Frayed Knot

Yeah, I had no problem with Washington going to Holland there (or even Belgium) and all his machinations still got him to his closer with a two-run lead in the 9th. There were a couple of spots where I questioned him (some mentioned in this thread) -- PH/or not for Lewis in the 5th (bases loaded/2-out) was a toss-up IMO, as was IW-ing Pujols; I would have let Feldman hit in the 10th and let him throw another inning -- but the failure last night was mostly with the players. They left a ton of runners on, didn't play real good defense, and twice had the "correct" pitchers out there who couldn't close the deal with 2-run leads.

Couple of points here, particularly seeing as how I'm probably the biggest game-time complainer 'round these parts. - I only DVR a game when I know I'm going to be late to the TV. Tuning in at say 8 PM because I was busy at 7 for a 7:10 start allows you to watch the entire game and still finish right around when it would have ended anyway. And blowing through the between-innings commercials with four quick clicks of the 30-second advance button (or five for GotW, or six for post-season) is heaven as I've already got enough info on erectile dysfunction medicine thankyouverymcuh. Gotta make sure you plan for past the scheduled window however if you start too late to 'catch up' before the thing is supposed to be over. - I never click between pitches (well ... almost never, occasionally you're in blow-out territory watching on delay and you start to not care) because that does ruin the flow of the game. Save it for between innings and pitching changes. And if you're too ADD to sit still between pitches you're not cut out for baseball anyway. Having said all that, I think this sport's biggest problem is pace of the game issues. Not the length of the games necessarily (although that's an issue too) but the pace of them while they're happening. Reading the Gehrig bio recently it mentioned a WS game he was involved in which was up to then the longest in history ... a whopping 2:50. And yeah I know that was just slightly after the fall of Rome but even decades after that sub-3:00 was the norm and not the virtual impossibility it is now. 1969 WS: 2:13; 2:20; 2:23; 2:33 (10 innings); 2:14 Now we're not getting back to those times for a lot of obvious reasons -- longer commercial time, more in-inning pitching changes, stronger lineups, emphasis on 'working the count', etc. -- but there's just too much unnecessary dead time. Blame the pitchers and their inability to get a pitch off in under half a minute if you want (and MLB for not enforcing their own rule) but the batters are to blame at least as much if not more, taking 40 ft strolls between every pitch while readjusting each batting glove as if the velcro on them somehow came loose during the previous pitch ... you know, the one they didn't even swing at. Ryan Braun, I noticed this year, is in this club. Cano also is one of the bigger offenders. And MLB supposedly made that something they were going to enforce starting a few years back: batters were supposed to always keep at least one foot in the box or get the home ump's approval to leave, but that obviously got ignored from the get go. The only solution, it seems to me, is to get to these guys as minor leaguers before they get into these time-wasting habits and also before they get to be stars too big to listen to umps and league officials who want to tell them otherwise. The advantage of having an entire system that serves for little other purpose than as an apprenticeship for players, coaches, and umpires is that you can use it to mold how you want things to go at the higher level. It also couldn't hurt attendance/interest in minor league games if things there moved along better. Now I realize that such a system wouldn't work perfectly and produce an entire league of Mark Buerhles five years from now, but it's worth a shot.

Edgy DC wrote: Will Washington get the same criticism LaRussa had been getting? Will he get the same criticism MacNamara got? Because Cruz doesn't really represent a perfect analog for Buckner --- old, white, broken down, chronically injured --- and failing to get to a hard-hit ball ain't the same as letting a bouncer go through your legs. He took a crap route (though I don't recall McCarver and Buck underscoring this point). Yeah, I guess Endy should've been in, but do we have a good idea what the state of his legs are? Not only is Cruz not hobbled but maybe their best OF out there and def their best arm. On the triple it wasn't so much a bad route as it was him drifting toward a ball that was hit harder/deeper than he thought. Buckarver didn't question the route though did comment prior to the hits on how deep the OF was - no doubles so to speak - despite the fact that a single ties the game. Playing more not to lose than in effect than trying to win. It was as if Cruz thought he was already so deep that he didn't have to go back very hard because he was already close to the track and wall. Murphy had been the last out prior to Endy, maybe that's the switch you want to make. No way of knowing, of course, that a RF hit will be the critical play later on.

Met Hunter wrote: Met Hunter wrote: Am I the only one that saw the omen? Endy Chavez batting in the ninth. My first reaction was uh-oh. Then it dawned on me that maybe Ron Washington had the good sense to put him in for defense for the ninth. When I saw Nelson Cruz and his pathetic attempt to field Freese's line drive, I realized that Washington was more McNamara than McGraw. Just think how sweet it would have been having Endy wrap it up by robbing another St Louis third baseman. I would have cheered. Oliver in the tenth? Geez, the only thing missing would have been a shot of Beltran in the stands. Tonight's prediction-blowout St Louis ala 85 Royals. supposedly Castillo was in teh stands. yeah, if Endy was in for Cruz it's the offseason. After watching the replay, I think if _I_ was in for Cruz it's the offseason. Dewey Evans makes that catch. And the thing is, Cruz later on did get replaced in a double-switch during the final pitching change. He apparently tweaked a groin (his own hopefully) and will be, at best, a bit compromised for tonight's game. Napoli's condition has to be questioned as well. And throw in Holliday on the other side while we're at it as TLR even mentioned the possibility of replacing him on the roster ... I keep forgetting that they changed the rules to allow teams to do this at such a late date although there must be SOME restriction or else clubs would just wholesale replace worn out pitchers.

Ceetar wrote: Mike and Mike this morning had the gall to say something along the lines of "Shame it was Freese. If it was Pujols, this game would've been truly epic." If THAT doesn't illustrate the typical ESPN star-driven mentality absolutely fucking perfectly ...

Well, the morning sports talk shows certainly have their lead story all laid out and served up on a silver platter for them tomorrow. I'm of course talking about that Terrell Owens held a public workout yesterday (one in which all 32 NFL teams declined to show). That should be good for at least an hour of air time and three to four experts to analyze what it all means.

Frayed Knot wrote: If you're going to PH for your best remaining pitcher in the 11th inning I'd want a better hitter up there than German - especially since it would take at least a triple to score Napoli from 1st. IOW, I would have let Feldman hit there. Kind of for that reason.

If you're going to PH for your best remaining pitcher in the 11th inning I'd want a better hitter up there than German - especially since it would take at least a triple to score Napoli from 1st. IOW, I would have let Feldman hit there.

Rangers put the winning run on. Can make arguments both ways on that decision. And the StL season will ride on Fat Elvis

Frayed Knot wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Corey Feldman on to save it. To get him do you have to dial the 1-800-COREY hotline from the dugout? Good thing he's not in the Cardinals' pen otherwise LaRussa might have brought in �orey Haim by accident.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Corey Feldman on to save it. To get him do you have to dial the 1-800-COREY hotline from the dugout?

LaRussa lucks out a bit here with the first two guys getting on and making it a bunt situation. Could you imagine having to send up a pitcher as the potential final AB of the WS because you had run through all your position players? That's life when you carry and eight-man bullpen.

And Darren Freakin' Oliver is in to save the World Series This is a guy who supposedly retired, what, about seven years ago?

This season just doesn't want to give up yet.

Washington just called for Adams. Can Stanley Jefferson be far behind?

Tough to call their lineup over-achieving as they sat at or near the top in runs scored in the NL all season. What's killed them is Holliday either not being healthy or virtually being invisible for whatever reason - and then Albert bunching all his damage in that one game. But the bullpen, yeah. They were pitching way over their heads in the first two rounds and there's only so long that was going to continue.

NOW should be the time for LaRussa to go out to Lance Lynn and ask; "What are you doing here?"

As McCarver has mentioned, nothing out of the IF for the last 3 full innings for StL - and yet they've scored twice during that time. Meanwhile, Texas has sent 31 hitters to the plate thru 6 and has put 15 of them on base yet has only scored 4 of them. oe: OK, now it's 32 hitters with 16 on base but FIVE scored.

SteveJRogers wrote: Edgy DC wrote: One more article stating as fact that there was something disgraceful about Willie Mays' tenure with the Mets. Heard a St. Louis reporter the other morning compare LaRussa's bullpen phone gaffe to Mays' "performance" in the 1973 World Series. Comparing them how ... as two things which occurred on a baseball field but otherwise couldn't possibly be less similar?

Man, this game is like a contest to see which side can give it away. Hey Holliday, where were you goin' man? Texas should be up by like a half-dozen runs.

HahnSolo wrote: Christ, could blue walls be a worse look with the rest of the interior of the stadium? People are really worried about this shit? Only the people who got all jealous from watching the World Series and seeing the pretty red walls in St Louis.

The one-day postponement also gives Tony and his coaches more time to learn and practice their semaphore signaling skills in case the "phones go out" again.

Game 6 is a rainout. Upcoming Forecast for St Loo Thurs: leftover rain in the morning then clearing. High around 60, low of 37 Friday: Sunny during the day, high 62 - low 35 ... and this is the year they didn't go into November

I haven't gotten around to reading that linked article yet ... but shenanigans involving batting races and the like have been going on for at least a century now. Nap Lajoie was virtually handed a title over Cobb when an opposing 3rd baseman played back so as to allow Lajoie like 5 bunt hits on the final day in order to overtake Cobb (all because no one liked Cobb). Oh yeah, there was also a free car involved so it wasn't just outsized pride but greed as well. There are other stories as well. Similar arguments were made back when Ripken was approaching Gehrig's record with a combination of old-timers and MFY fans (mostly the latter probably) claiming that Ripken was somehow undeserving of the record on account of sitting out partial games that Gehrig would never do* before going into the usual stuff about DH's, train travel, having to personally mow the grass and drag the field (uphill ... both ways) before the game could be started, and all that other nonsense. I'm with most of the rest of you about not liking the way he/they handled that final day, but these 'charges' against Reyes are neither new nor unique. * Gehrig absolutely did play partial games, sometimes for the usual reasons but also occasionally for the sole purpose of keeping the streak alive - once even being listed a the starting SS during a road game so he could get his AB then be "replaced" by the real SS never having taken the field. Ripken not only had something like a six year-long innings played streak that comprised the first half of his run but played some 98% of the innings it was possible to have played during the 14+ season-long record, a pct higher than that of Gehrig.

John Sickels does a prospect/career retrospective on Mike Napoli. Seems like both the walks and power were always there even back in the minors. Folks worried about his low-ish BA and about his defense, specifically about his (lack of) mobility as his pitch-blocking and runner-throwing-outing numbers are actually pretty decent. His double-trade this past winter went very much under the radar (at least here in the east) so I admit this is almost entirely hindsight - but, jeez, how good would his skills have been in a NYM uni this season? ... splitting time with Thole plus the occasional 1B while Ike sat against LHPs and then maybe there more often after his injury. Wouldn't have had to DH the likes of Willie Harris either.