The problem I see with pinch hitting both Krauss and Presley in a 7-2 deficit is that you spend your bench in case of a late come back. Not only that, he pinch hit Presley (.169 against right handers) for Hoes (.174). Small sample size, but negligible difference. Why waste a player in that situation? He pinch hit Krauss (.179 against right handers) for Guzman (.286)? Again, why? (by the way, these are rhetorical questions). As to getting players involved, in that case, I'd rather see players be put into situations they are apparently not accustom to (e.g. righty against righty).
Let me unpack more broadly what I meant. 1) Astros aren't winning anything this year. 2) This is only Bo's 2nd year 3) We are still in the process of weeding out guys who cant help us. Given the above, I expect Bo to try things. See how players react in situations. Experiment a bit. Yes, those of us only focused on winning find some of his moves questionable, even bad. But like the last three years, if losing a few more games now helps us win later, I am for it.
My first reaction to things like this is always "well, you're only looking at the batter side of the equation. You also have to look at the pitcher's splits." But in this case, that makes it even worse. Belasario has allowed a 0.310 OPS against lefties and a 0.681 vs righties. So even though he's a righty pitcher, you probably should NOT be putting lefties up against him. (to be fair, historically, all this is reversed, both with all the batters you listed and Belasario)
First, I am not arguing, so don't take this as such. But, wouldn't it make more sense to see how a guy would perform in a situation that he is (for whatever reason), not as used to? For the most part, Guzman and Hoes are only playing against left handers. It would seem the experimentation would involve putting them into situations they are not generally being put into. I just don't see the logic of pinch hitting in that situation. Now, if it was a game situation where driving in a key run was in play, I could understand his need to play the percentages.
Yeah, I saw Belasario's stats last night and noticed he was better against left handed hitters. And, coincidentally, lefties were 0-3 against him and Carter got a hit. (extremely small sample size, of course).
Ditto I think what will come into play soon is the pressure to start winning. The case could be made this is already the case. But the product on the field prohibits much of that for the time being. Still, it will be interesting to see if Bo's moves take on a different approach once we are truly capable of winning (determined by talent on the field and bench). If we see continued blunders at that point, then certainly the need to improve other areas of the team (coaching) will be scrutinized and come into question.
He is doing well in challenges. And, last year, even though he didn't know an obvious rule, he somehow convinced all 4 umpires he was right which led to the umpires being disciplined by MLB.
Nice first inning. Could have been more as Presley hit a bullet down the first base line that Dunn fielded and Gonzalez hit a ball to right that the right fielder made a great diving play on.
