Baseball Managing 101

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 6:36 AM PDT Comment 24 comments

Top o' the ninth, tying run on second base, no outs. (Degree of difficulty - your team is among the worst in OBP and near the lead in strikeouts.)

Do you:

a. BUNT THE GUY TO THIRD!

b. Send a cold pinch hitter up to flail away. Hopefully this batter will be a player with next to no major league at-bats.

My 11 and 13 year old sons immediately asked me why the Pads weren't bunting. Apparently they should be managing the Padres. This is just embarrassing.

Bud Black is not a good manager. Discuss.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Gaslamp Ball community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gaslamp Ball managers or SB Nation.

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Not much to discuss

Bud Black is not a good manager.

by Winfield's Ghost on Jul 18, 2008 6:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I was hoping some of the more enlightened and closer in proximity GLB regulars (I moved to Florida a few years ago after 38 years in SD; don’t ask) would have an explanation, but alas it appears my judgment of Black is correct. As an SDSU alumnus I was really rooting for him to do well. Dammit.

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 8:02 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd tell Adrian to bunt Giles over to third.

So Kooz can strikeout and Chase can flyout.

And maybe if one of those two drew a walk (LOL!), I’d have Khalil step into one and have Luuuke come in and flail at two and a half pitches.

What’s he supposed to do with an incomplete toolset?

can you cure us of this fate
mock the litany in its face

by Axion on Jul 18, 2008 8:31 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

How about this?

Maddux comes in and easily bunts the runner over. At that point you’ve got two shots to drive in the runner. A sac fly ties the game. Also, Black burned Hairston earlier and ended up needing him in the ninth inning situation. In addition to all this, you are putting pressure on the defense, as well as a sinkerball/splitter pitcher who could WP in the tying run, especially if he was trying to throw the perfect pitch with one out and a guy on third.

As they say, a good craftsman never blames his tools.

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 8:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's the point

Maddux is the only guy who can really bunt on the team.

Everybody else actually has a better chance at getting a base hit than laying down a sacrifice, it seems.

can you cure us of this fate
mock the litany in its face

by Axion on Jul 18, 2008 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

which is why

they should be spending every batting practice bunting and not hitting fly outs and homering its a waste of time when they do that all the time and it isn’t helping them
base hits and bunts is what they should be practicing until they can all do it when needed…

except this isn’t the “philosophy” of the franchise… which is stupid

everyone should have been practicing baserunning and bunting during the allstar break and although i don’t know for sure, i don’t think thats what they were doing.

You know I could go for a sandwich, but uh, I'm not gonna open two jars. I can't be opening and closing all kinds of jars.

by C8LIN B on Jul 18, 2008 1:53 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno if it was just for show

but you saw them doing that and even Khalil and Kooz taking infield alongside each other for that Saturday game. So they have done it, no word of if they actually do it.

can you cure us of this fate
mock the litany in its face

by Axion on Jul 18, 2008 2:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

i don't think it is enough

most of the bunting came from pitchers! I wanna go and see them do nothing but bunting for like a week at least

i don’t know, my uncle has been a coach for years and my grandpa was too and i subscribe to their way of coaching and its to get things done and if you can’t that’s what you work on until you get it right. so if that means a week of running you run, a week of bunting you bunt so on and so forth.

like the day after Jody Gerut couldn’t get that pivatol bunt on and they said on 1090 that there was no one out there practice bunting… and even when i got there as soon as the park and the park was open and the starters were taking bp they weren’t bunting at all except for the first pitch the first time they went up there… i’ve been harboring a lot of resentment since then

You know I could go for a sandwich, but uh, I'm not gonna open two jars. I can't be opening and closing all kinds of jars.

by C8LIN B on Jul 18, 2008 2:17 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

option c.

shoot the hostage. take her out of the equation.

by Dex on Jul 18, 2008 10:40 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

FireJoeMorgan on sacrifice bunting

Ah, sac bunting. While it is excessively polite - “Here, other team, take one of my precious outs. No no - I insist! Allow me to make it as easy as possible for you.”—it is also strategically numbskulled. If you took the idea of bunting and applied it to World War II, it would be the equivalent of notifying the Germans ahead of time that the Allies were heading for Omaha, figuring: hell, we still have the advantage at Sword and Juno.

"When the going gets tough... TheGrandHatching pops in later." -- WG

by TheGrandHatching on Jul 18, 2008 12:41 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I feel I should add, however...

according to WPA (Win Probability Added), the one scenario when it makes sense to bunt is in the bottom of the ninth with a tied score, runner on second and no outs.

"When the going gets tough... TheGrandHatching pops in later." -- WG

by TheGrandHatching on Jul 18, 2008 1:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Way to pick a side

by Winfield's Ghost on Jul 18, 2008 1:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Reacclimating myself to GLB

Trying hard not to make enemies in my first week back. Not to worry though. I figure by Sunday I’ll have called you all a bunch of a-holes, setting everything in the universe right again.

"When the going gets tough... TheGrandHatching pops in later." -- WG

by TheGrandHatching on Jul 18, 2008 2:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is a great place

I come and go sporadically due to work and time zone issues, and everyone here has always been pretty cool. Most of the people that are here a lot know baseball and know the Pads even better. The commenting is baseball-centric, unlike some sites where everyone is just trying to get off a clever or snarky line. When a clever, funny or snarky line IS called for, they are usually pretty funny and spot on.

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 2:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

"You guys are all a bunch of a-holes"

is still my favorite TGH line.

by Winfield's Ghost on Jul 18, 2008 2:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Such a great line.

by Drama on Jul 19, 2008 11:24 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here it is.

by Drama on Jul 19, 2008 11:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

this

Plus, as I said, I think the probability goes up even higher when you have a pitcher that uses a splitter as his out pitch.

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 2:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

one more thing

The fact that the Germans were concentrating on mowing ‘em down at Omaha allowed us to have a much easier time of it at Utah.

Having said that, I am not super comfortable comparing what happened on those beaches to anything as trivial as baseball. We should never forget exactly what those men did that day. I will now get off my soapbox.

by I_Can_Still_Pitch on Jul 18, 2008 2:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Leadoff triples left stranded

We’ve got more this year than you can count on one hand… especially if you’re a wood shop teacher. Getting the runner over to third is just moving the fail situation to the next guy with this squad.

can you cure us of this fate
mock the litany in its face

by Axion on Jul 18, 2008 1:09 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs