Interesting line-up...

[haven]

Brad Ausmus - .293 OBP
Jose Vizcaino - .200 OBP

The Astros just trotted out the single worst pair of 1-2 hitters in MLB today. When Biggio isn't playing, Ensberg should lead off.

And what's up with sitting half the team on one day? Does Jimy actually have something against winning streaks? Roy wasn't even pitching...

[Raven Lunatic]

Thank god for Carlos. :)

[Major]

Biggio rests every other Sunday, no matter what, I believe.

[haven]

major: Fine, rest Biggio. And it looks like everything will work out today...

but Ausmus and Vizcaino are offensive black holes, and Lugo and Merced are poor hitters as well. Add to that the pitcher... and the Astros had exactly 4 people in the line-up who are reliable run-producers. Not a good ratio. And that's even if one considers Morgan Ensberg a "reliable run producer."

And to put two of those guys at the top of the order? That's icky ;).

[countingcrow]

Biggio rests every other Sunday, no matter what, I believe.

Biggio has missed 3 games this season due to Williams resting him. He missed last Sunday also. So I think it may be more than every other Sunday.

[deepellumrocket]

Well guys, that weak line-up just scored 7 runs without the benefit of an error, so maybe Jimy knew something we didn't.

Rock on! 2 out of 3 in Hotlanta!

[haven]

deepellum:

Even the crappiest team in the league will usually win 60 games in a year.

Jose Vizcaino is a terrible baseball player. Brad Ausmus is a terrible hitter. Merced is a poor hitting outfielder. If you play these guys often, especially at the top, you will lose more than you should.

Incidentally, Houston has a losing record. Is Williams to blame when we lose? Or are the players to blame? Sort of nice when you get a free pass...

Put the best players on the field possible, and you'll optimize your run production. That's all you can hope for.

EDIT: Incidentally, if the Astros win 85 games, the season will be a failure. Win 95, and the season will be a success. So basically, if Williams cost the Astros 1 win for every 9 or so through his wacky line-ups, then he's single-handedly ruined the Astros season. He doesn't need to lose many games, just a few... by playing guys who don't deserve to be on a major league roster (vizcaino).

[Rocketman95]

And how many times has he done this this year?

[deepellumrocket]

Hey Haven

I sincerely apologize for being happy that the Astros won today. I'll try to remember the futility of my previous post when I choose to celebrate a win.

Get over yourself, dude. I was just cheering.

[JayZ750]

Originally posted by haven
Incidentally, Houston has a losing record. Is Williams to blame when we lose? Or are the players to blame? Sort of nice when you get a free pass...


What are you talking about? Almost everyone always blames the manager when you lose and praise the players when you win. If anyone gets a free pass, its the players.

I have been irked by some of Williams moves so far this season too, but, in my opinion, even if the Astros miss the playoffs this year, if it means they move past the first round during some part of Williams tenure, then it will be considered a success, otherwise a failure.

[haven]

What are you talking about? Almost everyone always blames the manager when you lose and praise the players when you win. If anyone gets a free pass, its the players.

I have been irked by some of Williams moves so far this season too, but, in my opinion, even if the Astros miss the playoffs this year, if it means they move past the first round during some part of Williams tenure, then it will be considered a success, otherwise a failure.

I'm talking about this: the difference between a decent and a good team is very, very small. Managers' influence over any game is overstated. 99% of the time, the manager isnt' to blame for a loss, or to be credited for a win. All a manager can do is put out the guys who are most likely to win on any given night.

I don't think that Williams does this. I think Williams has an unwholesome fascination with mediocre veteran journeymen and yanking starters too early or too late.

I live in Boston, remember. I probably seem more impatient with Williams, but in reality, I've been more closely following him for a few years than most people here. He's not all bad: he does seem to eek out the best from the same mediocre players he's so infatuated with.

But even if he does get slightly more out of them, is it really worth him underplaying the guys that are really special? Is it worth it not getting the youngsters, like Ensberg, experience? I don't think so. I prefer stars and rookies with potential to career journeymen. And I prefer the managers that play them.

[JayZ750]

Well, if we continue to suck, you will see Williams shoulder nearly all of the blame - with the rest falling on Drayton's shoulder. That you can be assured of, especially given the situation for which he was brought in.

[Timing]

This is why fantasy baseball managers don't run major league teams.

[Manny Ramirez]

Now some of the Astros fans know what us Red Sox fans were going through....


BTW - haven, you know why Jimy trotted out that line-up?

Manager's decision!;)

[Drewdog]

We won 2 out of 3 IN Atlanta and you guys are complaining about fu%king lineups?!?!?! Give me a break......
:rolleyes:

[haven]

Timing: Why do you feel the need to use pejoratives without arguments? Probably because your arguments are usually terrible regarding baseball.

All I want you to do is explain why two players with sub .300 OBPs are batting 1-2 on ANY day *ever* for any team that's not losing 120 games in a season. That should never, ever happen. Ever. And any manager that allows it, should be fired without a single question. Even if it's only once.

You want a leadoff hitter to have an OBP of at least .350. And even that isn't really a good leadoff guy for a contending team. The really good ones are at .370+.

Brad Ausmus is probably one of the 20 or so worst hitting regulars in MLB. Vizcaino is one of the absolute worst hitters in baseball, period. Starting or not.

Tell me why they should bat 1-2. Please explain it, without being insulting. Just reasons why these two horrible hitters have any business batting at the top of the order. If you cannot do this, never speak on the subject again.

drewdog:

Let me reverse that for you. We have a losing record. Who should I give a break ;)?

Managers have trouble winning games. It's their job not to screw up. That's about all they can do.

[Raven Lunatic]

You know haven, I do agree with your point, but you are being inconsistent here. You list Ausmus's and Vizcaino's OBP from this season as reason they should not bat leadoff, but you also say that looking at what Blum has done so far and what Ensberg has done is not enough sample size to start Blum over Morgan. Now, looking at Ausmus's career OBP as well as Vizcaino's, you still have a point. Brad has a career OBP of around .330, while Viz's is .318. Neither is stellar, and neither should be leading off. I just thought it was a bit hypocritical to use the small sample size for one argument while bashing people who use it in another.

[JayZ750]

Originally posted by haven
All I want you to do is explain why two players with sub .300 OBPs are batting 1-2 on ANY day *ever* for any team that's not losing 120 games in a season. That should never, ever happen. Ever. And any manager that allows it, should be fired without a single question. Even if it's only once.


Explain why it worked.

[Timing]

Originally posted by haven
Timing: Why do you feel the need to use pejoratives without arguments? Probably because your arguments are usually terrible regarding baseball.

All I want you to do is explain why two players with sub .300 OBPs are batting 1-2 on ANY day *ever* for any team that's not losing 120 games in a season. That should never, ever happen. Ever. And any manager that allows it, should be fired without a single question. Even if it's only once.

You want a leadoff hitter to have an OBP of at least .350. And even that isn't really a good leadoff guy for a contending team. The really good ones are at .370+.

Brad Ausmus is probably one of the 20 or so worst hitting regulars in MLB. Vizcaino is one of the absolute worst hitters in baseball, period. Starting or not.

Tell me why they should bat 1-2. Please explain it, without being insulting. Just reasons why these two horrible hitters have any business batting at the top of the order. If you cannot do this, never speak on the subject again.


First of all don't you ever tell me what to speak on and what not to speak on. That act isn't playing here so skip it. Second of all, you have posted some of the weakest opinions on baseball I've ever read anywhere. Ichiro with his weak arm and average bat, Lugo the above average .260 and 10 homerun hitting 100 strike out having hole in the glove shortstop who you now call a poor hitter, and Pujols just another rookie slugger who just happened to have one of the best rookie seasons in history. Does it get any more ridiculous than that? Well apparently it does because now you're wetting your pants over Morgan Ensberg, the 26 year old rookie who has been over aged for every league he's ever played in and isn't even considered one of the top prospects in the organization. You rely on MLE's like they're as certain as the sun rising in the East when I can name many prospects all better than Ensberg who never amounted to anything. Oswalt of course must average 105 pitches/game without ever throwing more than 110, a nice trick I guess. Apparently he shouldn't be taken out of the game after 85 pitches even if he wanted to come out. Dave Mlicki? The worst pitcher in baseball last year according to you is now the second or third most reliable arm on the team, you want to explain that one? Luck? Didn't you call for Jimy's head for even considering keeping Mlicki on the staff over Redding? Oops... hey what are Redding's projections? You want to stick by those too? You know at some point you're probably going to have to come to the realization that players aren't stats on a piece of paper. They're living breathing humans who don't posses the "on average" consistency that you rail on about. They also don't play in plastic bubbles, they play in weather, heat, and humidity. All are things that affect player performance that don't fit into your calculator mentality. It's been incredibly obvious that you've been on a Jimy hater trek since even before the season started and it's been an amusing read. To answer your question, in any one random game throughout a season it doesn't matter a whole lot who's leading off or batting second. You're bitching and moaning like he's thrown this lineup out 30 games in a row or something. You have no clue in any one random game if Ausmus will go 4-5 or Ensberg will go 4-5. You can't average that out and the likelihood of Ensberg doing it over Ausmus is next to nothing. The lineup scored 7 runs with Ausmus leading off and the next game may only score 2 runs with Biggio leading off. Vizcaino, the worst hitter in baseball, had two hits in that game. That's probably not even statistically possible according to you but obviously Jimy knew that Viz was 3 for 7 career off of Albie Lopez so that's just one more reason why he started and batted second. Going into that game Ausmus had a .693 OPS and Ensberg had a .721. Wow... now that's some really compelling stuff for your argument I guess. Add in the fact that Ensberg is a rookie playing the Braves for the first time and Ausmus is quite the veteran then it's not at all surprising why Ausmus would lead off. There is no way for anyone to predict how a rookie having marginal success like Ensberg will respond to failing in the lead off spot. Do you have an algorithm for that anywhere?

You don't see using Vizcaino or Merced today as an investment for something tomorrow. It either goes by your averages or it's "luck". We've tried playing our best players for 162 games and in the end they failed miserably which of course was just "bad luck" according to you. I guess it was "bad luck" 4 times in 5 seasons or maybe we can add the 3 consecutive second place finishes with late season collapses to that so make it 7 times in 8 seasons. That's a lot of bad luck.

Jimy isn't the general manager of this team, he's the field manager and it's quite evident that he's of the opinion that his team will be better off in the end if the whole team plays and gains confidence from playing time. If you have a problem with the players he's playing then blame Hunsicker. Of course most teams aren't going to be able to afford your ideal players so virtually every team in baseball is rolling out mediocre players off the bench. Where does that compute?

[Behad]

Originally posted by Timing



First of all don't you ever tell me what to speak on and what not to speak on. That act isn't playing here so skip it. Second of all, you have posted some of the weakest opinions on baseball I've ever read anywhere. Ichiro with his weak arm and average bat, Lugo the above average .260 and 10 homerun hitting 100 strike out having hole in the glove shortstop who you now call a poor hitter, and Pujols just another rookie slugger who just happened to have one of the best rookie seasons in history. Does it get any more ridiculous than that? Well apparently it does because now you're wetting your pants over Morgan Ensberg, the 26 year old rookie who has been over aged for every league he's ever played in and isn't even considered one of the top prospects in the organization. You rely on MLE's like they're as certain as the sun rising in the East when I can name many prospects all better than Ensberg who never amounted to anything. Oswalt of course must average 105 pitches/game without ever throwing more than 110, a nice trick I guess. Apparently he shouldn't be taken out of the game after 85 pitches even if he wanted to come out. Dave Mlicki? The worst pitcher in baseball last year according to you is now the second or third most reliable arm on the team, you want to explain that one? Luck? Didn't you call for Jimy's head for even considering keeping Mlicki on the staff over Redding? Oops... hey what are Redding's projections? You want to stick by those too? You know at some point you're probably going to have to come to the realization that players aren't stats on a piece of paper. They're living breathing humans who don't posses the "on average" consistency that you rail on about. They also don't play in plastic bubbles, they play in weather, heat, and humidity. All are things that affect player performance that don't fit into your calculator mentality. It's been incredibly obvious that you've been on a Jimy hater trek since even before the season started and it's been an amusing read. To answer your question, in any one random game throughout a season it doesn't matter a whole lot who's leading off or batting second. You're bitching and moaning like he's thrown this lineup out 30 games in a row or something. You have no clue in any one random game if Ausmus will go 4-5 or Ensberg will go 4-5. You can't average that out and the likelihood of Ensberg doing it over Ausmus is next to nothing. The lineup scored 7 runs with Ausmus leading off and the next game may only score 2 runs with Biggio leading off. Vizcaino, the worst hitter in baseball, had two hits in that game. That's probably not even statistically possible according to you but obviously Jimy knew that Viz was 3 for 7 career off of Albie Lopez so that's just one more reason why he started and batted second. Going into that game Ausmus had a .693 OPS and Ensberg had a .721. Wow... now that's some really compelling stuff for your argument I guess. Add in the fact that Ensberg is a rookie playing the Braves for the first time and Ausmus is quite the veteran then it's not at all surprising why Ausmus would lead off. There is no way for anyone to predict how a rookie having marginal success like Ensberg will respond to failing in the lead off spot. Do you have an algorithm for that anywhere?

You don't see using Vizcaino or Merced today as an investment for something tomorrow. It either goes by your averages or it's "luck". We've tried playing our best players for 162 games and in the end they failed miserably which of course was just "bad luck" according to you. I guess it was "bad luck" 4 times in 5 seasons or maybe we can add the 3 consecutive second place finishes with late season collapses to that so make it 7 times in 8 seasons. That's a lot of bad luck.

Jimy isn't the general manager of this team, he's the field manager and it's quite evident that he's of the opinion that his team will be better off in the end if the whole team plays and gains confidence from playing time. If you have a problem with the players he's playing then blame Hunsicker. Of course most teams aren't going to be able to afford your ideal players so virtually every team in baseball is rolling out mediocre players off the bench. Where does that compute?

Don't hold back, Timing. Really cut loose on him.

[Milos]

Timing is the MAN! Every time I read one of Haven's condescending posts, a part of me wants to do the same thing, but I have never been able to come up with the appropriate level of anger to do the job. Hopefully, Haven knows he got hard-core busted and will let people express their opinions from now on.

[haven]

Now this is amusing...you're now bashing me by claiming I assumed positions I never did on some issues! Hint: if you really want to attack someone, be precise. Otherwise, you come off as being a liar as well as stupid in your case.


First of all don't you ever tell me what to speak on and what not to speak on.

Why not? You do for people you consider somewhat not bright, like princess. I think of you in much the same way. Perhaps, if you truly object to such language in reference to yourself, then you should avoid it with others.

Second of all, you have posted some of the weakest opinions on baseball I've ever read anywhere.

More pejoratives! Incidentally, most of the people I respect on here generally agree with my opinions. People with limited vocabularities like yourself generally do not... which I take as a confirmation of accuracy.

Ichiro with his weak arm and average bat,

Perfect example of you being incapable of even semi-deep thought.

Let me put this very simply, so your limited capacity for analysis won't fail you.

Ichiro is a good hitter. He hits better than most people who play in Major League Baseball. However, he does not hit well for a corner OF. Look at how he performs in essential categories like on base percentage and slugging. He's a good hitter, but not for a right fielder. yes, he could play CF with his range. But he doesn't. So he's not supplying production that's good for his position.

Lugo the above average .260 and 10 homerun hitting 100 strike out having hole in the glove shortstop who you now call a poor hitter,

Last year, Lugo was somewhat above average for his position. Incidentally, you just used average... which is declining as a stat even for most "baseball people." You're behind the times...

and Pujols just another rookie slugger who just happened to have one of the best rookie seasons in history. Does it get any more ridiculous than that?

Pujols had a great rookie batting season in a hitters era. Oswalt had one of the greatest rookie pitcher seasons ever in an age of hitting. His K/BB ratio, if he'd pitched a mere few innings more and qualified, would have been the best in half a century for a rookie.
Well apparently it does because now you're wetting your pants over Morgan Ensberg, the 26 year old rookie who has been over aged for every league he's ever played in and isn't even considered one of the top prospects in the organization. You rely on MLE's like they're as certain as the sun rising in the East when I can name many prospects all better than Ensberg who never amounted to anything.

Ha ha. I've criticized people for expecting every prospect to work out. The odds of Ensberg working out, before this season started, were not fabulous. However, he represented the best chance the Astros have of fielding a quality player at that position, and he still does.


Oswalt of course must average 105 pitches/game without ever throwing more than 110, a nice trick I guess. Apparently he shouldn't be taken out of the game after 85 pitches even if he wanted to come out.

He did not wish to come out. He said he wished to pitch another inning.

Dave Mlicki? The worst pitcher in baseball last year according to you

No, according to ERA. He had the worst ERA among qualifying pitchers last year. Even you use ERA in your posts. You can't say it's valid when describing performance with one person, and not another.

is now the second or third most reliable arm on the team, you want to explain that one? Luck?

Mlicki's success is a blessing... and one that could not be counted on before the season started.

Didn't you call for Jimy's head for even considering keeping Mlicki on the staff over Redding? Oops... hey what are Redding's projections? You want to stick by those too?

Hey! Moron! I didn't provide projections for Redding! And incidentally, you put words into my mouth again.

What I said was this: Redding should have every opportunity to win the position in spring training. Williams announced that Mlicki was guaranteed a spot before spring training even began. I objected to the idea that Redding and Hernandez were only competing with each other, and not a guy who'd pitch poorly in the past.

[qupte]You know at some point you're probably going to have to come to the realization that players aren't stats on a piece of paper. They're living breathing humans who don't posses the "on average" consistency that you rail on about. They also don't play in plastic bubbles, they play in weather, heat, and humidity. All are things that affect player performance that don't fit into your calculator mentality.[/quote]

But they do. Otherwise, statistics couldn't be compiled at all. And they wouldn't be consistent across the course of a career.

It's been incredibly obvious that you've been on a Jimy hater trek since even before the season started and it's been an amusing read. To answer your question, in any one random game throughout a season it doesn't matter a whole lot who's leading off or batting second. You're bitching and moaning like he's thrown this lineup out 30 games in a row or something. You have no clue in any one random game if Ausmus will go 4-5 or Ensberg will go 4-5. You can't average that out and the likelihood of Ensberg doing it over Ausmus is next to nothing.

Oh my god. You dug your own grave here. This is true for any player. Why not just trot out a line-up full of guys batting below the mendoza line? After all, any individual guy is only going to have 1 hit in 10 fewer than Jeff Bagwell. Very few. In any given game, that line-up could break out for a ton of runs.

But a season is decided on just a few games. And eventually, the luck runs out.

The lineup scored 7 runs with Ausmus leading off and the next game may only score 2 runs with Biggio leading off. Vizcaino, the worst hitter in baseball, had two hits in that game. That's probably not even statistically possible according to you but obviously Jimy knew that Viz was 3 for 7 career off of Albie Lopez so that's just one more reason why he started and batted second.

Of course it's statistically possible. Why would you think otherwise. and here's Timing Stupid Thought #5632: You just used a stat to indicate why Jimy should have hit the guy! He'd had 7 whole career at-bats, so this is indicative that his past performance will predict future performance.

Wow. Not only did you just do what you object to, but without even considering the threshold of something being statistically significant! Ha ha. Not only are you a hypocrite, but a stupid one who betrays himself for a BAD argument.

Going into that game Ausmus had a .693 OPS and Ensberg had a .721. Wow... now that's some really compelling stuff for your argument I guess. Add in the fact that Ensberg is a rookie playing the Braves for the first time and Ausmus is quite the veteran then it's not at all surprising why Ausmus would lead off. There is no way for anyone to predict how a rookie having marginal success like Ensberg will respond to failing in the lead off spot. Do you have an algorithm for that anywhere?

Or succeed for that matter by being protected by Bagwell and Berkman! He'd get better pitches to hit.

And incidentally, if you took an excellent team, and lowered its OPS .030 across the board, it probably wouldnt' be excellent any more. And btw, OBP is the better stat for lead-off hitters. And Ensberg's OBP has been the best part of his game, as his power has been lacking (of course, OBP is usually the best part of Ausmus' game as well, just not the past 2 years).

You don't see using Vizcaino or Merced today as an investment for something tomorrow. It either goes by your averages or it's "luck". We've tried playing our best players for 162 games and in the end they failed miserably which of course was just "bad luck" according to you. I guess it was "bad luck" 4 times in 5 seasons or maybe we can add the 3 consecutive second place finishes with late season collapses to that so make it 7 times in 8 seasons. That's a lot of bad luck.

So that factor is solely responsible for our losses? Gee... and here I thought the Astros didn't win the most games in baseball every year.

BUt in any event, of course you need to rest your best players. You just don't do it all in one day, unless you're playing the d-rays. And you don't bat the replacement's 1-2

Jimy isn't the general manager of this team, he's the field manager and it's quite evident that he's of the opinion that his team will be better off in the end if the whole team plays and gains confidence from playing time. If you have a problem with the players he's playing then blame Hunsicker. Of course most teams aren't going to be able to afford your ideal players so virtually every team in baseball is rolling out mediocre players off the bench. Where does that compute?

EDIT: one addition... I dislike Williams not simply because of his start with the Astros, but how he managed the Red Sox.

What the hell is this about? I haven't mentioned any criticisms of the players here. Just tactical decisions. It's a great world where you can pin any argument you wish on your opponenent, then bash him for it. Take the pills, man...

Incidentally, the teams that are starting to use the lessons of statistics are the small market teams that are actually winning. Oakland: #1 in using modern baseball concepts. San Diego is up there. So are the Yankees, amusingly enough (part of the reason they've gotten bang for their buck). Brian Cashman is a nerd like me ;).

Teams like Baltimore, Milwaukee and Kansas City have pretty much mocked hte idea of using statistics in evaluating players too much. THey bring up your objections: people aren't paper. Of course they're not... but past performance is generally indicative of future performance. And you can evaluate past performance best through objective means.

[Raven Lunatic]

Originally posted by Milos
Timing is the MAN! Every time I read one of Haven's condescending posts, a part of me wants to do the same thing, but I have never been able to come up with the appropriate level of anger to do the job. Hopefully, Haven knows he got hard-core busted and will let people express their opinions from now on.

I just wanted to point out how silly this sounds. Did haven delete a post of yours? Did he in any way censor what you said? No one is stopping you from posting your opinions. The only thing haven does is argue (albeit sometimes not so nicely) your opinion if he thinks his is better. This is a basic right, and one that is generally encouraged on this BBS, because no one is correct 100% of the time. Arguments are generally stimulating, and can inform as well as teach. Don't start bashing someone simply because they disagree with you.

[Timing]

There is nothing quite as boring as an intellectual hissy fit from debate boy with big mouth and inflated sense of self. It's ever enlightening to see the childish depths you will stoop to in order to try to intimidate and insult your way to rationalizing your ignorance.

Actually, Ichiro is slightly better than average. He's the most over-hyped player ever, possibly.

His average is terrific. His OBP is average. His slugging % sucks. His fielding is good, but not superb because his arm is weak.

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17229&highlight=ichiro

I wouldn't even dream of putting words in your mouth so here are your own words. Of course a while after you said this he won the MVP, gold glove, silver slugger, batting title, led his team to 116 wins, and was touted as the best player in the AL by many of his peers. Pretty funny stuff...


Lugo isn't really a bad defender anymore. So at best, anybody's going to have a marginal overall advantage over him on the issue.

But his OPS is quite good for a MLB shortstop. That tells me all I need to know: Lugo's a keeper.

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17160&perpage=30&highlight=lugo&pagenumber=2

He's not really a bad defender anymore unless you can read or actually watched him play. Funny thing when Lugo made all those errors in the playoffs and basically embarrassed himself I had a good laugh about what you said.


Pujols had a great rookie batting season in a hitters era. Oswalt had one of the greatest rookie pitcher seasons ever in an age of hitting. His K/BB ratio, if he'd pitched a mere few innings more and qualified, would have been the best in half a century for a rookie.

I know that the ROY is awarded based on performance, rather than talent, but Oswalt has had a truly magnificent rookie year... while it seems that someone of Pujols caliber comes out most years.

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21466&highlight=pujols

One of the best rookie seasons ever and you pretty much reduced it to the same kind of season rookies have most years.


He did not wish to come out. He said he wished to pitch another inning.

Oswalt had thrown only 85 pitches -- 50 for strikes -- when he was pulled after seven innings. He was asked if could stay longer, but he left it up to manager Jimy Williams and pitching coach Burt Hooton.

"The thing is that if I want to go back out for one inning, I want to go back out for two," Oswalt said. "I don't want to come out then, but they decided to go with Dotel and Wags. That's pretty much what we do all the time. This is just one game. We have a lot of games left. ... I just said, `Whatever your decision is.' "

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bb/astros/1373630



No, according to ERA. He had the worst ERA among qualifying pitchers last year. Even you use ERA in your posts. You can't say it's valid when describing performance with one person, and not another.

Mlicki was the worst pitcher in the NL last year. Anybody who manages to be the worst pitcher in the NL, doesn't deserve a starting position the next.

If you want to contend, you can't carry the Single Worst Qualifying Starting Pitcher in the NL because they just happened to have an ok game at a good time. Especially when they fail to have even a single above-average pitch, and aren't at the age when pitchers still tend to improve.

But that has nothing to do with Jimy ruining our youngsters.


http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29773&highlight=mlicki+redding


Hey! Moron! I didn't provide projections for Redding! And incidentally, you put words into my mouth again.

Um... how are MLE's generally accurate for Ensberg but not for Redding? You've said many times that MLE's are generally accurate in your campaign for Ensberg so are they not accurate for Redding now? Interesting...

But they do. Otherwise, statistics couldn't be compiled at all. And they wouldn't be consistent across the course of a career.

Your specific question about the batting order was related to one game, not a season and not a career.

Oh my god. You dug your own grave here. This is true for any player. Why not just trot out a line-up full of guys batting below the mendoza line? After all, any individual guy is only going to have 1 hit in 10 fewer than Jeff Bagwell. Very few. In any given game, that line-up could break out for a ton of runs.

You don't do that because it's incompetent and stupid. The kind of thing that gets people fired. Vizcaino played because Biggio was to be rested not because Jimy wanted to play press your luck. Ausmus leading off over Ensberg was simply the safe move. You don't move rookies all around the lineup when they're struggling to find their stroke. You can play dumb if you like but a .028 difference in OPS is no meaningful indicator that one player should play in one spot instead of another, especially when the player is a rookie.

Of course it's statistically possible. Why would you think otherwise. and here's Timing Stupid Thought #5632: You just used a stat to indicate why Jimy should have hit the guy! He'd had 7 whole career at-bats, so this is indicative that his past performance will predict future performance.

I didn't use a stat to say why Jimy should have hit the guy, it was a stat of why he likely did. I'm not the manager of the team and I have not spoken to Jimy. Get your head out of Jimy's tactical ass.

Or succeed for that matter by being protected by Bagwell and Berkman! He'd get better pitches to hit.

I'm sorry was Bagwell batting second yesterday? Isn't your whole hissy fit about Ensberg leading off? So Ensberg would get better pitches to hit at the top of the lineup but the OBP that you've been enamored with couldn't be a function of his hitting 7th ahead of Everett, Ausmus, and Lugo? Calculator please...

So that factor is solely responsible for our losses? Gee... and here I thought the Astros didn't win the most games in baseball every year.

BUt in any event, of course you need to rest your best players. You just don't do it all in one day, unless you're playing the d-rays. And you don't bat the replacement's 1-2.

Ausmus was not a replacement and the Braves were playing without Sheffield/Surhoff and were throwing their 4th starter. It was as good a time as any to do it.

What a complete waste of my time.