What is Buck Showalter smoking?
by Stacey on Jul 3, 2011 12:05 AM EDT
in Commentary & Analysis
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PrintEME already posted a great recap of tonight's game, but I just have to get something off my chest. Buck Showalter pinch hitting for Nolan Reimold with Felix Pie was simply moronic. Odds were against the Orioles no matter what happened, but what world is Showalter living in that Pie has a better chance of getting on base than Reimold? I mean, honestly, what in the world was he thinking?
I missed most of tonight's game, but got home during the bottom of the 7th inning, just as Brad Bergesen was being replaced by Mike Gonzalez. I watched through the end, and as Derrek Lee popped up for the second out of the 9th, I said to my boyfriend, "At least we'll get to see Nolan hit. It'd be nice if he could be the one to do something here," to which he replied, "Unless they pinch hit for him with Felix Pie." I said no way, no way would that happen. Of course we'd seen it before, but I just couldn't fathom it would happen again.
But it did. With the tying run on first base in the 9th inning and two outs, Buck Showalter replaced a batter who has, in his big league career, hit .263/.349/.443 with 22 HR and 24 2B in 524 AB. And he replaced him with another batter who has, in addition to this year hitting .241/.254/.295, a career batting line of .253/.299/.382 with 17 HR and 40 2B in 912 AB.
And why? Because at some point the Orioles decided that Nolan Reimold can't hit right-handed pitchers. Attention Baltimore Orioles: Reimold has a career hitting line against righties of .261/.343/.430. Felix Pie has a career hitting line against righties of .267/.311/.404. And on top of that, this year Reimold has done nothing but hit in his brief chances this season. Pie, in his chances, has simply done nothing.
So Felix pinch hit for Reimold, representing the go-ahead run in the 9th, and of course he struck out. He didn't even have a good at bat. He had a terrible at bat. He took two balls and a called strike, then took two ugly hacks at two pitches, the last one basically on the ground, to end the game.
As I was stewing after the game ended, my boyfriend said to me, "Maybe Buck knows something we don't know. He has to know something we don't know." And maybe he does, but I can't think of anything in the realm of normal human logic that could make it seem like a good idea to do what he did.
I know the Orioles have a lot of issues, and this isn't even close to their biggest problem. But...it's just...what is going on?
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Sadly, Buck is stupid enough to blindly assume the Lefty - Righty matchup is best.
Going into this year we all knew that he was a decent clubhouse manager, but his in game managing doesn’t appear to be anything different than anyone else. I think it’s time to bring in some younger blood.
Eric Wedge is making the same mistakes in Seattle for whatever it is worth.
"That was fugly." - JArrieta34
by WestcoastO'sFan on Jul 3, 2011 12:28 AM EDT reply actions
I say the samething to anyone who listens.
This is a different Buck. It is like someone transformed him into Mazzilli, Perlazzo, Trembley. Different name same stupid substitutions that come back to bite us later in the game. Pie is what he is a fourth outfielder at best. Nolan might be a regular if we ever gave him the chance. Look at the players they let learn on the job Nick, AJ, Matt. Why isn’t Nolan given the same chance. He has shown me enough to get the chance.
This became apparent to me with how he handled fox
Which was something that was easy to look past. Now it’s becoming a troubling pattern.
by brek on Jul 3, 2011 1:17 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Odd
that so many people don’t know how important game managing is. It’s not the most talented teams that win (if it were, how did Boston and the Tigers miss out last year and Philly not win overall?), it’s a war of attrition. Stay healthy (O’s haven’t) and have depth, or fail. Philly has been really healthy but if they start getting hospital bills forget about them.
Game managing maximizes what you can get out of your team for 162 games. Mistakes like not changing a D man or taking a pitcher out one batter late can have consequences beyond the game. Few managers always maximize over 162 games. It isn’t what talent you’ve got, but what you do with it.
bad example
Yeah you picked a terrible example which is probaby why no one reply’d to your post. Look at Philly’s current DL List: Blanton, Oswalt, Lidge, Madson, and Contreras. Not to mention Utley missed the first 45 games of the season, Dom Brown was out almost 2 months, and Victorino’s headed there soon. Look at last year and you’ll see that Philly wasn’t healthy until late August.
Maybe you shouldn’t have forgotten about Philly, because the rest of the League hasn’t.
When Buck does stuff like pinch-hit Felix for Nolan, I have to wonder if it's a cry for help.
Does he regret leaving ESPN to take a crack at managing the O’s after all? You wonder if he wakes up in the morning thinking, “I could have stayed away from all of this.”
It’s like having a GM who signs washed up sluggers and overpriced relievers every offseason. Begging to be fired. Good thing we don’t know anybody like that.
"That ball is gone. We'll pause ten seconds to commit suicide ... I mean, for a station identification." - Joe Angel, 6/17/11
Hard to know what is up
Maybe Buck is just trying to get guys to work out of their troubles, knowing the team won’t win this year anyway. But how will that help in the long run when at least 5 of the guys he rides won’t be back?
It’s not like he’s got a winning formula here. Lack of depth but try something different, it’s a long season but it does come to an end. Shuffle the deck, move guys around, bench guys. At some point trying hard has to be replaced by results. You know, like no more 4+ run innings for the opposition, and regular 3+ run innings for the O’s….
Between this game and his moronic statements about sabermetics
I think Buck had nothing/little to do with the win streak at the end of last season.
Folksy literate type.
Buck is an idiot
It’s obvious from his constant yanking of pitchers before they’ve cracked the 90 pitch mark, bullpen roulette, and Luke Scott starting every fucking game in right field. The dude just has his head up his ass.
I am eating you, motherfucker. You cannot hurt me. - PhilR8
It’s obvious from his constant yanking of pitchers before they’ve cracked the 90 pitch mark, bullpen roulette, and Luke Scott starting every fucking game in right field.
That sounds SO familiar. Dave Trembley, anyone?
"Dyslexia?? It's DCO." - WestcoastO'sfan
This makes me sad.
We need GMGM running this team
Just because you know how to read, doesn't mean you'll like the book.
Look
it’s easy to blame it on Buck for this crap we have been watching, and yes some mistakes are laid at his feet. In the end it’s the players that want to, or not, and I’m afraid to say that the Orioles are loaded full of crap players. Look at the 1988 Dodgers, they had the weakest team ever to win a WS, and yes I know they had bulldog and Gibby, but the rest wasn’t much to look at…. People mention Trembley, Perlozzo, Mazzilli, etc…. but look at what they had to deal with, crap, crap, crap…..Look at Davy Johnson’s teams of ‘96 and ’97 winners, players that wanted to win and did. So for me it comes down to what you have got to put on the field, and the O’s have a bunch of garbage, minus a few here and there……….
But the maddening thing is
that this team is not really garbage. Granted, they still don’t have the talent across the board to run with the big dogs, but they have enough to make things interesting, if they would execute better. And execution isn’t just in the hands of the player at the critical moment. It also involves things like lineups, substitutions, player positioning, bullpen management—all the things that ARE in the hands of the manager, and are being screwed up with predictable results.
Otherwise, it would be very hard to explain things like consistently getting 10+ hits and losing.
But that's exactly the fucking point
he can’t do anything about the shitty ass players his roster is loaded with, but he doesn’t have to fucking compound it.
I am eating you, motherfucker. You cannot hurt me. - PhilR8
I use to fly F4 Phantoms in the US Navy
they are my favorite jet of all time, I have an affection for that big bird which brought on deck a many time safely after a long haul. Therefore F4PHANTOMPHREAK, I hope that answers your question. I know its weird if someone doesn’t know what an F4 is, sorry.
That is the friggin' best
ever since I saw your first posts I was wondering about that. The F-4 is my favorite plane ever. I was at the Air Force Academy for one year but flunked out due to bad grades. That’s what I wanted to fly. The F-15 was still in the design stage, as was the F-16. But the Phantom ruled. My heroes growing up were Steve Ritchie and (unfortunately) Duke Cunningham.
And also
Wieters gets on with one out, and I had to double check that Pie wasn’t already used because it didn’t make any sense not to pinch-run Wieters. But no, they leave him in there until another out is made, then replace him with a pitcher that you don’t want getting hurt. Brilliant.
I mean, moronic.
Kevin Gregg is ruining everything I love about baseball, he really is.
He had to save Pie to pinch hit for Riemold!
Duh.
Felix Pie is a ninja robot sent from the future to make everything adorable.
Lots
of people called it a flying bus, but those are people that never strapped that bird on when those two big J57’s were fired up, awesome is all I can say about the F4. To “fishoutawata” your 100% correct execution is important, and your right that means alot in a game, if it’s not there then you have nothing. I guess I should not have said the Orioles had garbage, because I know there is some players that seem to give it their all, Guthrie comes to mind, Reynolds is playing top notch and so is Hardy. Your right they do have some pieces on this club, I was wrong again for dissing the whole club caliing it garbage. It’s just I’ve been a fan since God knows when as we all have, and it hurts seeing them making the same stupid mistakes year in and year out. I mean does McPhail actually care about this club, or is his head in the hunt to be the next MLB commish??
Well, he got one thing right with today's lineup..
hardy, markakis, jones, reynolds, lee, scott, tatum, davis, britton.
But his refusal to use Reimold is getting ridiculous.
That bottom 5 is a black hole of suck
"Complacency is your demise." - Kerry King
by duck on Jul 3, 2011 11:22 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Reynolds hitting cleanup! Radical.
Too bad it’ll probably be the last time.
"That ball is gone. We'll pause ten seconds to commit suicide ... I mean, for a station identification." - Joe Angel, 6/17/11
by Eat More Esskay on Jul 3, 2011 11:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Way too much deference to vets and their "track records"
That’s my main problem. Play the best player NOW, not the past 5 years.
"Complacency is your demise." - Kerry King
by duck on Jul 3, 2011 11:21 AM EDT via mobile reply actions 1 recs
This very thought crosses through my head every so often.
Was I a genocidal dictator in a past life? I can’t see why else I would deserve the fate of being an Orioles fan.
"That ball is gone. We'll pause ten seconds to commit suicide ... I mean, for a station identification." - Joe Angel, 6/17/11
by Eat More Esskay on Jul 3, 2011 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions
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