I attended today's game and my dad had to calm me down a couple times. I wasn't booing Kameron Loe (I don't boo Brewers unless they blatantly show a lack of effort or are just outright terrible). My frustration was with Ron Roenicke. To my eye, he deserved hard questioning of his decision-making. Why was Loe brought in AGAIN when Arizona had a slew of left-handed hitters due up?
Roenicke claims initially it was because Arizona had a bunch of right-handed bats on the bench. Really? They were going to pinch-hit for 3 or 4 hitters to "force" Roenicke to bring Loe in? Ridiculous. In the post-game press conference, we find that Braddock "has been dragging a bit" due to his recent workload. Well, if he's just "dragging a little bit" that doesn't sound like "unavailable" to me. He's a professional baseball player and I'm sorry, but even a little tired, Braddock is most certainly a better option vs LHB than Loe. (Braddock for the year has an oppBA of .167 vs LHB...and Loe has an oppBA of .267 vs LHB). And on the "he's dragging" point, Loe has been worked a lot harder than Braddock anyway, so if one of them is going to blow up vs the LHB, it's more likely to be Loe regardless. Shockingly, this is exactly what happened.
What about Saito? Speaking only in a generality, he was signed to be the set-up guy before his injury anyway, but Roenicke wanted to ease him back and use him in the 6th or 7th inning. WHAT?? He's been pitching in the minors for 2 weeks and on Saturday night, he pitched in the 8th! Sure, it was 7-4 at that time, but he faced 3 batters and only threw 10 pitches, 9 for strikes. Absolutely no reason at all for him to not pitch today in the 8th if Braddock really wasn't available.
Roenicke is supposed to use advanced analysis when researching an opponent. (It's how they how set up all defensive shifts). So why doesn't he have a plan for match-ups like this? How does he not know who is and isn't really, really available? I refuse to outright blame Loe for today's performance in the 8th. He's overworked and not well matched to LHB. He was set up to fail. His manager needs to know better and he needs to improve HIS performance.
Showing posts with label RRR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RRR. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Why do managers make stupid decisions?
I know your reaction when reading this post's title was "I KNOW, right?" But the serious part of this question is are the stupid decisions really stupid and in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?
First, the decisions are probably not "stupid", but more likely "questionable" or "curious". The one Runnin' Ron Roenicke decision that's been gnawing at me came in the bottom of the 9th of Wednesday's game. 3 consecutive singles and a sac fly from Morgan put the game at 6-3, Tampa Bay.
Here's where the headache begins. Runners are on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. The bench consists of Craig Counsell, Mark Kotsay and George Kottaras. Roenicke sends up the 0 for his previous 15, .236 BA, .283 SLG Mark Kotsay. Huh? The weird thing here is that the entire bench consisted of left-handed batters and RRR puts the coldest of the 3 up to bat? Well, maybe he has good splits vs Farnsworth? Not really--he was 4 for 15 lifetime. Maybe he didn't want to use Counsell because he would've had to have come in at SS in case it went to extra innings. So he was playing for a tie? Can't be--that's just dumb. But Counsell was only 2 for 9 in his career vs Farnsworth, so he's no better than Kotsay and his season stats are atrocious anyway.
But wait, what about Kottaras? That is where the headache becomes an "IV morphine" migraine. Then "you can't burn your backup catcher" rule is ridiculous--you're still down by 3 and you can't play for the tie. Kottaras has never faced Farnsworth, but he's obviously the best hitter of the 3 remaining options. Why doesn't he bat? RRR tells the press after the game, "George was on deck...it's just which guy you want to hit first". Uhh, what? First of all, why is Lucroy being pinch-hit for AT ALL? So RRR's plan was PH for the catcher with an OF and then if that guy got on base, then you're going to use your back-up catcher to PH for the pitcher's spot? Good Lord, that's simply asinine. I mean, I get that clearly RRR wasn't playing for the tie, so you might as well empty the bench...but there are 2 outs, you need to continue the game and you bat the worst hitting of 3 options FIRST?
Put the loss on the offense going 7 innings without a run after a 2-run 1st...but Roenicke sure didn't do much to help win the game in the 9th, either.
First, the decisions are probably not "stupid", but more likely "questionable" or "curious". The one Runnin' Ron Roenicke decision that's been gnawing at me came in the bottom of the 9th of Wednesday's game. 3 consecutive singles and a sac fly from Morgan put the game at 6-3, Tampa Bay.
Here's where the headache begins. Runners are on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. The bench consists of Craig Counsell, Mark Kotsay and George Kottaras. Roenicke sends up the 0 for his previous 15, .236 BA, .283 SLG Mark Kotsay. Huh? The weird thing here is that the entire bench consisted of left-handed batters and RRR puts the coldest of the 3 up to bat? Well, maybe he has good splits vs Farnsworth? Not really--he was 4 for 15 lifetime. Maybe he didn't want to use Counsell because he would've had to have come in at SS in case it went to extra innings. So he was playing for a tie? Can't be--that's just dumb. But Counsell was only 2 for 9 in his career vs Farnsworth, so he's no better than Kotsay and his season stats are atrocious anyway.
But wait, what about Kottaras? That is where the headache becomes an "IV morphine" migraine. Then "you can't burn your backup catcher" rule is ridiculous--you're still down by 3 and you can't play for the tie. Kottaras has never faced Farnsworth, but he's obviously the best hitter of the 3 remaining options. Why doesn't he bat? RRR tells the press after the game, "George was on deck...it's just which guy you want to hit first". Uhh, what? First of all, why is Lucroy being pinch-hit for AT ALL? So RRR's plan was PH for the catcher with an OF and then if that guy got on base, then you're going to use your back-up catcher to PH for the pitcher's spot? Good Lord, that's simply asinine. I mean, I get that clearly RRR wasn't playing for the tie, so you might as well empty the bench...but there are 2 outs, you need to continue the game and you bat the worst hitting of 3 options FIRST?
Put the loss on the offense going 7 innings without a run after a 2-run 1st...but Roenicke sure didn't do much to help win the game in the 9th, either.
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