IGT Mets at DC, 4/27/07

[Benjamin Grimm]

This is the worst IGT ever!

It's the bottom of the 4th inning (Mets trail 3-2) and nobody has even started a thread yet!

Yeesh!

[TransMonk]

What are the odds of no IGT being started for 4 innings and then 2 of us posting it at the same time?

[Batty31]

I was going to start a "Chico and the Nationals" IGT at around 7:30, but was afraid of the consequences if this game ends up in the loss column...

[TransMonk]

Fiddlecripes! Mets load the bases in the 6th w/ one out and can't get the tying run home.

[nymr83]

this game is depressing, but we're still in it.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

How can you guys be watching Mets/Nats when Sawx/Yank is on???

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I almost started one at 7 but backed off when I realized I prolly wouldn't be a participant.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Wright's leadoff double is encouraging.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Ahhhhhhhlooooooooooo

[nymr83]

Alou doubles in a run and he's the tying run at 2nd!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Here come cowboys
Here to save us all

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Bleh. Our offense has looked awful.

2 in 12 innings Tuesday (none from the starting O), 3 tonight. The 5 runs Wednesday don't count knowing they were scored mostly after down 10 runs.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Awful IGT.

This game was utterly winnable, hinging on two non-decisions by Randolph: letting Perez bat for himself with one out and the bags juiced in the sixth, letting Moises run for himself at second with no out in the eighth.

Joe Smith may be really good.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The at-bat for Perez I could swallow hard and live with -- it was Green's unproductive out where that inning really went wrong.

Alou had 3rd if he only tried -- not certain whether he was held or not. I think he'd score then on the next fly. Oh well.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Perez was going well enough to bat with one out. Borrowing from a Darling
comment - I'm ok with him batting and whiffing than a pinch hitter coming in
and making contact and hitting into a DP leaving Reyes out of trying to con-
tribute to the inning.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Assuming the dp makes me sad.

What's more valuable to the team: the run-scoring potential of that at-bat or the run-saving potential of another inning or so of Perez? They built this team on the bullpen and just had a night off.

Moises didn't seem to have any intention of running on either ball. ND would have gone in standing up to third and standing up to score.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Don't be sad. I yelled to myself wtf is he batting at the time.

Darling's comment helped me rationalize a little. Us orange and blue
pajama wearing types need broadcasted kool-aid from time to time to
validate our take on these events.

[nymr83]

]What's more valuable to the team: the run-scoring potential of that at-bat or the run-saving potential of another inning or so of Perez? They built this team on the bullpen and just had a night off.

i was extremely mad about this same issue. and i think this is an often unheralded part of home field advantage...if it had been the BOTTOM of the 6th i think most managers gladly lift the guy having gotten 6 out of him already, in the TOP of the 6th they only got 5 out of him so they leave him in. of course that may just mean that being at home helps protect you from this particular form of bad management.

[Frayed Knot]

Thoroughly winnable game that you could say turned on two ABs: the 2-out/2-on hit (HR) that Austin Kearns did get vs the 2-out/bags-loaded hit that Reyes didn't

- I was OK letting Perez bat there.
a) he was pitching well
2) he isn't an awful hitter
III) there was only 1 out so we still had another crack at it. With 2 outs I'm more likely to PH

- On the other hand I was calling for Endy to pinch-run even as Moises was rounding 1st. The counter argument is that you pretty much had to go out in order for the rest of the game for that spot not to come up again ... but it turned out that was exactly what happened.

[Guest iramets]

Frayed Knot wrote: On the other hand I was calling for Endy to pinch-run even as Moises was rounding 1st. The counter argument is that you pretty much had to go out in order for the rest of the game for that spot not to come up again ... but it turned out that was exactly what happened.

According to the charts, Willie ranks WAY down at the bottom of the pinch-running list, another thing I would have only been able to guess about without Yancy's help there. Let's get that on the discussion in that thread: Willie hates to use pinch-runners, although several Mets (LoDuca, Alou, Greeen, Delgado) suffer from SASS (slow-as-shit-syndrome).

Howie Rose, for those of you who weren't listening on the radio last night, again threw out the Willie quote about "Not managing every game like game 7 of the World Series" to justify leaving Perez in, so as to stretch him out in the hopes of getting him used to pitching deeper into games. So if you want to look it at it in the long run, this loss was in the service of future wins from Perez.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hope so. It's not as easy a perspective to take when you're at the park.

This speaks to my problem with stoppers-only-in-the-ninth. I don't like holding all your bullets (be it your pinch-hitters or your relievers) for the high-leverage ninth when the real hinge is often a runners-on-base high-leverage situation in the sixth or seventh.

Alou is our best hitter this season, but --- knowing what you know about Endy --- do you really have a problem if the batting order comes around and he's at the plate? Seems to me the advantage of having him instead of Alou on base able to score on two outs (which is how it shook out, but even just on that potential) is worth the risk that he instead of Alou is up in a big moment two innings later. He sure handled himself in a big moment the other night.

In fact, that big moment coming up would have likely meant that Endy scored.

Pinch running there would be sort of playing for the tie on the road, which is going against the book, and it's a chapter of the book that has a good point.

Willie's rule seems to be that, if Endy comes in late, it's to substitute for Green, which would be another case of him holding his bullets too long, because Endy didn't get in at all.