Oh, great. Let's hope this leads to more intentional walks. That'll be awesome.

Question: When Repoz gives a hat tip to somebody, what the hell is he talking about?

Jim Tracy intentionally walked Matt Kemp when he was the tying run in the 9th inning earlier this week. It backfired when Dee Gordon doubled him in. Hurdle isn't doing anything new here.

Question: When Repoz gives a hat tip to somebody, what the hell is he talking about?

Giving credit for finding the linked story, I assume.

I always did, too, but he never thanks anybody I recognize even a little bit.

From B-R PI:

All of MLB: 17264 Intentional Walks Allowed in 1948-2012, during innings 7-end and score tied

2730 Pitchers
  Kent Tekulve 79
   Gene Garber 75
Ron Perranoski 65
Rollie Fingers 61
    Tug McGraw 60
   Greg Minton 59
  Gary Lavelle 58
    Stu Miller 55
  Bruce Sutter 51
     Lee Smith 49

2464 Batters
  Barry Bonds 101
     Pete Rose 66
  George Brett 63
    Tony Gwynn 63
    Hank Aaron 63
   Rusty Staub 58
   Willie Mays 53
  Jeff Bagwell 53
Frank Robinson 51
   Chili Davis 51

 Bases 
-2- 9622
-23 3436
--3 2406
1-3 1544
12-  130
---   81
1--   45

I always did, too, but he never thanks anybody I recognize even a little bit.

I figured that's because they're mostly lurkers. If you found a story you wanted to see posted, you'd post it.

So, so many stupid intentional walks.

[8] IBB 1948-2012 with bases loaded, from 7th inning on:

                                                                                                                                                                        
Yr#   Gm#       Date       Pitcher  Tm Opp        Batter     Score Inn RoB Out Pit(cnt)Sequence R   WPA  RE24   LI                                      Play Description
1       1 1998-05-28   Gregg Olson ARI SFG   Barry Bonds ahead 8-6  b9 123   2           4(3-0) 1 -0.10 -1.00 6.85   Intentional Walk Kent Scores Hayes to 3B Snow to 2B
2       1 2008-08-17 Grant Balfour TBR TEX Josh Hamilton ahead 7-3  b9 123   2           4(3-0) 1 -0.05 -1.00 1.82 Intentional Walk Davis Scores Boggs to 3B Young to 2B

It's astonishing that in this day and age that games between multimillionaire athletes are influenced by indefensible strategic blunders.

I really don't understand the issue here. The Pirates had first base open and one of the league's best hitters up with the platoon advantage. Hurdle opted to face a much less dangerous hitter, with his team getting the platoon edge.

I have no disagreement that the IBB is used too much. But the idea that every IBB is some kind of inexcusable boner is going too far. Opting not to let a righthander pitch to Joey Votto with the tying run on second base in the eighth inning is, at the very least, pretty damn defensible. Particularly when, you know, the rest of the inning (and game) played out just as the skipper intended.

The Reds #4 hitters (mostly Phillips, some Rolen/Ludwick) are hitting a combined .178/.259/.277 with 2 HR. That's an sOPS+ of 42. I'd never throw Votto a strike with men on base and/or in a close game. Hell maybe not ever.

I really don't understand the issue here. The Pirates had first base open and one of the league's best hitters up with the platoon advantage. Hurdle opted to face a much less dangerous hitter, with his team getting the platoon edge. I have no disagreement that the IBB is used too much. But the idea that every IBB is some kind of inexcusable boner is going too far.

You're wasting your...fingers.

I made a similar point, although not as succinctly, last week when Gorzelanny pitched to Matt Kemp, only the hottest hitter on the planet. The natural result happened, boom! home run, and the Nationals lost. I suggested that they should have walked Kemp, which resulted in the expected flurry of dogmatic opposition.

Opting not to let a righthander pitch to Joey Votto with the tying run on second base in the eighth inning is, at the very least, pretty damn defensible. Particularly when, you know, the rest of the inning (and game) played out just as the skipper intended.

Hey, who said you were allowed to say something reasonable in this thread?

Not necessarily the same thing, but in Sundays Cubs-Dodgers game, Darwin Barney led off the 11th with a double. Mattingly then had Jamey Wright intentionally walk Wellington Castillo, a guy who has yet to reach base this season. Wright then hit the pinch-hitting PITCHER who was just there in lay down a sac bunt. And then Wright walked in the winning run.

Intentional walks have their places, but it seems like it backfires enough that some managers wouldn't be so quick to hand them out.

In the '80s NL, I recall it was fairly standard, in a situation with a base open and the No. 8 hitter up, to order the IBB. Now, those intentional walks were dumb. What Hurdle and Tracy did, I've got no issue.