*** Official St Louis Cardinals to the 2006 World Series Thread *** - Page 68

djj6835 · #**671** 08-20-2006, 03:18 AM

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Someone else.

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In all honesty the more hands off a manger is over the course of a game, the better the team will do. LaRussa seems to do a fine job of putting a team together with the help of Walt Jocketty. He also does a great job of getting his team ready to play. The problems start once the game begins. I would be happy with LaRussa as a coach if he would just learn the negatives behind so many popular baseball plays such as hit and runs, sac bunts, intentional walks, and pitcher batter matchups. He's just seems to be obsessed with all these plays and is constantly making changes when changes don't need to be made.

astroglide · #**672** 08-20-2006, 04:32 AM

oquendo should charge and tackle larussa the next time he decides to play righty/lefty.

astroglide · #**673** 08-20-2006, 02:42 PM

lol at this first inning against the cubs...duncan kicks it off w/a homer, we go through 8 batters and score 4 runs.

djj6835 · #**674** 08-20-2006, 03:19 PM

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lol at this first inning against the cubs...duncan kicks it off w/a homer, we go through 8 batters and score 4 runs.

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I'm just happy the cards are starting to give Carpenter some run support.

astroglide · #**675** 08-20-2006, 04:17 PM

this is turning into a really fast game. bottom of the 8th 2 hours after the first pitch.

djj6835 · #**676** 08-20-2006, 04:33 PM

brace yourself...

edit: uh oh
edit 2: izzy gets it done despite pitching two innings yesterday.

Quadstriker · #**677** 08-20-2006, 05:35 PM

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yay, let's pinch hit encarnacion for duncan w/loaded bases and 1 out!

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Glad I'm not the only one who thought this was ridiculously stupid. Everyone in the poker room let out a collective "WTF?!" when Juan stepped up.

Your Mom · #**678** 08-20-2006, 06:54 PM

Dusty found someone he can outmanage

crockpot · #**679** 08-21-2006, 03:13 PM

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i don't give a [censored] if he hits "better" against left-handers. duncan hasn't seen that many lefties, and he's swinging a white hot bat. more importantly, encarnacion is not a contact hitter. he hacks at a lot of stuff with decent success, but i think duncan is WAY more likely to provide a sacrifice fly there.

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check out this pitcher's stats:

1.5 BB/9
13.1 K/9
5.7 G/F ratio
.552 OPS against

if this guy can keep this up, he has a great chance at being the best pitcher of all time. no one in the majors now has a K rate or G/F ratio even close to him, and he combines that with very few walks. if i encounter a critical situation, like bases loaded, 1 out, ninth inning, and i can have any pitcher in the majors in there, this is the guy i want.

only one problem. this pitcher doesn't exist. these stats are actually chris duncan's batting line against lefties in AAA, where the pitchers are substantially below major-league quality.

la russa has definitely done too much platooning in his career, but even the right move goes wrong a large percentage of the time.

astroglide · #**680** 08-22-2006, 01:16 AM

it's still 48 at-bats, and he was "minor league quality" then too. he wasn't doing fantastic against rhps.

couldn't you could extrapolate things by saying he statistically hits 80% of his avg against lefties too, if you want to play numbers? i'd take 80% of his 550 game-leading weekly...the guy's on a tear.

if encarnacion hits there i'd feel like we dodged a bullet, not like we just witnessed genius in management. there's the intangible buzzkill too. same thing as yanking belliard the night after he first does well. momentum is a real thing, they are humans out there playing. confidence and motivation runs with the winners, second-guessing with the losers. i think you only need one of those elements present to affect a game.