is bad.

I wonder if there are more SB problems? BigMOman’s link didn’t work right. I entered “Pujols Awards” as a link to the article I mentioned and it didn’t work either. I’ll just throw it up long style here to make sure it works:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-pujols-awards-week-16/

Tony will actually put Ryan in and not let him rot on the bench. The kid needs a chance to prove himself. Why continue to let an open wound fester in the lineup? Ryan at least has some upside while Cesar is all used up.

and their production in the 7 and 9 slots are killing us … but, it was so predictable even during ST … a move needs to be made to as soon as possible to shore up these deficiencies … jeesh, Izturis is being out-hit by 66% of all PITCHERS in the league … it’s miserable …

Also, THANK YOU!, bgh, for the link to ESPN’s team stats page … I didn’t know you could split it by position, batting order, etc … a very good post …

A few thoughts on yesterday’s game …

Joel Pineiro proved two things yesterday: 1) the Cards brought him back 2 weeks early, and 2) he can still pitch … that was a gem … a FIGS score of 69 is second best of the season … only Wainwright’s 71 gem on 4/10 is better … let’s certainly hope that was a sign of things to come, and not a ‘lucky’ start … this rotation certainly needs another bolstering agent at this point … only 10 of our last 17 starts have scored FIGS of 56 or better, after the hot start … that means in the last 17 games, the staff has 10 good starts and 7 bad ones … let’s hope Piniero, who contributed 2 of those clunkers, continues adding to the right column …

Also, on Pineiro … after his highlight-reel defensive play of the year last night, and after Troy let that ball by him one or two plays later (I’m not knocking Troy … his defense has been pretty good this year, better than I hoped), do you think Joel went over to him and said, “No … you’re supposed to kick it!” ...

Isn’t it nice to have a REAL MLB shortstop playing for us again? ... how re-freshing was it to watch Brendan Ryan go 2-3 with a BB to boot after watching Ickturis’s crap the last couple of weeks? ... I know one of the hits could have been ruled an error; but, the kid just flat out makes things happen when he plays … with his speed, luck, or whatever … I absolutely love to watch him play … he brings a certain amount of energy to the game the team lacks when he’s not around … and how about the highlight-reel pick he had? ... I remember thinking “Cesar never would have come up with that one”, at the time … I hope Brendan gets A LOT of starts at SS … he is clearly the better player … I waiting now for Tony to say to a reporter, “Izturis will have to prove he can still play to re-gain his starting position on this team” ... I’m not holding my breath on that one …

Last observation … We left 23 men on base last night … because we scored 6 runs and Joel did his thing, it didn’t seem to hurt … but this is definately a trend … so far this month, we have 14 games where we have left 15 or more runners on base … in our 8 losses, we left more than 20 on three times … We are currently averaging 4.7 runs per game, but the predictors I am using say we should be averaging closer to 6.0 … I don’t know what our team average is with RISP, but it needs to improve … we’re leaving too many guys on base … azruavatar’s comments on the middle infield probably has a lot to do with it …

Now, let’s kick some Astro butt at home … bounce back tonight, Loop …

With those off line throws.

I am sure it’s been brought up before at VEB but Retrosheet has a good (but dated) article entitled “The Effectivenss of Platooning” by David Smith.

Here is the site.

He examines the “handedness advantage” derived from the direction of the breaking of the ball and the release pt. of the pitcher. The article talks a lot about switch hitting which is not too applicable to our current situation. But we do have non-switch hitting platooning with our outfield and to a lesser degree with a possible platooning infield with lefty Kennedy. It seems like TLR has put platooning to good use this season as the outfield is doing pretty well, not withstanding Ank’s mini slump.

But back to Azru’s point on wrong up the middle… Azru examined MIF independent from the rest of the lineup. So from the perspective of the overall productivity of an entire lineup, could a combination of high OBP+low ISO MIF possibly work if the SLG comes from the rest of the lineup? i.e. MIF’s get on base, and others get them home? I don’t remember anyone complaining about Eck’s low ISO when Gruds, El Hombre, and Walker were driving him home. Just a thought. I know ideally we would want high ISO everywhere.

Brent Lillibridge, Chin-Lung Hu, Jed Lowrie all come to mind… Michael Young is an option but an expensive one at that – he’s due $80 over 5 years after this season.

tracking his doubles vs the MLB record of 67. With 11 in 23 games, he’s on pace for 77.5 as of now. He’s also got 5 games in a row with at least one double, but I’m not sure how to find that record.

It’s not as fun as watching pujols chase bonds/wilson in ‘06, but it’s what we’ve got…

I talked about this in Harcore’s “40 acres” thread, which seems to have run its course, but with Peralta (26) and Asdrubal Cabrera (22) up the middle they are pretty much set for a while and have some very, very good MI prospects in the minors. They are desperate for relief pitching- borowski is done imo- and MLB-caliber outfielders. Adam Kennedy (88 OPS+) is currently hitting almost as well as their entire outfield (90 OPS+). Dellucci is off to a good start, but he’s 34, not as good as he has been playing, and useless against lefties, and Gutierrez/Michaels are just flat out awful. Sizemore is the only thing keeping them above water, and he is slumping so far this year.

It’s pretty ironic that we got two of our current OF surplus from them for free (ludwick, as a minor league free agent, and Barton as a rule 5). If we could turn one of our outfielders or relievers (franklin?) into one of their SS prospects, or even Peralta (obviously that would cost more) it would solve our problem in one fell swoop. Peralta needs to be moved to third eventually, but can still play SS well enough to get us through the Glaus era and give Kozma time to develop.

I suppose there are times it’s appropriate. But, the arm isn’t such an issue in left field. Also, TLR has shorted his bench to pull Barton several times when it wasn’t really that necessary. I can see a RF replacement or a 9th inning replacement. But, pulling him from left field in the 7th when we are up by 2 runs or down by 2 runs or whatever is completely unnecessary. It’s what causes pinch hitting appearances by pitchers.

If he’s so bad, he can’t man left field with a 2 run lead…he shouldn’t be on the team at all. That’s certainly not the case.

and he’s going to make rookie mistakes from time to time … getting picked off at 2nd was another case in point … Brendan Ryan’s going to make some too in the next several days … but their upsides are worth it … and you just have to live with it … I’m sure Tony will do all he can to limit their exposure … however, I say, “let’em play” ... by the way … I think Tony has molly-coddled Barton a little too much in the outfield, and made some bad replacement calls which hurt us in late-game situations … I think Barton is a little better defensively than he’s being treated … one bad throw notwithstanding …