IGT 4/8/2011: WAS @ NYM -- Welcome to Dicki Field

[TransMonk]

Duda with a pinch-hit double!

We get that run back.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Spell THAT backwards, Jon Heyman!

[TransMonk]

Double-seven with a scoreless frame.

We need more runs, O!

[bmfc1]

I like Ike but he takes way too many 2 strike pitches. He needed to foul that off.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Mets win expectancy after the Thole/Em?u5 walks was 53.0% After the Hu sac bunt, it was just 53.5%.

After the Reyes K, 36.2%

After Pagan grounds out, 23.1%

B I F L

[bmfc1]

Moving an extra runner into scoring position but giving up an out only improves the win percentage by .5? What a waste of an out, especially since the team is cold.

[bmfc1]

Look what happens when you put the bat on the ball. Geez, the season is officially underway--I'm pissed at the Mets.

[A Boy Named Seo]

bmfc1 wrote: Moving an extra runner into scoring position but giving up an out only improves the win percentage by .5? What a waste of an out, especially since the team is cold.

Yes. In that situation anyway. I was a little surprised, too that it was basically a wash.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Very 2010 of the Mets again today. So far that's a grand slam and two multi-RBI hits by the opposing pitchers in bases loaded situations this year.

Generally shitty execution with guys on and an especially bad night for Pagan. Last game it was Thole who had a bad offensive night when we didn't need him to. It's already looking like a disease.

Not that things couldn't change and change quick, but that was a game the Mets ought to have given themselves a better chance to win. Very angry with the poor execution, and way to torture those fans who came early, excited, in a cold drizzle, only to get 3 1/2 hour buttfuck.

[Gwreck]

I was extraordinarily disappointed in the bunt play in the bottom of the 7th, for several reasons:

1. Bunting is for losers
2. If we are really going to bunt, we should use Pelfrey or Niese and not a bench player
3. After being ahead in the count on Emaus, Gaudin issued a walk and then promptly walked Thole
4. If the pitcher isn't throwing strikes, why give away free outs?
5. We had Murphy available on the bench
6. Gaudin is right-handed
7. There was no lefty ready in the Nationals 'pen
8. Bunting is for losers

---

While announced as a sellout there were a lot of empty seats, and not just because people went to the clubs or were walking across the Shea bridge at the same time, although Gameday does have that accurately portrayed, as it is consistently overcrowded there.

Boos in the opening day introductions, for those that care, were for Pelfrey and Rodriguez. Beltran even got a smattering of boos mixed in with cheers.
Big cheers for the Wrights and Reyeses but also for Chris Young, Angel Pagan and Daniel Murphy.
Ralph looked great.

Jose might have struck out with those two runners on but he really saved Dickey in the bottom of the 5th with that really nice stop on the ball in the hole and then getting the DP. Bases were loaded then and without that DP we wouldn't have been in the game as we were until the 8th.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Howie tried explaining away not using Muffy by saying it was too early still.

[Gwreck]

Howie was wrong. If Murphy gets a hit there, we have tied the game with 2 men on and nobody out with the top of the lineup coming up. It was the 7th! What exactly was he waiting for? The bottom of the 9th with 2 outs?

[Frayed Knot]

And if Murphy rolls into a GiDP there it's a killer.

Look, I'm generally and loudly with the BiFL crowd but I could go either way on this one.
It's not like bunts are NEVER worthwhile, just that the knee-jerk variety is frustratingly moronic and out-dated
Plus ...
- it was the 9th slot up
- it did get the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring positions
- it did take away the DP potential
- it was a weak-hitter bunting into the stronger part of the line-up and not the Jerry method of the other way around and it saved the better PH for later on in what was at the time a one-run game (blame the pen for why it didn't stay that way)
- if ONE ball gets out of the infield (or past the catcher) and it's a tie game. Two and we're in the lead.

I could make several arguments for not bunting also I just don't think this one was a clear bad call. The one thing I would have done was have Hu square but take a pitch first seeing as how the pitcher had fallen behind on both previous hitters. Bunting the first pitch, particularly when it wasn't in the strike zone, did the Nats a favor there. And if he had gotten ahead I'd have taken the bunt off and probably tried a H-n-R.


Anyway, obviously it was the 9 walks (or was it ten?) that killed us. Not sure that the Nats hit more than 3 balls hard in the entire game (mostly Ankiel) but with all the free passes we were actually lucky to get away with as few runs as we did.
That Reyes play saved 2 right there plus there still would have been two on and one out.

And maybe we should hold off a bit before we declare Bobby P ready to step in as the next closer.

[Ceetar]

The thing with the bunt is, why Hu? Why burn what's presumably a 'hitter' when you've already got a pitcher up? And if you don't trust the reliever, fine, use Pelfrey or Niese or Young or Capuano.

but no, that was merely one key moment, not the defining one.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Hu almost beat out that bunt.

Not that that makes it a good play, but I'm just saying.

I too was concerned about Murphy doing a GIDP, but I would have been inclined to give him his hacks there.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Hu almost beat out that bunt the way that a semi-fast runner almost beats out a routine grounder. Which is to say, it was close to the hopeful eye, but not all that close, really.

Had seats next to an HD monitor with the SNY feed; the ump's strike zone was all over the place-- Zimmermann got strikes at the knees for the first few innings that Dickey didn't, and then the zone seemed to swell and recede at various points during the rest of the afternoon. Of course, the Mets' control was at least as chaotic as the home-plate calls, so...

T'was a real shame to give away so many free passes on a day when the defense, by and large, came to play. Jose's inning-ending diving DP to stanch the bloodflow in the fifth got the loudest cheers of the afternoon. (OE: Pagan's over-the-shoulder catch in the ninth was even better, but, well... it came in the ninth.)

[Guest themetfairy]

Watching Ralph throw out the ceremonial first pitch was truly awesome -

[Ceetar]

themetfairy wrote: Watching Ralph throw out the ceremonial first pitch was truly awesome -

Best pitch thrown all day.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Reminiscent of Shea days, CitiField concession stands were understaffed/overwhelmed-- I almost missed Ralph's pitch, and DID miss the Duda double while waiting for hot dogs and beer at a restricted-access food vendor.

[Ceetar]

different angle

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Reminiscent of Shea days, CitiField concession stands were understaffed/overwhelmed-- I almost missed Ralph's pitch, and DID miss the Duda double while waiting for hot dogs and beer at a restricted-access food vendor.

yeah, they weren't quite up to snuff. If i recall last year, they got better. Opening Day, weren't in a rhythm or something. I was going to get a Keith's Gold Glove Burger, but ultimately decided to wait for a quieter day.

[Frayed Knot]

Ceetar wrote: The thing with the bunt is, why Hu? Why burn what's presumably a 'hitter' when you've already got a pitcher up? And if you don't trust the reliever, fine, use Pelfrey or Niese or Young or Capuano. but no, that was merely one key moment, not the defining one.

The thing about using pitchers to bunt is that they're frequently not very good at it. Obviously the reason they're called upon to try most often is due to a lack of hitting skills not an automatic skill in bunting. You're also more likely to have someone up there with less strike zone command while virtually erasing from the defense's mind even considering the bunt being taken off or defending against a hit-and-run. I don't think any of us have seen enough of Hu yet to know if he's any good at laying one down and certainly that should factor into the decision. As a light-hitting, speedy middle IF-type one tends to assume he'd have some skills there and, in the end, his final result was almost good enough to beat out although his first attempt looked somewhat awkward.

Bottom line is I just don't see this particular bunt call as a by-definition dumb decision. Like I said, I would have had Hu taking pitches at least until a strike was thrown and would have tried something else if he worked himself into a favorable hitters count. Remember also that those win expectation numbers quoted earlier consider the odds only in a generic sense (and, even then, improved things a shade) and don't factor in that the team's two fastest players who are also among their better hitters are coming up. Blame should go MUCH more to the fact that neither guy could even get the ball out of the infield not to mention the whole walk-a-thon authored by just about everyone wearing pinstripes yesterday.