I would never throw Puhole a strike. I don't care if it 8-0 or 1-0. We don't have to intentionally walk him just never give him a ball to hit. Eventually he will start to swing at bad pitches or worst case we walk him. We may hate the guy, but he hits everything in the strike zone. Frustrate the hell out of him, it will probably bring the whole team down.
Well...I think Pujols is already used to this kind of treatment. As much as I hate the guy, I have to give him props, hes such a great, patient hitter. He will sit back and wait for his pitch to hit. You make any kind of mistake to the guy and he will hammer it.
I agree. I think people would prefer to compete, but sometimes the pitching can be risky. Just scrapping the plan and always walk him is kinda childish. Not that you're childish, but you are admitting that you are defeated. An occasional walk is the smart thing to do, but being known as the team that runs away from pujols is not what I would expect the Astros to do.
I don't care what other teams think. I only care about winning. The macho stuff is for the birds. I also get frustrated with Oswalt's macho act. He is a great pitcher, but when he doesn't have his best stuff he should try to nibble instead of pretending to himself that he can still blow his fastball by everyone. I'm not admitting defeat. I just think if you never gave puhols a pitch to hit (and I mean never) he would get frustrated and so would the cardinals giving us an advantage. Getting an advantage is not accepting defeat.
I think throwing at his head would frustrate him more than just not giving him strikes. In fact, I think we should throw at LaRussa too.
Now THAT would be hilarious. Have wandy just beam LaRussa in the head a la Nuke LaLoosh hitting the bull.
Should you walk him with a base open, with runners on, in a close ballgame? Sure. And usually when the Astros don't they get burned. But should you walk him if he's leading off an inning or coming to the plate with no runners? Maybe if it's a tie game in the late innings and you already have at least one out, otherwise no. You walk him every time he comes to the plate, you'd be tempting fate just as much as if you pitch to him in close games with runners on base. Cause sooner or later, those guys behind him will get the big hit.
Would you have said the same thing last year? He hit .245 against Houston with a .327 OBP and .469 slugging. Granted, this year is this year, but history suggests that the Astros generally handle Pujols pretty well compared to the rest of the league. Of course they should pitch carefully or walk him intentionally in a close situation with the game on the line, but to walk him just for the sake of walking him is usually a poor strategy and tends to p$%# off your pitching staff.
That's because of a tendency to remember what we want to - similar to whole "Bagwell/A-Rod only hits meaningless homeruns" phenomenon. Pujols, this year: With Bases Empty: 0.388 AVG, 1.209 OPS With Runners On: 0.318 AVG, 0.963 OPS With RISP: 0.256 AVG, 0.981 OPS He's a great player in general, but this year, he's been much better with nobody on base.
We'll see tonight. I hope you are right. Of course, Roy probably won't be pitching in the 8th and 9th when he seems to come through more often than not.
LOL - How did I know someone would bring that up? Still only 3 runs given up is not that bad, the offense let the team down last night. And it was nice to see Roy looking more Royish, I hope he keeps it up. DD