Not defending anybody. I'm just saying that situations dictate what these guys do. Was sending that lardass with 2 outs a bad call? It took a damn-near perfect catch/tag by Castro to keep him from scoring.
I thought it was a bad send. Wasn't hit all that deep... and that's saying a lot with the short LF. If Rasmus isn't playing for the first time in over a month, I don't think Washington sends him automatically. On another note... isn't it peculiar that Rasmus didn't need to do any minor league rehab games? Obviously not saying he needed one... I guess they felt there wasn't enough time in the season to let him play his token 1-2 AA games.
You have to consider the #9 hitter with a .207 average was coming up. Send was the right move in that situation.
What are the odds of the next guy getting a hit/error/WP? Better or worse? Sometimes you force the issue and make the other guy make the play, sometimes you hold back and let your next guy make the play. 0-0 game early, maybe you roll the dice. Not like the A's have anything to lose. Lost is all this is how badass the play by Castro was.
Rasmus said he felt like he didn't need it. According to the CBA, the player must agree, so perhaps he simply refused.
The stark contrast between a good defensive team and poor defensive team is so evident in this series.
Agree with all of that. And that being said... as soon as I saw where Rasmus caught it, and I saw they were sending him, I instantly thought "bad send". Took an amazing tag... on an off-line throw. (that if it was on-line, the runner is out by 5 feet). Washington was correct that Rasmus wasn't going to be all that accurate with some rust... but because it was so shallow, not only was he able to get it home on the fly, but Castro had time to run and get the ball and run back to make the tag.
Perhaps. The Astros.com blurb about it said the team didn't feel there was enough time left in the season... but I agree that Rasmus refusing would be more in line with this decision, given the team's adherences to protocol.
I've heard Tallywhacker my whole life (I'm pretty sure my dad calls it that), but never heard the verb version. Googled it just to see if it had some alternate meaning. Nope. Evan Gattis just carries a big, uh, stick, I guess.
Rasmus wasn't THAT awful all season.. he was really bad due to a real issue that he had surgery for. Though he had slumps of course besides that
