2 of his bench guys is at least arguably as good as just going ahead and pinch hitting there. Agreed. If Gregg would have blown that game, we would have had a full complement of bench guys to pinch hit, pinch run, double switch, and whatnot. If we were only up by 1 run, then, ya, a solo HR would have made a big difference, but with a 2 run lead, I think Lou actually made a decent non-move. We'd rather give up an out in a 2-run game on the off chance that we blow the lead and also need 6 bench guys in the remainder of the game, then try to add to the lead when you're taking the pitcher out right away anyway? As I said, if Lou had left Wells in because Wells on 87 pitches v. Blanco is better than Marshall v. Francoeur, fine. That makes some sense to me. But giving up an out to save all 6 bench guys with a 2-run lead is pretty dumb. We weren't starting the getaway day lineup. All the regulars started. So other than Fontenot (and maybe Fukudome) against a LHP, you're not taking any of the starters out for a PH. So you're worried about having to use Baker for Fontenot and the lineup coming around to the pitcher 4/5 more times from the 7th inning on? I don't like to hold my bench of the off chance we blow a 2-run lead in 3 innings and end up in a 20-inning marathon. Scoring after a 2 out nobody on situation using a pinch hitter might be as much of an "off chance" as blowing a 2-run lead. And it forced the other team to use 2 pinch hitters. Had their been a man on and the same thing occured, I'd be upset with the decision. But from what I recall they appeared ready to use a PH if somebody got on base. Are you just completely ignoring the details of the situation? We had 6 guys on the bench with the pitcher's spot not likely to come up in regulation an very unlikely to come up more than 2 times even if the game went into extras. What were they saving those guys for? Why were you so upset at the Cubs for carrying 12 pitchers if they're going to save 5 PHs for extra innings when we're up 2 with 3 to play? You don't PH there is you have a short bench. With 6 guys, it makes no sense not to.

I was basically going to say the same thing. Soriano may be lazy, and he may be a show-boater, but he's always said he'll do whatever it takes for the team to win. Maybe Lou for constantly saying that's where Soriano is most comfortable, and for experimenting with changing then going right back to putting him at leadoff because he's uncomfortable elsewhere. And it doesn't help that he balked at moving to LF while with Washington and actually refused to take the field. He had the reputation of a guy who would fight a manager's decision to move him around. Moving from 2B to LF is a bigger change for a player than moving from 1st to any other spot in the lineup. It may be relevant if there's a pattern of "me before the team" attitude, but I don't remember a list of such things (btw - was it Michael Young that refused to move from SS to 3B for Texas this year until a teammate called him and either convinced him to change his mind or bitched him out? Don't remember a huge to-do in Texas all year about how selfish he is). He's said pretty clearly that he'd hit anywhere Lou put him. It's somewhat the media, but primarily fans who buried their heads in the sand and ignored anything that didn't fit with their pre-conceived notions of Soriano's selfishness.

I think saving your bench guys for better situations than 2 out nobody on and forcing Cox to burn 2 of his bench guys is at least arguably as good as just going ahead and pinch hitting there. Agreed. If Gregg would have blown that game, we would have had a full complement of bench guys to pinch hit, pinch run, double switch, and whatnot. If we were only up by 1 run, then, ya, a solo HR would have made a big difference, but with a 2 run lead, I think Lou actually made a decent non-move. We'd rather give up an out in a 2-run game on the off chance that we blow the lead and also need 6 bench guys in the remainder of the game, then try to add to the lead when you're taking the pitcher out right away anyway? As I said, if Lou had left Wells in because Wells on 87 pitches v. Blanco is better than Marshall v. Francoeur, fine. That makes some sense to me. But giving up an out to save all 6 bench guys with a 2-run lead is pretty dumb. We weren't starting the getaway day lineup. All the regulars started. So other than Fontenot (and maybe Fukudome) against a LHP, you're not taking any of the starters out for a PH. So you're worried about having to use Baker for Fontenot and the lineup coming around to the pitcher 4/5 more times from the 7th inning on? I don't like to hold my bench of the off chance we blow a 2-run lead in 3 innings and end up in a 20-inning marathon.

That was the prime of the "who is dumber: Joe Morgan or Tim McCarver" era. I miss the glory days.

Actually that wasn't a terrible move. Keeping Wells in forced Cox to play his hand with the pinch hitter, essentially burning Gregor Blanco without him batting. Lou then put in Marshall with a run of lefties coming up and Marshall go the job done. If you're going to complain about that move, complain because of Lou's love of using Marshall as a LOOGY rather than him pulling Wells. Why? Marshall, for his career, isn't so bad against RH hitters that he can't get a righty out. I'd much rather let a good hitter hit for Wells than worry about who Marshall was going to face to start the 7th. Wells came up with two outs and nobody on. It wasn't exactly a great run-scoring situation. At that point with the lead, making them both burn an extra pinch-hitter and saving the pinch-hitters for your team is more helpful than sending a pinch-hitter to the plate to try to start a 2 out rally. It at least is a close decision. Wait, I'm confused. Is having Gregor Blanco "burned" a good thing for the Cubs or a bad thing? I'd rather have Gregor Blanco hit against anyone than Francoeur hit against a LHP. In addition, the Cubs have at least 2 guys on the bench that can put a run on the board with one swing pretty easily. It's not going to happen frequently, but I like the chances of Fox or Hoff getting a hit, or maybe even a double and getting driven in by Fukudome or Theriot more than letting Wells hit and get pulled to start the next inning. Even if Lou had left Wells in just to face Blanco that would have made more sense to me. But there were only 2, 3 if necessary, more innings the Cubs were going to come to the plate, we have 6 hitters on the bench, and who else were we really going to PH for in the lineup: Fukudome, if they bring in a LHP (hello, Reed Johnson), Fontenot if we got to the 8th spot? There just wasn't a need to save the 6 bench guys and give up an out that late in a 2-run game.

Actually that wasn't a terrible move. Keeping Wells in forced Cox to play his hand with the pinch hitter, essentially burning Gregor Blanco without him batting. Lou then put in Marshall with a run of lefties coming up and Marshall go the job done. If you're going to complain about that move, complain because of Lou's love of using Marshall as a LOOGY rather than him pulling Wells. Why? Marshall, for his career, isn't so bad against RH hitters that he can't get a righty out. I'd much rather let a good hitter hit for Wells than worry about who Marshall was going to face to start the 7th.

I just want to highlight this part. I'm not sure any of us know exactly what we're dealing with here. The quoted is ridiculous and there's no justification for it. None. You should never, ever, prefer that your player walk rather than hit a HR. Never.

Why waste a pinch-hitter? There's no way our bullpen gives up 2 runs in 3 IP.

Question: what's one of the dumbest things the Cubs could do?

If the hat is that lucky, that's the one SSR should eat to bring back the boom market.

He should give Soriano some rest b/c I'm not sure he's really 100%. And I hope he plays well when he's in there. But are you suggesting we should pull up every crappy minor leaguer in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle for a few months?

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=4297589

No one's defending Bradley's 16 RBIs. They're saying judging a player by his RBI total is pointless.

So are you saying that since you think other defenders aren't good, it doesn't matter if yet another defender isn't good? It's gonna take a minute to wrap my head around that one. No, he's saying that it's not fair to Fox that he's being held out of the lineup for his defense when 2 guys that are in there everyday aren't that much better. I may not necessarily agree, but that's why he's saying. Well, I'm not sure that's actually what he's saying, but that's not really relevant either. Who cares what's "fair to Fox." What's best for the team? If his offense outweighs his defense (or they believe it's likely to) then he should be in there. If his defense is likely to be so horrid, that it would outweigh his offense, then he shouldn't (assuming the other options aren't worse). It doesn't matter if Soriano's defense, when combined with his offense, costs us 10 runs a season. If he's the best option we have in LF, he's playing. Same with Bradley. Whether those are the best options or not isn't my call, but it seems reasonable. Fox may be the best option at 3B, offense and defense combined, but it's perfectly reasonable from all the reports that his defense is so bad that even combined with his offense, he'd be worse for the team that someone else playing there. There are other factors - and the reason I've been pushing this is one of them. If Fox can hit enough to convince an AL team to give up something of value for him to be their DH, then the Cubs should take the risk and play him at 3B. I'm hoping that's what they'll be doing for the next couple of weeks.

So if he had an OPS of 1.000, you'd still be mad if he didn't have as many RBI as DeRosa?