Dusty didn't bench Marwin, Click did. Meyer was 2-4 with an important RBI, so Dusty benches him for game two because McCormick has struck out twice against Giolito 4 months ago, but he's had 2 ABs against him.
The constant second guessing of every single decision the manager and front office makes is a little....un-sports sophisticated. You will enjoy the games much better with the knowledge that the people making these decisions know a lot more about the whos, whats and the whys than you do. The Astros will win, or they will lose, and either way will be as a result of the players' performance. Just yesterday, "why Meyers instead of Chas?" The Meyers goes 2-4, so today "why Chas instead of Meyers?" Meyers could've gone 0-4 yesterday and it still doesn't mean he was the wrong guy to start that particular game. "Why Graveman and Pressly in a blowout?" Would you rather Raley or Yimi or one of the other non-reliable relievers people have complained about all season make a 6-0 game a 6-4 game going into the 9th??
What are you talking about? Benching Marwin? Who should Marwin have replaced in the line up so that he wasn't benched?
Not to say Dusty doesn't make any decisions based on "gut" or in the heat of the moment, but the Astros have game planned scenarios about who they will bring into the game in different scenarios and yesterday was definitely something they would have planned for. The Chas/Meyers thing also seems pretty simple. They're going to split time with Chas likely getting a little more overall. Meyers had a big splits advantage against a pitcher like Lynn yesterday but not so much today, so yesterday is the day you use him. I don't think the 3 ABs or results of such a small sample size had a lot to do with it and Dusty gives stupid non-answers to questions like this all the time. You are right, ultimately it comes down to what the players do on the field and whether the bounces go their way. Pretty much every analysis comes to the conclusion manager decisions in game have very little impact on things (much less than the normal randomness involved), yet some people are convinced Dusty is costing us 10+ games with his decisions.
It’s Dusty’s gut feeling, remember? No way he should not be going with Myers today after a two-hit debut. Way to keep building that confidence, Dusty.
I think Marshall was saying Dusty would be playing Marwin if he could, and Click "benched" him taking the decision out of Dusty's hands. I don't have a problem with him playing during the season if it was allowing some guys to get a rest in a rough stretch of 17 games in a row or helping things out in the clubhouse. I don't think he should have made the playoff roster and I don't see the point in trying to guess what Dusty would have done had he somehow made the playoff roster.
Right... at this point Marwin is useless unless someone gets hurt, so I'm not sure what Marshall's issue is.
Sometimes guys get really hot at the right time. Maybe Myers was going to go on a historic tear. Why not see if he can keep it up another game. My guess is they went to Chas and told him they were starting Myers because of Lynn and that he gets the next start. Stupid thing to do in my opinion, but I know according to you guys, no fans can know better than Dusty who has sucked all year.
My only gripe about starting Chas is you have a weaker outfielder in Alvarez in LF. Meyers can and has made up ground to make plays in left center when Alvarez was out there. I don't love Alvarez in LF. Yes, Framber is mr groundball but the entire lineup for the White Sox is right handed hitters or switch hitters that will be batting righty against Framber. Is Brantley's knee so jacked up he can't play back to back games in the outfield with a day off tomorrow?
Sucked ass so much he won a division title and notched 95 wins. Ninety-Five. 95 wins on a roster that has lost a ton of talent in the last 2-3 years and had awful middle relief all year long. A moron with lineups and batting order, but the best offense in baseball this year. I guess we would've won 135 games if Dusty was smarter. My favorite part of your take is you surmised something that you think happened in your head, then got pissed off about it lol.
Don't know what the status of Brantley's knee is. If Alvarez is going to play LF probably better at MMP than on the road. I don't think it's that Dusty is never wrong, is an ideal analytical manager, or that fans never have good ideas. I do think that Dusty is someone who has both played the game and managed for longer than many fans have been alive and probably knows more about what goes on in a clubhouse than any of us. A lot of people on this board have already made up their mind that Dusty is a terrible manager and constantly look for reasons to point that out or even create hypothetical situations to say "I bet he would have made this bad decision." He seems to keep getting jobs and people actually in the industry generally speak well of him, so on the whole, yeah he probably knows better than us.
i think it’s just strategy if a guy has already thrown 3 balls , even if 3-0 is a center cut fb , what’s your expected batting average on it ? Even if it’s high , what’s the probability the pitcher can throw another strike on 3-1 ... if he does it’s probably a fastball and you just saw a fastball . As for the other scenario , it’s less clear . But you’d hate to miss with a pitch a little bit and give a guy a meatball to smack 0-2 . If a guy has 2 strikes on him , then he has to be prepared to swing at anything close . Now with all the “changing eye level“ stuff there’s no better pitch to waste than 0-2 . I get the mentality to go right after guys and some pitchers DO do this . Also , I think it can be a pitchers worst flaw . You get two strikes on a guy and I feel like it’s such a strong pull to want to strike the guy out .. a change in perspective from just getting him out . So you might waste a pitch or two to “set him up” anyways , the general strategies are becoming harder to justify over looking at specific matchups
I feel the Astros will do this to shut up the Nationals, and to provide Dusty Baker with his first championship. That’s enough drive for anyone. Go Astros!
