Hi Don! A quick note on “pinch hitting”
DMZ · August 11, 2009 at 9:36 pm · Filed Under Mariners
You’re allowed to send players not currently in the lineup to the plate instead of players in the lineup. It’s called “pinch-hitting”. For example, if you have an absolutely horrible right-handed hitter (except that he doesn’t hit) up against a right-handed pitcher in a situation where failing to get on base probably ends the game, and you have one (or more!) good left-handed hitters on the bench, you can “pinch-hit” for the right-hander and increase your chances to win.
Check it out! It’s in the rule book and everything.
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27 Responses to “Hi Don! A quick note on “pinch hitting””
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Preposterous!!!!
I was baffled that Langerhans or Griffey didn’t pinch hit for Sweeney. Don must have a belief system that doesn’t allow pinch hitting.
Also, Aardsma could throw something besides fastballs to a fastball hitting lineup. Not to mention fastballs up in the zone.
And if Wak had pinch hit for Sweeney, it might have been a 3-2 loss, instead of a 3-1 loss. The offense all around was night and day different from yesterday even though it was almost exactly the same lineup.
Your point’s well taken, though.
It’s high time for Sweeney’s back to go out again, for say, exactly 6 weeks.
Do batting averages wrap around on an underflow?
How much worse do pinch hitters fair, on average, than when they are regulars? Is there a number on this?
Plus Wak didn’t bunt with Saunders and Ichiro on and nobody out.
The pinch-hitting thing is covered in Tango’s “The Book” — which is funny because Tango’s now doing work for the M’s and the M’s don’t pinch-hit.
It doesn’t seem likely the M’s are asking Tango to study in-game tactics.
And one of the strangest things in all this is Jr. was standing in the on-deck circle when Branyan flied out to end things.
Do you guys have a serious theory on why managers do “maddening” things like not pinch hitting here and hitting Sweeney? The theories thrown out are
1) Wak doesn’t understand he can pinch hit (yeh, sarcasm)
2) Wak is stupid. I don’t believe this.
3) Wak believes RH Sweeney is a better option than the LH on the bench. Don’t believe this one either.
4) Wak likes to put faith in his guys and thus doesn’t pinch hit
4a) Wak thinks pinch hitting is showing up a player and thus only PH for weak hitting C/SS not the cleanup DH
5) Wak believes shuffling the lineup has a detrimental affect on the team and thus plugs in bench players in the “starter’s” spot.
6) Chemistry (yuck!)
Or in summary. We like Wak. He’s not a bad guy or a fool as a manager. Yet he makes decisions that just don’t make any sense (and he’s not alone about managers). Why!?!
It seems more likely to you that the M’s have, on staff, a guy who has — quite literally — written a book on in-game tactics, the best yet done, and they’re not asking him about these questions?
Because they are.
Or is your objection here that you don’t think he’s looking at specific decisions, like when to PH for who?
Because if he comes up with “the penalty for pinch-hitting is x” hasn’t he really already done that? Or, at least, allowed them to create a more general set of guidelines?
Aside from the specific pinch-hitting situation you mentioned, and allowing as how much I like Wakamatsu overall, there is a string of confusing issues:
1- Why does Sweeney have a roster spot?
2- Why does Griffey have a roster spot?
3- Why is one almost always in the lineup?
4- Assuming we’re still trying to win ball games, why does one or the other almost invariably hit in the cleanup spot?
There is more than a strategic disagreement here. There is some weird supplication being afforded to these guys which has no bearing on baseball productivity. I don’t get it.
THANK YOU!!!
I was at the game tonight and I was SCREAMING and wondering why Griffey wasn’t pinch hitting for Sweeney.
I mean, okay, I understand why Sweeney is here on the roster. He won the character tiebreaker over Shelton, I get that.
But in the 9th inning against Bobby Jenks (a right hander) when Sweeney is in the game as a DH, I’m sorry, but you put in Griffey.
No questions asked, put in Griffey and give him a bat.
Save Langerhans for later so he can defense if you want him to pinch hit for Michael Saunders in extra innings.
In this situation, you bring in Griffey to pinch hit for the DH.
Bad move by Wak on his part.
Having said that, what happened tonight is small potatoes.
Wak still is a hell of a manager (certainly better than Grover and McLaren).
play defense*
He obviously does believe in pinch hitting and knows what it is… since he had Griffey in the on deck circle ready to pinch hit for Wilson… which is a horrid decision since Wilson’s defense was probably the only reason the game wasn’t a blow out for the White Sox. My god… I’ve even watched him for years facing my Cubs… and I never thought he was as good as he looked tonight. Even the ones he didn’t convert outs on, he played spectacularly.
Wakamatsu doesn’t understand when he should pinch hit… nor does he understand correct bullpen usage (which wasn’t a problem tonight. You can’t blame him Aardsma having one of his rare blowups) or lineup construction (which was a big-time problem tonight. Having to play Mike Sweeney for his character bonus doesn’t mean having to hit him in a prime lineup spot.). Overall, it’s a problem. Maybe not a Bavasi- or McLaren-sized problem… but it’s still a problem that has cost the Mariners precious games.
I’m convinced that Wak thinks that Sweeney has a talent level at this point in his career that is actually better than his stats so far this year.
I have no idea what evidence he is using to come to that conclusion, because I’m not seeing anything that would point to why we should expect Sweeney’s hitting to improve.
That’s your opinion…
… in the sense that it’s a qualitative evaluation of the relative merits of books, it’s an opinion. It’s right. What’s your counter-argument here? Weaver’s book? I’m all for it, but it’s not a tome about the value of moves, it’s about how to manage a baseball team.
If Wak was batting Sweeney/Griffey in the #6 slot where they belong instead of batting them cleanup evey night, this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue anyway.
Carp belongs on this team over Griffey and Shelton over Sweeney. Griffey isn’t producing anything and is like having Vidro around.
If Vidro had magic tickle fingers.
Riddle me this:
With less than a 2-strike count, Beltre is on third. The shift is on, with nobody near third. Yeah, I know it is Russell Branyan, but drop a bunt down, dude. All you have to do is get it past the pitcher and it is a 3-2 game, with a pinch runner on 1B and Griffey on deck.
Yes, I get that it only gets you one run when two or three are needed, but I’ll take them in single units if they’re giving them away for free, thank you very much.
And, I forgot to add, if that’s the plan, it really doesn’t matter much if Wak pinch-hits for Branyan.
Also, riddle me this, too: if the ChiSox are so worried about what Branyan that they would put the shift on, why would they allow Beltre to take TWO bases and then not even consider holding Beltre on third? I mean, if Branyan hits a HR, the shift doesn’t matter, so the run they are concerned with in the shift is Beltre’s, right? And if they are worried about the extra-base hit, the shift isn’t really in play either….
I just don’t get that AB, from any point of view….
Didn’t Langerhans deliver a walk-off home run to win a game the other night. He hasn’t seen the field since. WTF? I mean Saunders deserves some time in the OF and his hustling is great, but Langerhans was smoking the ball in every direction his first 2 weeks with the club and now…..well. warms the bench. Last night was particualrly intriguing since he and John Danks were both schooled in baseball at the same high school by the same coach…. I think I smell fish.
If wishes were fishes…
Though I do agree, his line-ups are a touch on the confusing side.
What they’re concerned with is getting Branyan to be the third out. If they put a guy in short right field and pitch him to hit it to short right field, then the game is over.