A Tale of Two Hitters, part 2

Player A – 12% of his batted balls are line drives.

Player B – 18% of his batted balls are line drives.

Which of these two is hitting better at this point in the season?

Both are Mariners.

Which one should bat higher in the order?

One more thing about Lopez bunting in that situation. The sac bunt increases your odds of 1 run at the expense of a multiple-run inning. So by choosing to go for 1 run, McLaren is being unnecessarily conservative. Instead he wants to take his chances in extra innings. But, in reality, his best chance of tying and winning the ball game was in the 9th.

I think the managers who prefer The Book to actually thinking for themselves don’t see that outs are the most precious commodity in a game, and that giving them away (e.g. the sac bunt) reduces your team’s chance of winning.

The Mariner offense has two key components: the sacrifice fly and the sacrifice bunt.

I’d like to see them try the Sacrifice Double* on occassion.

* The Sac2B is called a sacrifice because the hitter is sacrificing his reputation as a gritty, team-chemistry sort by selfishly getting a base hit and running up his individual stats. Also, a mis-hit double could easily go over the fence for a rally-killing HR, making the Sac2B a high-risk strategy. Still, some managers swear by it.

Mariners manager nearing wit’s end

The A’s have shown a terrible defense this year….errors in twelve consecutive games, plus Cust misplays a double, Emil Brown overthrows two cutoff men, Crosby can’t make a throw and allows the speedy Vidro to get to first….but then in the ninth makes sports center with an amazing play to end the game…..WTF!

Oakland’s defense is fine. Their .718 defensive efficiency through this morning makes them #9 in baseball, much better than the .697 showing by the M’s (#20). Errors stink, but there are a few players on the A’s who can get to the ball in a hurry (Ellis, Crosby, etc.)

Imagine Lopez’s numbers if McLaren weren’t infatuated with the sacrifice bunt.