- APIAD
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
JV wrote:
I'm sure he's a much better SS than Porcello.
Rec
- forsberg_us
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Scrabble???
Matheny is a peculiar dude. He's buried Scrabble for the last 2 months of the season. Not saying Scrabble didn't deserve it, but Matheny decides that the 8th inning of Game 1 of the LDS is the time to let him pitch his way out of the doghouse? WTF?It said on the post-dispatch that matheny though Scrabble got hot at the right time and was going with him because he pitched well last year. WTFE! Stupid as hell and not just because of what happen. I said this before. Anyone could have seen this coming.
Jeff Weaver pitched well in the 2006 post-season. I didn't see anyone fighting to get him on their 2012 playoff roster.
I'm with you Tk. I hate Pete Kozma.
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Thread Starter- tkihshbt
- Scott Rolen
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
This is the situation you wanted. A .630 OPS Triple-A infielder taking at-bats in October.
- artie_fufkin
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
I've only been watching since the top of the fifth, but this strike zone is terrible.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
I'm with you Tk. I hate Pete Kozma.
At least the ball hit him in the face.
- JV
- Ray Lankford
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Scrabble???
Matheny is a peculiar dude. He's buried Scrabble for the last 2 months of the season. Not saying Scrabble didn't deserve it, but Matheny decides that the 8th inning of Game 1 of the LDS is the time to let him pitch his way out of the doghouse? WTF?It said on the post-dispatch that matheny though Scrabble got hot at the right time and was going with him because he pitched well last year. WTFE! Stupid as hell and not just because of what happen. I said this before. Anyone could have seen this coming.
6.85 ERA vs RH. 10.34 w/RISP. What could go wrong?
- artie_fufkin
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Scrabble???
Matheny is a peculiar dude. He's buried Scrabble for the last 2 months of the season. Not saying Scrabble didn't deserve it, but Matheny decides that the 8th inning of Game 1 of the LDS is the time to let him pitch his way out of the doghouse? WTF?It said on the post-dispatch that matheny though Scrabble got hot at the right time and was going with him because he pitched well last year. WTFE! Stupid as hell and not just because of what happen. I said this before. Anyone could have seen this coming.
Jeff Weaver pitched well in the 2006 post-season. I didn't see anyone fighting to get him on their 2012 playoff roster.
I'm with you Tk. I hate Pete Kozma.
The pitch was six inches off the plate. The kid blooped it into RF. There's not much you can do. But I'm with you guys about the move to Scrabble in the first place. Is Chad Tracy so dangerous you don't want Boggs to face him?
Last edited by artie_fufkin (10/07/2012 5:36 pm)
- APIAD
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Scrabble???
Matheny is a peculiar dude. He's buried Scrabble for the last 2 months of the season. Not saying Scrabble didn't deserve it, but Matheny decides that the 8th inning of Game 1 of the LDS is the time to let him pitch his way out of the doghouse? WTF?It said on the post-dispatch that matheny though Scrabble got hot at the right time and was going with him because he pitched well last year. WTFE! Stupid as hell and not just because of what happen. I said this before. Anyone could have seen this coming.
6.85 ERA vs RH. 10.34 w/RISP. What could go wrong?
Yeah matheny got schooled there. He could have stuck with Boggs against the leftyTracy. Instead he goes to his lefties, scrabble. So the nationals bring up a righty and burn an extra bench player but putting the Cardinals in a bad position. then Scrabble took a shit. Actually I blame who the fuck ever though that last pitch was a good idea.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
The pitch was six inches off the plate. The kid blooped it into RF. There's not much you can do. But I'm with you guys about the move to Scrabble in the first place. Is Chad Tracy so dangerous you don't want Boggs to face him?
It would have been six inches off the plate hate they not let the batter get nice and comfy looking outside. Clearly Scrabble wasnt going to throw a pitch inside at all.
- forsberg_us
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
It said on the post-dispatch that matheny though Scrabble got hot at the right time and was going with him because he pitched well last year. WTFE! Stupid as hell and not just because of what happen. I said this before. Anyone could have seen this coming.6.85 ERA vs RH. 10.34 w/RISP. What could go wrong?
Yeah matheny got schooled there. He could have stuck with Boggs against the leftyTracy. Instead he goes to his lefties, scrabble. So the nationals bring up a righty and burn an extra bench player but putting the Cardinals in a bad position. then Scrabble took a shit. Actually I blame who the fuck ever though that last pitch was a good idea.
Without looking it up, I have to believe Boggs' splits against lefties are much better than Scrabble's against righties. And if Matheny didn't think Johnson was going to a righty, then he doesn't deserve to be in a major league dugout.
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Thread Starter- tkihshbt
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
This is a total team loss that is emblematic of the team's larger issues. There's a reason this team won 88 when it should've won 96 and it starts with Mozeliak and Matheny.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Save for Holliday's HE and Craig's double, the offense has been absent so far.
- artie_fufkin
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
This is a total team loss that is emblematic of the team's larger issues. There's a reason this team won 88 when it should've won 96 and it starts with Mozeliak and Matheny.
Let's not forget they had the bases loaded with no outs with two renowned clutch hitters coming up who both swung at the first pitch accounted for three outs. That's your ballgame right there. Hard to hang that on MM and Mozbag.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Without looking it up, I have to believe Boggs' splits against lefties are much better than Scrabble's against righties. And if Matheny didn't think Johnson was going to a righty, then he doesn't deserve to be in a major league dugout.
Boggs has a .241 BA allowed facing lefties
Scrabble has a .259 BA allowed facing righties and a .255 vs righties
And I think Matheny was that stupid.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
I'll explain later
- APIAD
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
This is a total team loss that is emblematic of the team's larger issues. There's a reason this team won 88 when it should've won 96 and it starts with Mozeliak and Matheny.
Let's not forget they had the bases loaded with no outs with two renowned clutch hitters coming up who both swung at the first pitch accounted for three outs. That's your ballgame right there. Hard to hang that on MM and Mozbag.
No but you can hang the fact that the Cardinals didnt have a backup SS going into the season and still dont on them and you can also hang the fact they have need help on the left side on them to. Less matheny and more Mo but still. That and Scrabble has been a bad pitcher all year. He shouldnt have been pitching today unless he was mopping up.
- artie_fufkin
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
This is a total team loss that is emblematic of the team's larger issues. There's a reason this team won 88 when it should've won 96 and it starts with Mozeliak and Matheny.
Let's not forget they had the bases loaded with no outs with two renowned clutch hitters coming up who both swung at the first pitch accounted for three outs. That's your ballgame right there. Hard to hang that on MM and Mozbag.
No but you can hang the fact that the Cardinals didnt have a backup SS going into the season and still dont on them and you can also hang the fact they have need help on the left side on them to. Less matheny and more Mo but still. That and Scrabble has been a bad pitcher all year. He shouldnt have been pitching today unless he was mopping up.
Good points, but they were getting by with Furcal at short, with Scal backing him up. The problem was Furcal getting hurt so late in the year. There wasn't a lot they could do. But you're ultimately correct. I did look out there today and say "Geez, Kozma and Descalso up the middle in a playoff game??? ..."
The Scrabble thing is a little less defensible. Especially considering he was the only lefty they had out there for the entire season. That's one big difference between La Russa and MM. La Russa would never be caught with one lefty in the bullpen, and after they let J.C. Romero go, he would have threatened to hold his breath until he turned blue like a petulant child until Moz went out and go him one. Maybe MM asked and doesn't have that kind of scratch yet.
- tkihshbt
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
I don't think today is all on Mozeliak for questionable roster construction or Matheny for a goofy bullpen move. Craig and Molina were awful today. It's not just that they were awful; they took awful approaches. Molina swinging at a 3-0 pitch with Gonzalez not being able to find the plate was terrible. Even if Molina hits a home run you still question it because the odds aren't in your favor of getting good contact against Gonzalez.
With that said, I was complaining earlier in the year about how poor the bench was and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it had a lot to do with the reason this team was so bad in one-run or extra-inning games. Yes, the original plan was to bring one of Berkman, Craig or Beltran off the bench from the right side, but was a terrible plan because the odds that you're going to keep everyone healthy enough for that to come to fruition is small, and we saw that. For most of the season the best RH option off the bench was Shane Robinson. Shane Robinson!
LH relief blew up because JC Romero has sucked for a few years and Scrabble has sucked for almost his entire career. The decision to go with Victor Marte as Octavio Dotel's replacement was monumentally stupid.
So why am I bringing up all this after today's loss? I guess it's because the same problems they had in April they have six months later and now they are two losses away from having their season end when just a few more good moves could've changed everything. Poor roster construction. Curious bullpen decisions. A bad bench. Pete Kozma. The Baltimore Orioles have had a lot of luck to get where they are, but they've made the most out of their thin talent with superior decision-making from Buck Showalter. Is it fair to expect Matheny to be there yet? Of course not, which is why he shouldn't have been hired in the first place!
This is getting pretty ramble-y, so I'll end it with this: I don't give a shit if Pete Kozma hit .440 with 10 home runs in the last few weeks. Pete Kozma is Aaron Miles without the bat control. At every stop in his minor league career his defense has been called into question. And if you go browse those stats, you can see he wasn't exactly lighting it up with the bat. So how in the world this management team settled on a guy that couldn't hit a lick at any point in the previous five seasons to man the most important infield position for a playoff run is just mind boggling.
I guess I'm just in a pissy mood after that game, but I have no confidence that either Mozeliak or Matheny have the smarts to elevate this team from where it's at.
Also, there's a chance I'm overreacting, but flipping Allen Craig for middle infielder that could hit might not aggravate me.
- tkihshbt
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Oh yeah, there's probably quite a few errors in that shitty rant, but I'm on a lot of allergy meds.
- JV
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
LH relief blew up because JC Romero has sucked for a few years and Scrabble has sucked for almost his entire career.
I was about to argue that Fuentes' decision to bail was a factor beyond their control, but then I recalled that he came in as just another over-the-hill castoff and the few numbers he put up for the club were no better than could have been expected.
This SS situation seems ridiculously chronic to me. Why has this organization not been able to groom a major-league-caliber shortstop since... have they developed one since Garry Templeton?
- forsberg_us
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
After reading Matheny's explanation for the decision to go to Scrabble, I'm not sure which is more frustrating: Matheny's ineptitude or the St. Louis media's unwillingness to ask the obvious follow-up question when the manager provides a bullshit answer.
According to Matheny, he went to Scrabble because he wanted to bring in Motte, but didn't feel comfortable with where the lineup sat for purposes of making a double switch (Molina made the final outs in the 7th). He didn't want to simply bring in Motte without a double switch because Motte would have batter 4th in the bottom of the 8th unless he made a double switch.
This explanation if terrible on so many levels: first, why does the double switch have to be Molina or Craig? Why not Beltran? His bat hasn't been great and his defense is below average. That would have dropped Motte to the 6th hitter in the 8th. Is it possible he comes up with the bases loaded and 2 outs--yes. But if a team sends 6 hitters to the plate in an inning, they've usually already scored a run.
Second, you're in the lead. Extra runs are nice, but they're a luxury. If you keep the other team from scoring, you don't need more runs. If you believe Motte gave you the best chance to get the out, give the ball to Motte.
Third, and most obvious, if you don't want to bring in Motte without a double switch, why go to Scrabble. This is the question I'm most upset wasn't asked. Why is the Scrabble/Moore matchup so much better than Boggs/Tracy? If Boggs can't get out a LH hitter, should he be your 8th inning guy? And if there's reason to be that terrified of Chad Tracy (and I don't think there is), then why not pitch around him and take your chances against Grizzly Adams--I mean Jayson Werth? Why bring in a pitcher that Matheny hasn't had confidence in for at least a couple of months and put him in a situation with your season in the balance.
I know there's a lot of frustration right now, and I'm not giving Craig and Molina a pass for their pathetic at-bats in the 7th. But this is a pretty evenly matched series except in one category--Davey Johnson is going to anally rape Matheny in terms of managing and because of that, I think we're just waiting on the inevitable.
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Thread Starter- artie_fufkin
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
These are all excellent points, but if Scrabble gets a third strike past some kid with 75 games of major league service, we're all glowing today about how Matheny put one over on that buffoon Davey Johnson.
Nigel Tufnel was right. There is a fine line between clever and stupid.
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
"These are all excellent points, but if Scrabble gets a third strike past some kid with 75 games of major league service, we're all glowing today about how Matheny put one over on that buffoon Davey Johnson."
Maybe, but I don't think so.
Second guessing managerial decisions is part and parcel of the sport, but I heard this question presented this morning by none other than Jim Hayes, who usually isn't this insightful.
All across the city, if not the country, people are second guessing Matheny's decision to bring in Scrabble. If Matheny had simply stuck with Boggs, and Tracy delivered the exact same hit, would anyone in St. Louis or anywhere else be asking why Matheny didn't go to Scrabble?
People may have asked why not Motte, but I don't think anyone would have lamented not bringing in Scrabble, regardless of the outcome.
Part of my issue is Matheny got beat with his 5th or 6th best bullpen pitcher on the mound. And he did so after specifically stating that Mujica, Boggs and Motte were responsible for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings, regardless of the batter. I might have felt differently if Boggs had been throwing the way he did against Atlanta. But Boggs was dealing yesterday.
And just to be clear, I haven't forgotten Pete Kozma's role in this debacle. He fields Morse's grounder and we're never having this discussion.
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Thread Starter- alz
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Re: Cards/Nats Game 1 LDS
Personally if you don't give Boggs vs Tracy a shot.... Then you have to give it to Motte for a 4 out save. I was okay with lifting Boggs, but with 4 outs in the NLDS left between you and going up 1-0 on the best team in the NL... Why don't you just give the ball to your league leading closer (42 saves were tied for the best in the NL I think), and cross your fingers?
Sigh. Also the pitches that scrabble threw, by pitch number 4 I knew where he was goin, and if I know it, I'm certain a professional hitter knows it too. I don't care if the kid is a dead pull hitter. Throw enough shit outside and he's going to throw his hands out front and do exactly what he did.
Ah well, game 2 is now a must win really. I don't see us sweeping the Nats up in Washington.