4441464048425B464F5C5A572E0 wrote: Infield In blew the game to me. I would love to see some stats on this strategic move. I know every team does it, but I have no idea why.
If Mercer was a few steps back, he probably saves two runs.
IMO, he should have made the play anyway, but without infield in, it certainly would have been a lot easier.
Yeah, I just had it on the radio but the impression from them is that Jordy just blew it. Just a mistake from someone who doesn't make them too often.
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
Moderators: SammyKhalifa, Doc, Bobster
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SammyKhalifa
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dogknot17@yahoo.co
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
No way. It was a hard grounder out of his reach, might have nipped him. No one makes that play from where Mercer was standing.
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johnfluharty
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
3F343C3035342F6A6C1B223A3334347538345B0 wrote: No way. It was a hard grounder out of his reach, might have nipped him. No one makes that play from where Mercer was standing.
I disagree. He tried to smother the ball to make sure it didn't get past him and blew it. If he had just picked it he would have been fine. He missed it by an inch, right under his glove. I was an error. Tough play, but definitely doable. Ngoepe makes that play easily.
I disagree. He tried to smother the ball to make sure it didn't get past him and blew it. If he had just picked it he would have been fine. He missed it by an inch, right under his glove. I was an error. Tough play, but definitely doable. Ngoepe makes that play easily.
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Bobster21
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
151D1E293F1A3D325C0 wrote: Couldn't watch the second half of the game last night, but looks like another bullpen meltdown...maybe left Kuhl in a bit too long...don't know, like I said, didn't see it. Regardless, here are my thoughts.
1. We are a good bullpen away from being in first place. If you think back to 13-15, one of the big reasons we won was because of a shutdown bullpen. If we had the lead after the sixth inning, the fat lady had already sung. Some combination of Wilson-Hughes-Caminero-Feliz-Watson-Melancon-Grilli and a few others was pretty much automatic. Now, not so much. This is surprising to me for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that if NH has shown a propensity for anything in his time as GM, it's that he can put a very good bullpen together. If this can get fixed, I think we can stay in the NL Central race all year.
2. Regardless of whoever else gets moved at the trade deadline, the Pirates are probably going to get the best player at the deadline in Marte. I for one don't think post-PED-Marte will have a huge drop-off from PED-Marte. Just speculation on my part, but given that he had never had a positive test before, and the particular drug that was found in his system was one that remains for quite some time, I wonder if it wasn't something he look last year to heal from the late season injury that kept him out the last month or so of the season. Again, just speculating. Regardless, Marte is an impact player who will drastically improve our outfield defense and lengthen our lineup.
3. Even with all that has gone wrong this year (Kang DUI and visa issues, Marte PED use, Taillon cancer, McCutchen being below replacement level for the first two months, Frazier and Freeze injuries, Cervelli's repeated DL trips, the abysmal defense that would make a little league team run laps), even with all that, we are somehow still in the midst of a pennant race.
4. Like someone else said, Diaz is my catcher.
5. Like someone else said, I insert Brault into the rotation.
6. Like someone else said, I tell Chad Kuhl he's the long man, and not as some kind of punishment like Ryan Vogelsong was the long man at one time. Rather, if I'm Hurdle, I tell Kuhl that he's the primary guy I'm going to to give me two innings and get the ball to Rivero. It's sad that Watson has regressed so much, but he's just not the same guy he was two years ago.
Record aside, we are five out with just over half the year to go. McCutchen is back to MVP level. Cole looks to be back to being good Cole. Taillon looks healthy. Marte is coming back. If we were 46-30, chasing a Brewers team that was 51-25, we'd all be on board. Even though no one in the Central deserves to be in the playoffs, someone is going to get in. Five games out is five games out. And, given that with even a modicum of a decent bullpen we'd probably be in first place right now, I like our chances. Remember, the Cards snuck into the playoffs one year and won a World Series. Once you get to October, everybody has a shot, unlike other sports **cough, cough*** NBA I'm looking at you ***cough, cough***.
Get in and see what happens.
Re the bullpen: NH has largely constructed pens from reclamation projects like Grilli, Melancon, Blanton and Feliz. Others like Watson and Hughes eventually regressed around age 30 or 31 after 5 or so years of effective pitching. NH missed with this year's reclamations of Hudson and LeBlanc. Any time the strategy is to obtain relievers who have not been doing well and count on being able to revive their careers, there is a possibility all you're getting is relievers who will not do well. This year is a crash and burn bullpen.
5 games out is 5 games out, true. But there's a big difference in dynamic between being 5 games out at 46-30 and 5 games out at 35-41. A 46-30 team has a lot going right and is capable of playing well enough to reel off the wins and overtake the teams ahead of them. A 35-41 team has a lot going wrong and doesn't get very hot or reel off a lot of wins. It has to have all the teams ahead of it become so bad that they get passed in the standings by being the worst of the worst. The Pirates were 6 games under .500 on May 10, in 5th place, 5.5 games back. Today they are still 6 games under, tied for 3rd place, 5 games back. In that span, they've played 42 games (over 25% of the season), are still the same 6 under .500 and gained 0.5 games. They aren't making any sort of move and have found only 1 team (the Reds) who would play badly enough (losing 13 of 15) to slide under the Pirates while they tread water at 6 games under. The status quo isn't working.
1. We are a good bullpen away from being in first place. If you think back to 13-15, one of the big reasons we won was because of a shutdown bullpen. If we had the lead after the sixth inning, the fat lady had already sung. Some combination of Wilson-Hughes-Caminero-Feliz-Watson-Melancon-Grilli and a few others was pretty much automatic. Now, not so much. This is surprising to me for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that if NH has shown a propensity for anything in his time as GM, it's that he can put a very good bullpen together. If this can get fixed, I think we can stay in the NL Central race all year.
2. Regardless of whoever else gets moved at the trade deadline, the Pirates are probably going to get the best player at the deadline in Marte. I for one don't think post-PED-Marte will have a huge drop-off from PED-Marte. Just speculation on my part, but given that he had never had a positive test before, and the particular drug that was found in his system was one that remains for quite some time, I wonder if it wasn't something he look last year to heal from the late season injury that kept him out the last month or so of the season. Again, just speculating. Regardless, Marte is an impact player who will drastically improve our outfield defense and lengthen our lineup.
3. Even with all that has gone wrong this year (Kang DUI and visa issues, Marte PED use, Taillon cancer, McCutchen being below replacement level for the first two months, Frazier and Freeze injuries, Cervelli's repeated DL trips, the abysmal defense that would make a little league team run laps), even with all that, we are somehow still in the midst of a pennant race.
4. Like someone else said, Diaz is my catcher.
5. Like someone else said, I insert Brault into the rotation.
6. Like someone else said, I tell Chad Kuhl he's the long man, and not as some kind of punishment like Ryan Vogelsong was the long man at one time. Rather, if I'm Hurdle, I tell Kuhl that he's the primary guy I'm going to to give me two innings and get the ball to Rivero. It's sad that Watson has regressed so much, but he's just not the same guy he was two years ago.
Record aside, we are five out with just over half the year to go. McCutchen is back to MVP level. Cole looks to be back to being good Cole. Taillon looks healthy. Marte is coming back. If we were 46-30, chasing a Brewers team that was 51-25, we'd all be on board. Even though no one in the Central deserves to be in the playoffs, someone is going to get in. Five games out is five games out. And, given that with even a modicum of a decent bullpen we'd probably be in first place right now, I like our chances. Remember, the Cards snuck into the playoffs one year and won a World Series. Once you get to October, everybody has a shot, unlike other sports **cough, cough*** NBA I'm looking at you ***cough, cough***.
Get in and see what happens.
Re the bullpen: NH has largely constructed pens from reclamation projects like Grilli, Melancon, Blanton and Feliz. Others like Watson and Hughes eventually regressed around age 30 or 31 after 5 or so years of effective pitching. NH missed with this year's reclamations of Hudson and LeBlanc. Any time the strategy is to obtain relievers who have not been doing well and count on being able to revive their careers, there is a possibility all you're getting is relievers who will not do well. This year is a crash and burn bullpen.
5 games out is 5 games out, true. But there's a big difference in dynamic between being 5 games out at 46-30 and 5 games out at 35-41. A 46-30 team has a lot going right and is capable of playing well enough to reel off the wins and overtake the teams ahead of them. A 35-41 team has a lot going wrong and doesn't get very hot or reel off a lot of wins. It has to have all the teams ahead of it become so bad that they get passed in the standings by being the worst of the worst. The Pirates were 6 games under .500 on May 10, in 5th place, 5.5 games back. Today they are still 6 games under, tied for 3rd place, 5 games back. In that span, they've played 42 games (over 25% of the season), are still the same 6 under .500 and gained 0.5 games. They aren't making any sort of move and have found only 1 team (the Reds) who would play badly enough (losing 13 of 15) to slide under the Pirates while they tread water at 6 games under. The status quo isn't working.
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SammyKhalifa
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6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
So they're basically .500 since that time (where a lot of people thought they'd be). They're not as bad as they seemed at the time (or as some people make them out to be) and probably not as good a a lot of people would like them to be.
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dogknot17@yahoo.co
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
474245434B4158454C5F59542D0 wrote: No way. It was a hard grounder out of his reach, might have nipped him. No one makes that play from where Mercer was standing.
I disagree. He tried to smother the ball to make sure it didn't get past him and blew it. If he had just picked it he would have been fine. He missed it by an inch, right under his glove. I was an error. Tough play, but definitely doable. Ngoepe makes that play easily.
Hard hit ball. Mercer barely had time to get his glove on the ground. A few steps back, he makes the play. No one makes that play easily. Mercer is very good on defense too (despite the earlier error).
I disagree. He tried to smother the ball to make sure it didn't get past him and blew it. If he had just picked it he would have been fine. He missed it by an inch, right under his glove. I was an error. Tough play, but definitely doable. Ngoepe makes that play easily.
Hard hit ball. Mercer barely had time to get his glove on the ground. A few steps back, he makes the play. No one makes that play easily. Mercer is very good on defense too (despite the earlier error).
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SammyKhalifa
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6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
Well I still haven't watched the replay (eh) but I have to give weight to what John Wehner had to say about it.
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johnfluharty
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
The ESPN commentators felt that it was one he should have had as well.
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SammyKhalifa
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6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
To be clear I'm not a big fan of the teams playing "in" as much as they do either
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dogknot17@yahoo.co
6/25/17-Putting the Cards in the Rear-View Mirror
Here are the highlights. Maybe I am bias as I hate the Infield In strategy:
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/pirates-vs- ... ame=491240
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/pirates-vs- ... ame=491240