Machado in the two hole?

[bobmc]

Well there was that nice sinkhole opened up down the road.

I guess you do get out for a car show or two but normally down in the cellar methinks.....twiddling bits.

[MachadOboutManny]

Nick

Nolan

1

2

For the season.

Machado has a broken bat blooper today and a couple first pitch pop outs. Thats fine. He's trying to figure it out. I dont want Manny up vs the other teams set up men or closers in front of our big guys to end a game. Bailey just made a joke of the poor kid. This is not where he should be batting. He's 20. Let him learn the game and see a few thousand more pitches and then move him on up baby!

Nate Mclouth and Manny Machado leading off. My oh my. What in the Buck is going on.

[Can_of_corn]

I guess you do get out for a car show or two but normally down in the cellar methinks.....twiddling bits.

Occasional Crab Cake at the OBC as well.

[clapdiddy]

Then the other manager can use the same lefty to pitch to Markakis and McLouth and maybe even as far as Davis. Buck wants a righty there to break things up.

So then, you bring in Reimold to hit for McLouth. I don't think it's that big of a deal.

[El Gordo]

Hardy would not be a better option. His OBP will likely be below .300. Reimold can do much better than that.

Reimold's OBP is .350 right now. That's very good. He just hasn't hit for power so far, but we know he's very capable of that.

Saying that Machado will eventually be fine isn't good enough for me. Eventually doesn't necessarily mean this year. I want to win now, and I don't see how hitting Machado 7th would negatively effect him at all.

Your talking about what you think will happen. I'm ralking about what is happening now. While I am happy with Hardy hitting where he is, he is still currently more productive than Reimold. As to Reimold vs Manny, in Manny I see a more complete player who will be a good number 2 hitter by the ASB IMO. Manny's approach is better suited to that spot in the lineup, and Reimold's power, if it ever shows up again, is better suited further down.

[eddie83]

So then, you bring in Reimold to hit for McLouth. I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Then you are weakening your defense in what might be a tied game. You certainly aren't going to do it with a 3 man bench.

[MachadOboutManny]

Too bad the guys who can hit come up with no one on base.

[isestrex]

Too bad the guys who can hit come up with no one on base.

Everyone came up with no one on base today. Buchholz did a good job as he always does against the Orioles.

[rmt64]

As against Manny in the 2 hole as i was/am hes actually swinging the bat at least decently. My biggest issue (other than his batting clip being a hair under what wed like) is that a lot of his ABs havr just been poor.

Hes not working counts/walks and doing a lot of hacking early in counts. Make the pitvher work for it, have good ABs, and help run the pitch count up if nothing else. Hell almost cettainly cone around and make an outstanding 2 hole bat... Just not right now.

I guess Buck is giving him the job abd letting him get comfortable in it to see what he can really bring right now. I just worry his leash could be "Hardy long" regardless of production.

Time will tell.

[ScottieBaseball]

Sigh...lets break out the old chestnut "Well you didn't play the game at a high level."

Where they or were they not wrong about BABIP? Is that not a clear comparison to "lineup protection"? Am I not willing to consider it if evidence is shown? If it exists why the difficulty in quantifying it?

You are talking about taking something on faith, which is fine. I don't think it is reasonable of you to be dissmisive toward my view when all I am asking is for some actual evidence.

Meh...I probably could have guessed.

Anyhoo...Here's the evidence: Catcher walks out to the mound and asks, "How do you want to pitch this guy?" The pitcher looks at the on-deck circle and says, "Well I'm more confident that I can get that guy out than this one. I'm not giving this guy anything to hit."

It happens. It affects the game. I just quantified it.

[ScottieBaseball]

At least I wasn't accused of living in a basement, so there has been progress.

Hey man...you got all snarky with me out of the gate. "Let's pretend this actually exists..."

You don't live in the basement...do you?

[Nigel Tufnel]

Meh...I probably could have guessed.

Anyhoo...Here's the evidence: Catcher walks out to the mound and asks, "How do you want to pitch this guy?" The pitcher looks at the on-deck circle and says, "Well I'm more confident that I can get that guy out than this one. I'm not giving this guy anything to hit."

It happens. It affects the game. I just quantified it.

Right, it seems like it should happen, but from what I gather plenty of people have studied it and can't really find any evidence that it shows up in the stats. I think Bill James's line was something like, if you're going to tell me that you saw elephants playing in the snow, you should at least be able to show me their footprints.

[Can_of_corn]

Meh...I probably could have guessed.

Anyhoo...Here's the evidence: Catcher walks out to the mound and asks, "How do you want to pitch this guy?" The pitcher looks at the on-deck circle and says, "Well I'm more confident that I can get that guy out than this one. I'm not giving this guy anything to hit."

It happens. It affects the game. I just quantified it.

I notice you have ignored the BABIP comparison twice now.

You have also decidedly not quantified that it made a difference in the way the game unfurled. Maybe in your example the next hitter, whom the pitcher wants to face, hits a three run homer after the walk. You know, like what happened in Tampa last week. I guess in hindsight they would have been better off pitching to Wieters.

[ScottieBaseball]

Right, it seems like it should happen, but from what I gather plenty of people have studied it and can't really find any evidence that it shows up in the stats. I think Bill James's line was something like, if you're going to tell me that you saw elephants playing in the snow, you should at least be able to show me their footprints.

Sweet baby Jesus...it doesn't SEEM like it should happen, it DOES happen. I'm not arguing whether or not there's a clear, definitive, statistically quantifiable impact on the game...I'm saying that it DOES happen, I've been part of it as a player, a coach, and a writer discussing it with professional players and coaches.

I get your elephant/footprints analogy, but why do you need to see the elephant's footprints when the elephant himself will tell you about playing in the snow?

[ScottieBaseball]

I notice you have ignored the BABIP comparison twice now.

You have also decidedly not quantified that it made a difference in the way the game unfurled. Maybe in your example the next hitter, whom the pitcher wants to face, hits a three run homer after the walk. You know, like what happened in Tampa last week. I guess in hindsight they would have been better off pitching to Wieters.

BABIP and lineup protection are apples and hand grenades to me. I understand your struggle with interpreting "data" that doesn't fit into a formula or spreadsheet, but whether or not you can calculate lineup protection, it exists in baseball in some capacity.

I don't need to quantify that it made a difference in the way the game unfurled. My whole point is that who's standing in the on deck circle 9and potentially who's in the hole) plays into decisions made by coaches and players. That's it. In order to determine whether or not the decisions made a difference in the way the game unfurled you'd have to be privy to the pitch-by-pitch and/or hitter-by-hitter debate amongst the coaches and players.

For what it's worth, my defense of lineup protection has caused me to sound as though I'm dramatically overemphasizing its importance. I'm not arguing its significance, but only that it exists despite the lack of statistical evidence. It's part of the somewhat intangible human element/impact on the game.