OnlyBucs

Streak is over

Toronto 6

Rays 3

Mets drop 17 on the hapless A's

A's have replaced the bucs as the joke of baseball

We have a stadium. They don't.

Former Buc utility man took it one step further today. He did some

pitching today in the Phillies 13-0 loss to the Reds. He was

charged with 6 runs on 5 hits. Not a very auspicious appearance

Cubs drop 13 on the Dodgers- 13-0

46787D75667E7E755570677423110 wrote: Cubs drop 13 on the Dodgers- 13-0
Boston beat Brewers. Bucs one game out

I have a little free time right now and I turned on my MLB.tv app. The only game going is the Yankees/Blue Jays game. Gerrit Cole is pitching for NY. If I had to pick a favorite AL team, it would be Toronto. But, it's interesting to me the strategy the Jays are employing. It's 0-0 in the bottom of the third. Yankees have runners on second and third, one out. Again, Cole on the mound for NY.



The Jays are playing their infield back. They're not trying to cut down a run at the plate, conceding a run to get an out.



Admittedly, I haven't watched a lot of the Pirates the last three years. But, I'm getting back into it this year. I don't have a well-formed opinion on Shelton, but one thing that bugs me is the insistence on always playing the infield in with a runner on third. I'd rather they just concede the run, get an out, and stay out of big inning.

51595A6D7B5E7976180 wrote: I have a little free time right now and I turned on my MLB.tv app. The only game going is the Yankees/Blue Jays game. Gerrit Cole is pitching for NY. If I had to pick a favorite AL team, it would be Toronto. But, it's interesting to me the strategy the Jays are employing. It's 0-0 in the bottom of the third. Yankees have runners on second and third, one out. Again, Cole on the mound for NY.



The Jays are playing their infield back. They're not trying to cut down a run at the plate, conceding a run to get an out.



Admittedly, I haven't watched a lot of the Pirates the last three years. But, I'm getting back into it this year. I don't have a well-formed opinion on Shelton, but one thing that bugs me is the insistence on always playing the infield in with a runner on third. I'd rather they just concede the run, get an out, and stay out of big inning.
I agree, but it's not just the Pirates. I see a lot of teams playing the infield up early in games with a runner at 3B. I think it's a poor strategy because it's a gamble that increases the chance of getting a hit and having a bigger inning. Seems like it used to be done only late in games when that run would likely decide the game. In some extreme cases, teams would do it early in a game against a pitcher they thought they might not score against, so maybe that's what Toronto was thinking against Cole. The Pirates seem to do it frequently, even early in games.



The other side of that coin is the running on contact. As we often see with the Pirates, running on contact against a drawn in infield is usually an easy, unnecessary out. Teams would draw the infielders in as much to hold the runner at 3B as to make a play at the plate. The runner usually held rather than run into an easy out and the team took its chances with their next batter, still having a runner at 3B. But the Pirates generally run on contact into an easy out in that situation.

Not that I’m scoreboard watching, but the Brewers are down seven in the ninth. Bucs are gonna be in first place with the best record in the NL in about ten minutes.