nah, he should be starting for biggio. i just got back from the game and expected to see complaints galore about mansolino not sending loretta on lee's hit. was it closer than i thought or something? i was sitting 4 rows behind mansolino and everybody was in shock that he held him up.
I'm glad that the Stros got this one; I was really worried when White gave up those two runs after we had just taken the lead. What a great night for Houston Sports Fans!!
The ball was hit pretty hard by Lee... if the RF gloves it cleanly, he's got a definite shot at Loretta at the plate (and that would be a devestating out with nobody out at that point). Since Manso put up the stop sign before the fielder gloved the ball, it ended up looking bad... but I'd rather play it safe with nobody out and the game on the line. If there was 1 out, things might have been done differently.
i dont know about devestating....you still have runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. on a side note, i'm sick of beating this to death, but i'm sorry....you bunt 100 times out of 100 in that situation (1st and 2nd, no outs, tie ball game in the bottom of the 9th), and i really dont think i'm exaggerating when i say that every single other mlb manager would agree with me. not trying to start a debate, but it really makes me think that garner is just plain brainless. if you are in the major leagues, you should be able to successfully execute a bunt, i dont care if you are a "power hitter". it blows my mind that he continues to do this **** when the situation obviously calls for bunting men over in the late stages of games. it's utter insanity.
every manager in baseball doesn't make carlos lee bunt in that situation. actually i'd be shocked to see any of them make that call considering it's probably been quite a while since carlos bunted.
There is not a single manager in baseball that would bunt with Carlos Lee up in that situation. Not a single one..... Would LaRussa bunt With Pujols up in that situation? Never....
Nope...not even maybe. He is currently their best hitter and RBI man. IF he successfully sacrifices (regardless of a bunter's ability, I am sure most would tell you that sacrificing runners on 1st AND 2nd is much more difficult than when only one of the bases is occupied), they walk Ensberg and are now in a situation where a DP ends the threat. Again, if Pujols were up in the same situaton and had struck out 4 times previous, LaRussa would have him swing away 100% of the time. The same is probably true for most (if not every) "best RBI guy" on every team.
One other thing...speaking of Garner and the implied lack of bunting in late inning, close game situations, in 2002 and 2003 the Astros were near the bottom of the NL in sacrifice bunts. In 2004 they jumped to 2nd (not sure of the splits between Williams and Garner that year). they were 4th in 2005 and 2nd last year, so Garner does employ the sacrifice bunt a fair number of times compared to other NL managers.
Surprising stat to me--based upon my impression, I would have guessed the exact opposite. I remember specifically Jimy bunting AE in the two hole what seemed to be a LOT--and I remember lots of fit-pitching and moaning about it on BBS's like this one!
so, garner had him swinging away with runners on 1st and 2nd and no out in a tie ballgame in the bottom of the 9th for what? to hit a home run or double, and that's it i guess. any single where manso thought there might be a play at the plate (which could end up being all of em), loretta is stopping at 3rd anyway, and what's the difference if lee grounds into a dp, or luke does 2 batters later? you are putting yourself into the position where you have to get a clutch base hit to plate that run, which, needless to say, we have difficulty doing. we are doing the marlins a huge favor by having lee, or any batter, swing away in that situation.
wait wait wait....so, are we speaking of garner and the implied lack of bunting in late inning, close game situations, or where we ranked overall in the NL in sacrifice bunts throughout the course of the entire game? kind of a misleading stat you provided there, dontcha think? why dont you dig deeper into your research and find out the % of times we score when bunting in the 7th inning on down 1, up 1, or tied with 0 outs and a runner on 2nd vs. the % of times we plate a run when swinging away in that situation. or find a stat on the % each manager around the league bunts or swings away there.
This stat was much easier to look up: Carlos Lee has a grand total of 3 sac bunts in his career, 1 in each of his first 3 seasons, none in the past 5.
Qualls looked like he was in a zone last night....he was huge! As for the bunt...I think Lee had a better chance of getting into an 0-2 hole trying to bunt than actually geting one down and executing the sacrifice. I wanted Manso to send Loretta too but you HAVE to trust Mo and Luke to hit a sac fly in that situation...you just have to (not to mention that he had no way of knowing that the OF wouldnt come up cleanly with the ball....and Loretta isnt exactly Juan Pierre)...granted if Uggla and Borchard dont f- up that foul pop, who knows....but that was a nice win!!! Let go Roy!
