Hope everyone stayed up to watch what turned out to be a very exciting game. The Angels prevailed 7-6 and sent the series back to the Bronx.Mr. Joe Girardi made a slew of bad decisions.
I'm sure the media will be all over him today, my three biggest problems from last night...
1. Phil Hughes - You have a man on third, 2 outs. Torii Hunter is up with Vlad on deck. Hughes clearly went with the unintentional, intentional walk strategy looking dead scared of Hunter. Why???? You have a hall-of-fame legendary player on deck. A career .320 hitter with a .950 OPS. Torii Hunter is a career .270 hitter with a .800 OPS. The Rod Sox did the same thing. I don't get it. Since when did people become scared of Torii Hunter? I don't care if they wheel Vladamir Guerrero out there and he swings one-handed with a cane in the other, I'm making Hunter beat me. And of course Hughes throws a 1-2 fastball right down the middle and was fortunate it didn't end up in the stands, as is Vlad got it up the middle and tied the game.
2. Reggie Willits - You're winning 7-6 in the bottom of the 8th. You're on third base with one out and the greatest post-season pitcher ever is on the mound. Figgins hits a somewhat shallow fly ball to Nick Swisher in right field. Why don't you tag and try to score? Why???? Sure, Swisher ended up making a perfect throw, but Posada still would have to make a great pick and tag and with your speed you may have just beat it anyway. Seriously, Mariano Rivera is on the mound, take a chance to get a little cushion man. That's terrible.
3. The biggest mistake of all goes to Clueless Joe himself. 2 outs in the top half of the ninth and Scoscia makes, in my opinion, a bad decision himself to intentionally walk A-Rod. Why are you bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of a very capable hitter - Matsui. Worst thing A-Rod can do is tie the game so why not at least pitch carefully to him? But back to the real egregious mistake here. Girardi pinch-runs for A-Rod with Freddy Guzman. The Yankees strategy with pinch-running has gotten completely ridiculous. They've basically done everything short of trying to get Usain Bolt eligible and dropping bench spots to put in pinch-runners. Sometimes however, you have to let your team play. A-Rod is still pretty fast, maybe not Freddy Guzman fast, but he's perfectly capable of scoring from second on a single or first on a triple. He stole 14 bases and was only caught stealing twice this season. In a sense, Joe Girardi got extremely lucky they lost that game, because if they had only tied it there and anything happened defensively or god-forbid, A-Rod's spot came up again, he would be getting absolutely murdered by the media today.
Note to Mr. Girardi:
This Yankees team isn't about you. A monkey could have got them here. Stop over managing. Stop trying to win the championship yourself. You have the best team in baseball. A good manager would focus on not losing it here. Stick to the formula, make a couple moves when you need to and let your team play. It's that simple.
I agree a monkey couldve gotten the Yanks here. Why doesnt someone in managment tell him that and just tell him to see on the bench and smile and collect your ring at the end. I havent watched any of the game, but by your accounts there have been some dumb moves. No shot im taking Arod out of a game for a pinch runner in the post season, unless its game 7 of the WS and you have Usain Bolt on your bench.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if someone could figure out the statistics on how many times the difference between A-Rod's speed and Freddy Guzman's would have mattered. Has to be sooooo low.
ReplyDeleteZERO
ReplyDelete