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4.2 inning start, 97 pitches. Last night Wainwright needed 100 pitches to go 5. Man, we have a problem.
Survived again. I’m sure Hudson wasn’t happy being taken out but it’s on him. Too many pitches, too many walks.
Boy just barely got out of that jam. Living a charmed life tonight. Just got the game on. Looks pretty sparse on the score tonight. Nice to be ahead for a change.
Din-din was Beef Brisket- French fries and Texas Toast. Lump-sum.
Only reason I could see Bader batting 9th he gets on got Edman and Goldy behind him our 2 most consistent hitters.Personally I think bader hitting last is his best spot. Less pressure there and you have speed on with top of lineup coming up.
Bader 9th v. righties, yes. Of course, like tonight. I agree, guys.
But Bader v. lefties should be no lower than 6th. Or maybe, just maybe he could hit alongside Edman at the top of the order, so Goldschmidt & Arenado could both bat in RBI positions. Because they have long, long track records of both hitting much better with men on base than bases empty. But I guess batting them 3rd and 4th somehow wouldn’t be “analytical” enough for Mr. Metrics Matchups, the boy wonder manager.
Well Bob, if you look at numbers putting bader higher vs lefties makes sense. But watching the games, when they have chosen to move him up when facing lefties, he hasn’t done that well. Bader has enough at bats now that you can look at some history with guys and make that decision based on that more than just strictly lefty vs righty.
“Well Bob, if you look at numbers putting Bader higher vs lefties makes sense. But watching the games, when they have chosen to move him up when facing lefties, he hasn’t done that well. Bader has enough at bats now that you can look at some history with guys and make that decision based on that more than just strictly lefty vs righty.”
I appreciate the response, Willie. I don’t have a way to look up splits-within-splits to see how Bader has fared this year against southpaws at specific spots in the order. But I do have his career numbers for the top of the lineup.
For Bader’s career, when hitting 1st or 2nd in the order, the combined batting line:
.274/.346/.531
So Harry quite clearly has had no trouble batting at or near the top. In fact he has excelled at it. Anyway, the broader point is that Bader shouldn’t hit in the same exact lineup spot v. both lefties and righties. It’s silly. As silly as Albert batting cleanup tonight. Ignoring significant platoon advantages and disadvantages when filling out a lineup card is managerial malfeasance.
Yep getting those 2 runs when they put Sutter in was a joy to watch. Is that Bruce Sutters son? RBI by Sosa. Then Nooty rbi Sosa in. Outstanding!
Well Bob I’m not gonna argue with your numbers, not sure where you got them but I’ll give you that. But in the games I have watched him play, I’ve never seen him hit that well up the lineup. I’m one of Baders biggest fans but I also dont view him as a great guy with runners in scoring position which should be taken into a count with runners closer to top. Now maybe there are some stats somewhere that prove that wrong but again I trust my eyes when it comes to baseball not necessarily stats. I just think batting in the last spot is great for him and the team benefits if he gets on.
Well they tried to push it with Whitley. Now he’s given up a two run homer. Hope helsley is on or this night may not end well.
“Well Bob I’m not gonna argue with your numbers, not sure where you got them but I’ll give you that. But in the games I have watched him play, I’ve never seen him hit that well up the lineup. I’m one of Bader’s biggest fans but I also don’t view him as a great guy with runners in scoring position which should be taken into account with runners closer to top.”
I got the Bader numbers from his “splits” page at Baseball-Reference. Here’s a link: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=baderha01&year=Career&t=b
Among the more interesting tidbits, Bader has a career OPS of .522 when behind in the count and 1.048 when ahead. He actually has a better OPS with runners in scoring position than bases empty, but not in any dramatic meaningful way (.763-to-.736). And he has a robust career OPS away from Busch of .821, and a rather pathetic .640 at home. Either he’s hitting the weight room too hard before home games, or carousing too much on Laclede’s Landing until the wee hours, or something even less likely. But there must be something besides the ballpark that’s severely suppressing his home hitting. The ballpark is part of it, no doubt. But as Paul Harvey might say, it can’t be the whole story.
Good stats there, Bob. The ops being lower when behind in count doesn’t surprise me. It’s why I always believe bader should be more aggressive with balls in strike zone early. You can get behind in count as well if you foul it off or miss it but a lot of time that first pitch is the best you will get. He has gotten better at swinging early, but still will take that 92 mile fastball right down the middle too often. Not sure how his ops with runners on can be explained though in fairness he has been better this season, it just in the past seemed like it was a given he wasn’t going to get job done. I would be more interested in how his overall numbers are with runners in scoring positions particularly with less than 2 outs. It just seemed like at times he could never get guys home from third in those situations. I guess I will check out that site though I have a hard time really understanding all those stats. Like I say, I’ve always evaluated based on what I see not pure numbers or stats. Cause numbers can be skewed. Take ops with runners on for example. Is the batter coming through in situations where the game is close meaning tense situations or are a lot of those hits in situations where team is well up or down and obviously less stressful situations. I guess in the age of stats there is someone tracking that though I’m not sure what criteria they would use to separate the two. Still personally I like bader batting last unless his numbers against a particular pitcher tell otherwise. Funny back when Larussa was batting the pitcher eighth I wasnt the biggest fan but my thoughts have changed concerning that last spot but it’s always dependent on factors.
I tend to agree with Willie on Bader. Pitchers always want to bat ahead in the count and will often throw first pitch right downtown. Thats why you get those first strike swings. Pulous in his hot years once said I only get one or two pitches an entire game I really wanna hit. So you better not miss it. Bader last year drove me crazy striking out chasing pitches low and outside , out of the zone, 2 strikes and runners in scoring position. Seems like every hitter has a sucker pitch.In the end it really comes down to plate discipline and not swinging at pitches out of the zone. I’ve been checking Gameday alot during the games and I can see that we have been very good this year at not swinging at pitches out of the zone. Young guys have had some good fundamentals to build on. We have some good estsblished players that have gone off the tracks at the plate recently. I suspect nagging injuries changing their swing mechanics? When we played baseball if a kid was hitting the coach wouldn’t try to change anything.Strangely enough everybody has their own swing. A batting instructors job would be to find out what that is. Stats are fine but they are just a tool. Managers have to figure out how a guys going to do today.
And Albert is batting cleanup. Batting cleanup, against a very good righty.
I have just about given up on Marmol at this point
I hear what you are saying Bob but it is possible that Marmol is getting “suggestions” from above to sell tickets.
From the benefit of hindsight, and from an on-field-only perspective, keeping Yepez and Donovan this spring and not signing either of the veterans looks like it would have been the better call.
However, with the injuries since then, the lack of depth would have become an issue. Other than Burleson, perhaps, who is left in Memphis that looks like he is ready to contribute now?
In other words, if you had to replace Pujols and Dickerson today, right now, who would you promote? Even when Carlson and O’Neill are back, what happens when the next round of injuries hit? Worth thinking about…
P.S. Having said that, I would never start Albert against RHP.
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