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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Posnanski: The Great Wedge …

Often called the connoisseur’s serving spoon of choice, the Wedge offers delivery at a divine incline for deeper penetration...into the playoffs.

Wedge knows himself, and I have immense respect for that. Funny, I criticized him here on this blog for going with Byrd, and I was instant-message-ripping him when Borowski came into the game, but all along I KNEW Wedge was going to do those things, because that’s what he does. He trusts his guys. He trusts Byrd to get outs at Yankee Stadium when the statistics say no. He trusts Borowski to finish things off with his ballsy pitching and frightening lack of stuff. It’s a gift.

Perfect example: Monday night, Wedge put all his faith in Paul Byrd, and Byrdy clawed and bluffed and survived for five good innings (I applaud Paul — good for him — though I will say the television announcers made him sound like he was Christy Matthewson meets Carl Hubbell, and that might have been a little bit of overkill. At one point, I could have sworn that Tony Gwynn said, “He’s a lot like John Smoltz.” I suppose this is true if Gwynn meant that they are both right-handed. And carbon-based life forms).

Repoz Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:22 AM | 20 comment(s)
  Related News: GeneralCleveland

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   1. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:34 AM (#2569687)
He trusts Borowski to finish things off with his ballsy pitching and frightening lack of stuff. It’s a gift.

I don't know..I still have this sneaking suspicion that Wedge's dogged (read: pig-headed) insistence on using Borowski will end up biting him in the a$$ sometime during these playoffs
   2. IronChef Chris Wok  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:37 AM (#2569688)
I can't wait for Borokowski vs. Gagne
   3. JJ1986  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:44 AM (#2569692)
In the regular season, the Indians had 32 sacrifices, which was 11th in the AL and only 2 higher than the 13th place team. In this series, they had 5 in 4 games, plus a few more attempts. Why?
   4. The Essex Snead  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:48 AM (#2569698)
Because the postseason is a totally different game! And it involves bailing out pitchers that are missing their spots!
   5. 1k5v3L, Useless  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:51 AM (#2569702)
Ya gotta be able to manufacture runs.
   6. Dayton Moore is a Big Fat Idiot (AG#1F)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:58 AM (#2569711)
Joel Skinner and Torey Lovullo - good managerial candidates? Or fooferaw?
   7. Matt Clement of Alexandria  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:03 AM (#2569718)
In the regular season, the Indians had 32 sacrifices, which was 11th in the AL and only 2 higher than the 13th place team. In this series, they had 5 in 4 games, plus a few more attempts. Why?
One of the Indians fans in chatter mentioned that Cleveland had sacrificed only 20 times before September began, almost the fewest in baseball, but then Wedge used the bunt 12 times in the month of September alone.

It's a weird turnaround, but the September-October continuity strongly suggests that Wedge will continue to bunt whenever possible as the postseason continues.
   8. Dag Nabbit: formerly tolerant of lactose  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:32 AM (#2569749)
One of the Indians fans in chatter mentioned that Cleveland had sacrificed only 20 times before September began, almost the fewest in baseball, but then Wedge used the bunt 12 times in the month of September alone.

They also had 8 in August.

Wedge's SH by year (and first/second half after that)

2003 - 46 (20/26)
2004 - 47 (27/20)
2005 - 39 (12/27)
2006 - 30 (13/17)
2007 - 32 (11/21)

Lofton & Cabrera combined for 7 bunts, and they didn't show up until late July/early August.

14 bunts came in late & close situations, 44%. Across the AL, 35% happened then (173/495).

17 - slightly over half - came with the game tied. The AL averaged was 38%.

6 came in extra innings (that's almost one-fifth of the AL's entire extra inning SH total) and 11 in innings 7-9.
   9. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 11:15 AM (#2569803)
He’s a lot like John Smoltz

Bearded homophobic Bible beater?
   10. Brandon in MO (Fire Trey Hillman)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 11:19 AM (#2569809)
Who are you to doubt Joe "Russian Roulette" Borowski?
   11. spycake  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 02:23 PM (#2570100)
I think a lot of the postseason emphasis on bunts, for the Indians anyway, is due to Asdrubal Cabrera in the #2 spot. I think he had 3 sac bunts alone in the DS. He's an inexperienced, groundball hitter, so if he can put guys into scoring position, with less than two outs, and avoid the GIDP with Hafner and Martinez due up, more power to him.
   12. 1k5v3L, Useless  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 02:29 PM (#2570112)
Btw, Gary Huckabay ripped Paul Byrd in his chat yesterday, saying that the Yankees eat finesse pitchers for breakfast, and therefore would rip Byrd a new hole (paraphrasing).

Today, Huckabay humbly ate his crow.

I'm still waiting for Nate Silver's "I was wrong about the Dbacks" column.
   13. The Bones McCoy of THT  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 02:35 PM (#2570120)
Today, Huckabay humbly ate his crow.


Succinctly put by Huckabay ... a touch of humour makes it go down a little easier. Well played Gary.

Best Regards

John
   14. mgl  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 09:59 PM (#2570414)
It always seems like great hitting teams "eat" finesse pitchers. That proposition is ridiculous. Great hitting teams hit better than average teams against ALL pitchers, etc. The Yankees scored 6 runs a game versus league average pitching. Byrd is worse than a league average starter. So sure, they were likely to beat up on him to the tune of 6+ runs per game. And they didn't. So what?
   15. Trevor Crowe T. Robot (Dan Lee)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:11 PM (#2570421)
Joel Skinner and Torey Lovullo - good managerial candidates? Or fooferaw?
Decent managerial candidates, at worst. Skinner did an entirely adequate job with the '02 Indians, taking over a team with Ryan Drese (69 ERA+) in the rotation, Einar Diaz (43 OPS+), Travis Fryman (69 OPS+), Russell Branyan (71 OPS+), John McDonald (62), Chris Magruder (60), and Ricky Gutierrez (78) playing at least semi-regularly, and managing them to a 35-40 record. I was surprised when Skinner got the heave-ho after the season. It was a classy move for him to stay in the organization instead of sulking elsewhere.

I know relatively little about Lovullo as a manager, but he's been well thought-of as a managerial prospect in the organization for a while now, and AFAIK is pretty well liked (as a guy) throughout the organization.

The guy I think is a rising star as a coach is Scott Radinsky. IMO he'll be a successful MLB pitching coach sooner rather than later.
   16. Dayton Moore is a Big Fat Idiot (AG#1F)  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:17 PM (#2570428)
Thanks for the input. I like Skinner quite a bit and wish the Royals would take a look at him.

The guy I think is a rising star as a coach is Scott Radinsky. IMO he'll be a successful MLB pitching coach sooner rather than later.

I liked him a lot as a player. Seemed like he had personality. Wasn't he a rock star as a player?
   17. Justin T  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:28 PM (#2570436)
I thought Radinsky got MS.
   18. Justin T  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 10:59 PM (#2570456)
Guess I mixed him up with Stan Belinda for some reason. At least their careers were relatively concurrent.
   19. Mike Webber  Posted: October 09, 2007 at 11:11 PM (#2570463)
Radinsky had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma - same as Jon Lester.
   20. Cooperstown Schtick  Posted: October 10, 2007 at 06:44 AM (#2570556)
Joel Skinner and Torey Lovullo - good managerial candidates? Or fooferaw?


Sparky Anderson thinks Torey Lovullo is the greatest managerial candidate he's ever seen.
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