What Was Willie Thinking?
Click here for a recap of yesterday’s game 1.
Click here for a recap of yesterday’s game 2.
I didn’t get to see much of either of the games yesterday but what I did see disgusted me. Needless to say that the little I saw was in the 6-3 opening loss and not the 12-1 nightcap. There was one spot in the 8th inning that just left me scratching my head. The Mets had finally gotten to Giants starter Brett Tomko and had the bases loaded with 2 outs. Giants manager Felipe Alou called for lefty reliever Scott Eyre. With the batter coming to the plate potentially being able to bring the Mets within one run of their opponents Willie Randolph called on Kazuo Matsui to pinch hit.
This move mystified me. It was by the book based on Matsui, a switch hitter, being one of two players left on the bench able to bat righty against the lefty reliever (the other being Ramon Castro). However, sometimes the lefty/righty matchup isn’t the most imprtant part when selecting a pinch hitter. Take, for example, the third available hitter on the Mets bench, Cliff Floyd. Though Floyd bats lefty (conventional wisdom says this is a liability when batting against a left pitcher) and Matsui bats 24 points higher against lefties than Floyd (.294 – .270) you need to go with your strongest hitter in this situation. That hitter is obviously Floyd. Think of it this way: Given that thes etwo players were already in the game, if either of them were to have their spot in the order come up in this situation which one would be more likely to stay in the game? Floyd. Which one would be more likely to be lifter for a pinch hitter? Matsui. Randolph sent a hitter to the plate that he would ordinariliy not send to the plate in the same situation. More succinctly put, Randolph gave up on the game.
This also brings up something that has been bothering me all season long but haven’t had a chance to write about. Why are the Mets carrying so many pitchers? If I’m counting correctly there are 12 picthers on the roster. There’s a 5 man starting rotation and 7 men in the bullpen. Why so many? Granted, the bullpen is the biggest weakness on this team but putting more men there doesn’t make them any better. The bullpen should consist of only 5 pitchers, maybe 6. Definitely not 7. Take one or two arms out of the pen and you have another couple of hitters on the bench and a better selection of pinch hitters to bat with the bases loaded in the 8th inning with a chance to get back in the game.
But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
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