MeatampPotatoesMan

Rusch walks Bay.

Good throw, Ronny. More like that.

There was already one out. Walker! It's fundamental baseball. If you're going to make an out, improve the state of the game. Moving Pierre to third does very little. As T_T said, he's most likely going to score from second on a basehit. And Lee shouldn't be worried about hitting the ball to the right side. His job is to drive him in. I was wrong.

Does advancing the runner really matter that much in that situation? Aside from a WP or an infield single(not very likely with Ramirez up), anything that scores Pierre from 3rd would score him from 2nd. It matters. Sac flies are our friend. There was no opportunity for a sacfly there because there was already an out in the inning when DLee groundedout. However, I understand your general point. Yup. My bad. I was wrong.

I believe Dusty said that, with Barrett out, he wanted Walker's power in the 5th spot to backup Lee & Ramirez. So far it looks like he was right.

There was already one out. Walker! It's fundamental baseball. If you're going to make an out, improve the state of the game.

Walkah!!

Does advancing the runner really matter that much in that situation? Aside from a WP or an infield single(not very likely with Ramirez up), anything that scores Pierre from 3rd would score him from 2nd. It matters. Sac flies are our friend.

Whooohoooo!!!

Not a good AB. Didn't even advance the runner.

DLee got 2 on a double steal with Pierre in front. That's pretty much a gimme, piggybacking on Pierre's steal.

why is bynum batting 2nd? anyone? anyone? this is the first lineup move this year I've really disagreed with.

he's fast, plays multiple positions, but that's about it.

is pierre hurt now? got up slowly.

of the hammy? no knee issues?

yeah! good AB.

Nope.

IMO, it's fine to swing at the first couple pitches provided you make decent contact. Murton smoked that ball in fair ground on the second pitch he saw (an inside fastball no less). I'm not sure what more you can ask. That late in the game, you don't need to worry about wearing down the pitcher. Murton hit a HR on the first pitch the other day. Was that a bad AB b/c he didn't take a few pitches? Cedeno swung at the first pitch and poped out weakly to 2B. That was a great AB? Why is anyone defending that? ...oh, b/c it's Cedeno, one of our precious young uns. Who cares about Neifi? He's not in the game b/c of his bat. A regular starter, like Murton and Cedeno have higher standards to live up to. I don't see how that is in any way unfair.

Browse the game threads. My only contention is that he is far from "crap" which is what Meat, I think unfairly, labeled him. From what I've seen of him defensively I think he'll be pretty good....Heck, Jim Edmonds has 3 errors so far this year...I don't think he'll have 50. Ronny easily could have had 2 more errors, but the official scorer was merciful. Even the routine throws to 1B, Lee ends up stretching for or picking out of the dirt. What's really worrying is that his throws tend to be into the runner, increasing the risk of a collision between Lee and the runner. Not cool. Is Cedeno better than a 48 error SS? Of course. He gets to a lot of balls, at least knocking them down (saved us a run last game). Solid range. But if he's going to throw like crap, that opens the door for Neifi. I don't know anybody that wants that to happen. Thank God Ronny picked it up offensively after a poor beginning, or we might be seeing Neifi a lot more at SS.

Browse the game threads.

Neifi is what he is - a free swinger. Murton hit a bullet, but the 3B was guarding the line and robbed him of extra bases. Cedeno's AB stunk. so neifi's at-bat was ok because he is what he is but cedeno's at-bat stunk? Nice double standard. No. Neifi's AB was expected. Where did I say it was "ok?"

Neifi is what he is - a free swinger. Murton hit a bullet, but the 3B was guarding the line and robbed him of extra bases. Cedeno's AB stunk.

It would bother me more if his lack BB was a sign that he was swinging at bad pitches and getting himself out. He's swinging at a lot of pitches (T/S ratio of 0.62) but he's also swinging at pitches he can hit. He's making contact about 87% of the time, slightly better than Aramis but slightly worse than Lee. How many pitches is he seeing per PA? I don't remember many ABs where he was even close to drawing a walk, but that's just my perception. It's nice that he's making decent contact, but if he's not drawing walks (limited AB so far), he's not getting on base at a decent enough clip. He isn't going to hit .350 over the course of a full season. 2.95, vs. the team average of 3.85. As I said, he is swinging at a lot of pitches, but the good news is they're pitches he can hit. Yup. He is going to make decent contact. He might even hit .290-.300 over the course of a season...with a .320 OBP. :( His lack of patience so far this seaon is likely just an aberration caused by the small sample size. Througout his history in the minors he consistently put up ISODs in the .050-.060 range, and there's little reason to think that number will drop substantially over a full season in the bigs. If he hits .280 or so his OBP will likely be in the .330-.340 range. Not great, but certainly not bad for a rookie SS. That I can live with. As you said, it's been a small sample size so far. That's why I don't buy into Ronny being this stud offensive SS that some ppl seem to think he is (who rip me for calling his offensive prowess into question). His D is what worries me. he'll never be great enough offensively to make up for 40+ errors in the field. Ronny should be ok offensively, but not great. Shoddy D really hurts a player like that. Neifi stinks offensively. Even Neifi acknowledges that. But he does bring above average D. If you can't rake with the bat, you'd better at least do a passable job in the field.

Hendry doesn't sound too enthused about bringing Pie up, but is willing to consider it.

It would bother me more if his lack BB was a sign that he was swinging at bad pitches and getting himself out. He's swinging at a lot of pitches (T/S ratio of 0.62) but he's also swinging at pitches he can hit. He's making contact about 87% of the time, slightly better than Aramis but slightly worse than Lee. How many pitches is he seeing per PA? I don't remember many ABs where he was even close to drawing a walk, but that's just my perception. It's nice that he's making decent contact, but if he's not drawing walks (limited AB so far), he's not getting on base at a decent enough clip. He isn't going to hit .350 over the course of a full season. 2.95, vs. the team average of 3.85. As I said, he is swinging at a lot of pitches, but the good news is they're pitches he can hit. Yup. He is going to make decent contact. He might even hit .290-.300 over the course of a season...with a .320 OBP. :(