Manuel Managing Report Card: Game 41, The Battle For Sweet Caroline (I)
by riversmccown on May 22, 2009 10:52 PM EDT
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STARTING LINEUP: C-
PLUS: Daniel Murphy leading off without Jose Reyes is a pretty good idea, not as good as Gary Sheffield leading off, but there were much worse options. I also was a fan of Manuel putting Ramon Martinez in the 8 hole, as I'm a subscriber to the second leadoff man theory and Ramon Martinez might as well be a pitcher. I think Reed should've been the second leadoff man rather than Castillo though.
MINUS: Omir Santos continues to split time with Castro almost evenly despite the fact that he's just not very good at baseball. David Wright continues to bat fifth behind Sheffield even though he's been an on-base machine and the guys behind him just aren't good enough to pick him up that often. I think right now it goes Sheffield, Beltran, Chuch/Murphy, Wright, Church/Murphy. Or at least it would if Church was healthy enough to play a full game. Wither Fartinez? I'll also take my chances with Tatis over Martinez at shortstop. Martinez might actually look worse out there than Tatis right now. Other people who I'd take over Martinez right now at shortstop: Argenis Reyes, Danny Garcia, Joe McEwing, Mike Bordick, Ray Durham, Chris Gomez, Mark Grudzielanek, half of the shortstops playing in independent leagues...
BULLPEN MANAGEMENT: A-
Jerry went to his best two relievers so far this year. They needed to pitch two innings. They mowed down the side in both innings. Hm, that was pretty easy.
IN-GAME TACTICS: C
This struck me as a game where the Mets probably should've been stealing more than they did. Obviously they didn't have very many opportunities since the majority of their hits came in one inning and left runners on first and second, but Jason Varitek has thrown out fewer than 25% of runners stealing for five years in a row and is down to 19% thus far this year. I think I would've liked to see a few more steal attempts instead of repeatedly sacrificing, particularly in the seventh with Castillo aboard. I might've even been inclined to send Murphy against Varitek in the fifth. In fact, given Varitek's weak arm, I think there was probably an argument to be made for starting Pagan over Church here. Hindsight and all that.
Boy, that American League baseball sure makes this thing easier to write. No real pinch-hitting situations for the Mets, especially since they have such a short-handed bench at the moment. I guess technically Castro should always pinch-hit for Santos and Tatis should always pinch-hit for Martinez, but thats just because they should be starting over them.
OVERALL: B-
I hesitate to give this grade again because I feel like Manuel did a better job last night, but he did emphasize the speed game/faster runners against Varitek and that was a really good managerial decision in my opinion. He also went with both bullpen aces and the two run lead was low enough leverage that you can argue he went to them in the right order. I might've even brought out Parnell for another inning and saved K-Rod. But then again we do have to manage to a silly rule for some reason.
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There's no battle
they can keep it.
"The definition of edge is going out there and getting a few wins, and then all of a sudden you don’t have to worry about anyone talking about edge anymore," Wright said. "That's a thing in the past. Go ask Omar about that."
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 22, 2009 11:01 PM EDT reply actions
From your mouth to God's ears.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't see
why you think Sheffield should bat leadoff? Just because of the high OBP? He has too much power to bat leadoff.
In a typical NL game lineup I'd agree
But with Slappy batting 9th I don’t think its that awful an idea. Really, the place to put him if you’re so worried about protecting him is second. You just don’t bump your best hitter to the bottom half of the lineup for the sake of protection, getting Wright more PAs and getting him on base ahead of other guys who can hit is a much higher priority. But my guess is that Jerry’s argument against putting Sheff second would be some nonsense about bunting ability. Again, a misevalution of his priorities as a manager.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 1:54 AM EDT up reply actions
"Too much power"
Is there really such a thing as too much power?
The Book says you should bat your three best hitters 1-2-4. Sheffield is one of those, sadly, at this point. He’s also the one who walks more than he singles. I think he’s the best fit we’ve got.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
There's no reason to leave Parnell in for two innings
and tire him out and make him unable to pitch the next day, and K-Rod has repeatedly said that he thinks pitching on consecutive days helps his command.
Fair.
That wasn’t really criticism as much as an observation. I think guys are better off pitching 2 innings and coming back on one day’s rest then they are pitching two games in a row. Therefore, I’d rather have Parnell pitch 2 innings up 2 and save KRod for 2 innings that are closer. But, obviously, that won’t happen.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Sheffield Batting Fourth
You consistently mention that you think Wright should bat in front of Sheffield. Although I agree with you, I have been trying to rationalize Jerry’s reasoning. These are the answers I have imagined Jerry giving me.
1) I think he wants Sheffield to get the best pitches. Wright is a great hitter; so is Sheffield, but he is really old. Sheffield can get over powered because of his age, but he still has enough bat speed to hit one out. Having Gary between Carlos and David ensures that he will get the best possible pitches. Wright on the other hand can get his hits on his own.
2) To allow Wright to get the most RBI opportunities. Gary has had a good eye at the plate this year and Beltran has been unstoppable. We need someone to knock those runs in, might as well be Wright. A walk for Sheffield in the 5 spot is weak with the rest of the injury players in the game. A walk for Sheffield in the 4 spot is and R.B.I. opportunity for Wright.
3) To take pressure of Wright. Wright doesn’t have to deal with the pressure of being the clean-up hitter
4) Wright is on a hot streak; why change that?
Why change that?
How about because despite the fact that David Wright has already been on base 11 more times in May than he was all of April, he’s scored two fewer runs.
I think Jerry’s reasoning is pretty clear, its just not good reasoning. I’ve said this a number of times, you don’t move your best offensive weapon to the bottom half of the order for the sake of protection of a lesser bat. When a guy has a .560 OBP in his last 19 games, he’s the guy you want protected, and not with Jeremy Reed. He’s also the guy you want getting as many PAs in a game as possible. And its not like when Jerry put him in the cleanup spot the last couple games he started trying to crank everything out of the park. His approach seemed exactly the same. He was right on pitches in the zone, hitting line drives and talking his walks.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 3:40 AM EDT up reply actions
Nothing wrong with Wright hitting after Sheffield.
But EVERYTHING’S wrong with making him hit 5th.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
Well lets see:
3 and 4 are based in a land you don’t want to go. A player’s lineup slot having an impact on his production gets really far into psychology 101 and assumes more than it probably should, especially considering these guys are professionals.
Wright doesn’t get any RBI opportunities at all lately, if you’ve noticed. He’s barely had any RBI situations because the inning is usually over before it gets to him at 5.
One has a solid rational. Lets say that by hitting Wright in front of Sheffield, you’d expect him to see more fastballs. Fangraphs definitely shows that, as he is getting 61% fastballs as compared to 54% last year. However, if you bat Sheffield first, and bat Beltran second, he’d probably see, at most, two or three less fastballs a game.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions
If the bottom of your lineup is going to be like it was last night (and for the last few games)...
You might as well cluster everyone at the top. Assuming Voltron is still gimpy and Church is out, I don’t see why he wouldn’t throw something like this out there. I like the idea of Sheff leading off with his OBP, but Murph is struggling to much to have him in the heart of the order.
Murphy 1B
Beltran DH
Sheffield LF
Wright 3B
Tatis SS
Pagan RF
Reed CF
Castro C
Castillo 2B
If Murph is struggling too much to be in the heart of the order
Then why in God’s name would you bat him leadoff?
With those guys you listed, I’d do this:
Sheffield
Beltran
Tatis
Wright
Castro (if you’re married to the idea of the struggles mattering…I’m not there yet, I’d still bat Murphy 5th)
Murphy
Castillo
Reed
Pagan
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm not married to the idea of struggles...
But he just doesn’t belong in the middle of the order even if he wasn’t struggling. The bottom of the lineup looks weak. I like the idea of getting lefties (Pagan & Reed) in front of Castro as your bottom of the order run producer.
I’d certainly take the above though over whatever is going to be used tonight.
Outside of Wright, Beltran, and maybe Sheffield
No one in our lineup belongs in the top or middle of any order. Haha.
Murphy is just one of the “least bad” fits.
The problem with Castro as a run producer is that you want to leverage your speed. And a big fat guy who walks and clubs the ball isn’t as good for that as a bunch of singles hitters stacked together. To put it another way: you’re not going to feel as bad taking the bat out of Reed’s hands if you get caught stealing as you are taking the bat out of Castro’s hands.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions
It's really the depth of the lineup that is the issue. One more bat and Reyes/Delgado healthy...
…transforms us from meek, to devestating. I think we have to do what we have to do to pry Victor Martinez from the Tribe. Reasonable salary this year and you don’t find Switch- Hitter Catchers who hit for power and can play 1B everyday. He could help Murph until Delgado gets back and still be a very valuable piece afterward.
Reyes SS
Sheffield LF
Beltran CF
Wright 3B
Delgado 1B
V. Martinez C
Church RF
Castillo 2B
Thats all well and good
…Until you consider that the Indians probably like him too for all those reasons and wouldn’t part with him easily.
If anything, I think we’d be after the other Indians catcher.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions
yes
Plus, dealing for Victor Martinez would be the epitome of buying high on a player who’s likely to decline relatively soon and relatively steeply. The year or two of peak performance he has left, barring injury, is not worth the price.
My thoughts are...
…we need to win this year. It’s go for broke time. You can argue that the core of our team is young and hasn’t even hit their prime yet, but I’m worried that if we don’t breakthrough soon, there won’t be a core to build around.
so Omar should trade for V. Martinez because otherwise he'll blow up the franchise?
“Do something stupid quick, so that you won’t do something even stupider!” is not my idea of a persuasive argument.
I hardly see trading for him as stupid. He's the 2nd best catcher in the league
and on the books for $5m this year with a $7m option. I don’t know about you, but this franchise has made the playoffs 7 times in 47 years. When you have an opportunity (especially considering the last 2 years) you need to take it.
I'm generally in-line with your reasoning
But the time to start building the win-now team is in the offseason when people like Derek Lowe, Manny Ramirez, Orlando Hudson, and Adam Dunn are available for nothing but money.
Not that I’m averse to trading prospects for stars but it almost needs to be a Santana situation, where you’re getting someone who you don’t want to even think about letting on the open market. I’m not sure Martinez is that guy, and since he’s thrown out just 14% of runners this year, I’m not exactly sure he stays at catcher.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement
by riversmccown on May 23, 2009 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions
These concerns are certainly fair
I think V-Mart is worth considering, depending on how the bidding goes should he hit the open market. But if it gets too high too quick, I don’t think he’s worth the cost.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions
I disagree
The Indians have shown a propensity to deal their veterans whose contracts are coming up in the near future. Considering Carlos Santana’s bat is probably more than MLB ready now, and the prospect return they could likely get for V-Mart, he seems like the sell candidate if they decide to scrap the season. I don’t think they’ve decided that yet, but they’re certainly headed in that direction. Its conceivable than Santana/Shoppach could yield at least 80% of the V-Mart/Shoppach production level. So if they can get a young power arm who could move quickly for V-Mart, I have a feeling they’ll jump all over it.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Martinez has his flaws
And if it takes a mega-package to get him (Martinez, Havens, Niese, Holt for example), I would pass, but when their season continues to tank, I think he is gettable for a reasonable package.
The package will depend on how other teams feel
Its quite conceivable that the Indians would try to get the Mets, Phils, and Marlins into a bidding war, only to then send him to Boston for the kind of power arm that none the NL East teams have/can afford to spare.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions
I would count on that happening.
I don’t think Boston would trade Buchholz for him, but if he ends up going to the Phillies, we are in deep, deep trouble.
To be fair
Varitek’s been pretty good so far this year.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
The Red Sox have lots of interesting power arms the NL East teams couldn't/shouldn't match
That aren’t named Buchholz. The Phils don’t really have anyone, Carlos Carrasco’s not off to a good start this year. The Mets have Holt, whose probably a bit less advanced than the Angels would want, but should be interesting anyway. But he’s the only upside arm the Mets have over 20 years old. I’m sure I’m not thinking of someone, but what arms could the Marlins offer? It seems like all their young pitchers are in the rotation and their best prospects are mostly position guys. Gaby Hernandez maybe? He doesn’t seem to be a much different situation that Carrasco right now, except Gaby might have more long-term upside.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on May 23, 2009 6:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Marlins are 8-23
since their 11-1 start. Unless they snap out of this real soon, I highly doubt they’ll be going into “win now” mode and trading any parts for a guy like Martinez. How come nobody’s mentioning the Yankees – nobody needs a catcher more than them.
Yup...if the Red Sox get involved, it's over.
I just happen to think that he is a perfect fit for us. We can play him behind the plate this year and move him to 1B next year. With the flexibility to make that move and the minimal wear and tear on his body, I certainly think he is worth his contract (much more so in fact) and if the Indians decide to deal him and the cost isn’t prohibitive, I would give up the prospects for him.
It’s all conjecture at this point as we don’t know if Cleveland will deal him or what they might want if they do.
Manuel Managing Report Card.
Jerry Manuel gets an A plus. When the Mets got swept by the Dodgers the team could of gone to Boston and stunk up the place. Two great wins and no we can go for the sweep. His lineup is pretty good Sheffield has enough bat speed and power to hit clean up. Martinez played a very good shortstop on Saturday after having his problems on Friday. Manuel put Daniel Murphy at first and that is going very well so far. He used his bullpen very well Parnell,K-Rod,and now Putz kept the Red Sox at bay. He didn’t over manage by pitch hitting for Santos and that worked. Santos hit the two run home run that won the game for the Mets. I know that we talk bad about Manuel when the Mets mess up. So he should be praised when the team does well. A plus Jerry.
Mike Dunnom
Manuel Repot Card
I anted to say. To great wins and now we can go for the sweep.
Mike Dunnom
Manuel Report Card
Sorry again I misspelled wanted(then read the rest of the line)
Mike Dunnom
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