I think Dierker wants to be fired. Chris Truby should not be on the playoff roster, much less pinch hitting in a clutch situation with Orlando Merced, Jose Vizcaino and Daryle Ward on the bench. This sucks.
I guess Truby is our #1 pinch hitter off the bench. May have been better off keeping Hayes. Where's Dave Clark when you need him.
Ward & Merced are left-handed. Against Tom Glavine, that isn't a formula for success. Viz was probably being saved for a defensive substitution or the ability to pinch-hit for Lugo late in the game (otherwise, Lugo has to bat for the rest of the game). That leaves Eusebio and Truby -- Eusebio sucks against Glavine, I believe. Truby hits left-handers very well.
Truby does not hit any major-leaguer well. He doesn't make contact against left, or right handers. If your righ-left option does not make contact against anybody (and has not since the first week of the season), why not put somebody up there capable of making simple contact to get the run on third home. Dierker made a bad decision there, it is as simple as that.
<B>Truby does not hit any major-leaguer well. He doesn't make contact against left, or right handers. </B> Truby batted 0.265 vs Left-handers this year (vs 0.186 against righties). Last year, he batted 0.355 vs left-handers (vs 0.220 against righties). He is very clearly better against left-handers and has more than held this own against them. The reason he's a minor-leaguer/bench player is his complete inability to hit righties. Tony Eusebio, on the other hand, is actually WORSE against lefties than righties. This year, 0.243, last year, 0.222.
Chris Truby wasn't good enough to even be on this team for the majority of the season yet he's called on to pinch hit in a crucial playoff situation while you have the league leader in pinch hit RBI sitting on the bench? It's a move only Dierk would make.
This team simply doesn't have a good right-handed bat off the bench -- they all start. Throughout the season, it doesn't hurt much because we've kill lefties and don't need to pinch-hit against them much. Plus, we don't have any lefties in the lineup, so we rarely have to pinch hit for a position player against lefties.
I will be shocked if Dierker is the manager next year. If he is, I wont follow the astros anymore. I cant stand Dierker and his stupid moves he makes.
When Truby came in, I was like "WTF!!!??" and the guy in front of me said that Truby hit a homer in his last at bat. My feeling was that Vizcaino was the man for this spot. I know that you may want to save him for a defensive sub later in the game, but this was such a critical juncture, and such a significant at bat, that you should run your best out there. From the right side, off the bench, Jose is your guy. In the playoffs, you have to throw everything you've got every single outing, rather than holding back for a possible later moment. In the regular season, this would've been an acceptable, and fine move. However in the playoffs, with runners in scoring position, down 1 to 0, Vizcaino is the man for the job. If you save him for later, you are speculating too much -- you can't save a man this crucial for "a POSSIBLE juncture later on". Throw your best out there and try to make a move. By holding back, we ran Mike Jackson out there yesterday, and lost because of it. Had we gone all out to win the game, Dotel would've come in. Yesterday, when Jackson came in, I was not in support of the move, but I didn't think it was too bad of a call -- I mean, Jackson has been VERY solid at times, and he knows pressure well. I gave Dierker the benefit of the doubt on that one -- he may have been saving Dotel for today, or something. But when Truby came in to bat today, I totally lost confidence in his decision-making skills. Tony Pena for Astros Manager 2002!!
