(no subject)

[desh]

Awesome day. A/C was out at work, so we all got dismissed at 1:00. Went to visit some Jonases. Then Frisbee game -- we won with like 1/3 of the team including most of our good men not there or hurt. I hurt my wrist pretty bad when falling on it, though. We'll see how it is tomorrow. Then watched an exciting All Star Game on the couch while half asleep. And now, going totally asleep! G'night, LiveJournal.

Comments

This One Doesn't Matter

[(Anonymous)]

The game was great until the bottom of the 9th. LaRuss and/or Pujols showed every fan that despite what baseball claims this one doesn't matter nor will it ever matter. If Selig has any balls he'll suspend one or both of them for not playing to win.

Re: This One Doesn't Matter

[desh]

Wait, what? Are you saying because Pujols didn't get in? Because other than that, I thought it was definitely managed as if the teams were playing to win. Managers have to strike a balance between playing to win and using lots of players, and I thought they did a pretty good job. Better to pinch-hit the one Nationals guy (who's playing as well as Pujols this year!) and let the Washington fans be a little happy for once.

Also, can you imagine if Pujols had gotten in also, and then some position player had gotten hurt? How bad would LaRussa have looked then, playing a team with 20 position players and running out in one game?

Re: This One Doesn't Matter

[(Anonymous)]

I'm talking about later in the inning after Soriano's HR. Hardy only had that one PA and that point the batter was the tying run, so I won't argue about not pinch hitting there, but once Hardy reached Lee, Hudson, and Rowand had all come up the previous time through the lineup. I think you'd have to agree Pujols is a bigger threat than any of them.

In terms of injury by the time Rowand came up there was no later to think about. A base hit wins the game and an out ends it. Unless there was a walk or a bloop over the infield Rowand would be the last batter of the game, so what are you saving Pujols for? And thinking about later is exactly the problem. If that was game 7 of the world series Pujols bats.

I have no problem saying players should be left on the bench. If you want to play to win then play your best players the entire game. My only argument is that in the bottom of the 9th down by 1 Pujols needs a shot to win the game.

Re: This One Doesn't Matter

[desh]

I guess that makes sense. But I'm never going to fully agree with any argument that takes the bat out of the hands of a Phillie with a chance to be a hero...

Re: This One Doesn't Matter

[desh]

From Baseball Prospectus (Joe Sheehan):

Albert Pujols was quite unhappy that he didn’t get into the game, and you can understand his frustration. The role of emergency pinch-hitter is generally left to an All-Star who is either inexperienced or fringe, rather than one of the two or three best players in baseball. As a veteran, Pujols certainly would have expected to get in the game, and is justifiably annoyed to have traveled to San Francisco just to watch.

With that said, Tony La Russa’s decision to not use Pujols in the ninth inning, instead allowing Aaron Rowand to make the game’s final out, is defensible. There was a decent chance that the game would extend to the tenth inning, and Pujols was La Russa’s last available position player. He would be needed to bat for the pitcher in the tenth. Pujols is athletic enough to play an outfield corner or the infield (even second base, as he did in the 2001 All-Star Game), making him a good option for the bench’s last man, offering maximum double-switch flexibility.

La Russa has been around long enough to remember the ridicule that Jim Frey endured in 1981. Frey ran himself out of hitters in that year’s All-Star Game, and was forced to let Dave Stieb bat with the game on the line. There are those of us, even here at BP, who frequently bring that up as an example of tactical incompetence. La Russa was correctly avoiding such a scenario, where someone like Jose Valverde would be forced to hit against Francisco Rodriguez with two outs and two on.

If you want to criticize La Russa for not using Pujols before the ninth inning, that’s fine. It is a little silly that a player of his stature wouldn’t play at all in the All-Star Game. Derrek Lee is a fine player, but you could have switched the roles he and Pujols played in this game without getting any argument. Having made Pujols his last hitter, though, La Russa couldn’t use him to hit for another position player. He had to save him to hit for a pitcher in the tenth.