Late Night in Arizona
« 07/06/2005 | Main | Rolen Out Of The ASG »Here's how the top of the 8th unfolded:
- Y. Molina hit by pitch
- H. Luna ran for Y. Molina
- J. Marquis flied out to center
- D. Eckstein singled to center, H. Luna to third
- A. Almanza relieved C. Vargas
- A. Pujols hit for J. Edmonds
Er, OK. So TLR let the pitcher hit for himself and pulled the 950 OPS guy. Then he let that pitcher hit for himself again in the 9th with runners on first and third in a tie game... and then pulled Marquis before the next half inning.
That's just weird.
Posted by Rob at July 8, 2005 12:05 AMI have to say, I agree w/Vivaelbirdos about this one. It's definitely possible to argue against it, but I think his arguments for it are pretty good, unless you don't belive Marquis is as good a hitter as the small sample size this year has shown. It didn't work out, but it certainly could have.
Posted by: Levi at July 8, 2005 01:08 PMHe's nowhere near the hitter his sample size shows. I don't know TLR's exact thought process, but I don't like the possibility that he has no understanding of sample size.
Posted by: Rob at July 8, 2005 10:43 PMSample size alone isn't sufficient to say a player doesn't provide value. If I remember he was hitting .391 at the time (9 of 23). While that isn't a lot of ABs, it's sufficient to know that he can hit. If he went 0 for the next 23, he'd still be a good hitting pitcher. Besides, he had proved he could hit over the 2004 season. And do you really think TLR&Co fail to look at the quality of the ABs? He hits with authority. Now, I'm not saying he could be the next Babe Ruth or Stan Musial, but he's certainly the current Bob Gibson (as a hitter, of course) or Woody WIlliams of the pitching staff.
Posted by: Murrel at July 11, 2005 10:22 PM