Why did Wilson challenge Pat Burrell? Pedro-fucking-Feliz was on deck, we had the lead, it didn’t matter that he represented the go-ahead run…. That was absurd. For all the times our pitchers pitch around guys, and waste pitches and go from 0-2 to 3-2, to decide to challenge the guy who is leading the NL in RBI –with the game on the line– was simply ridiculous. That was un-fucking-believable.
One more reason to fire Bonehead.
UPDATE: Over at El Lefty Malo, I saw that Lowry is still having problems. Let me say it again, anytime a pitcher has a surgery that is considered one of a kind for a pitcher, his career is, in fact, in jeopardy:
…. The left-hander continues to feel tingling and numbness in his left forearm extending down to his thumb, Giants trainer Dave Groeschner said. Lowry underwent a nerve-conduction test Tuesday that showed improved function compared to results before forearm surgery March 8. But Lowry’s nerves have not healed and Groeschner said the team will “probably have to shut him down for a significant amount of time.”
Groeschner said he will accompany Lowry to Birmingham, Ala., for a consultation with orthopedist Dr. James Andrews on Monday, when the Giants have a day off between series at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
“Nerves are slow to heal,” Groeschner said. “The doctors feel this will go away over time. We’re exploring other options, other medications.”
Last month, Giants hand specialist Dr. Gordon Brody diagnosed Lowry with exertional compartment syndrome, a condition in which pressure within his forearm muscles caused compressed nerves and blood flow. Lowry had surgery to trim the sheath surrounding the muscles, which was supposed to relieve the pressure.
I’m sorry, but this is bad, really bad. Nerve damage? Tough break for Lowry.
[...] absurd. For all the times our pitchers pitch around guys, and waste pitches and go from 0-2 to 3-http://www.onlybaseballmatters.com/archives/2008/05/02/why/Healing process not speeding along for Giants’ Lowry San Jose Mercury NewsNoah Lowry is searching [...]
“The doctors feel this will go away over time. We’re exploring other options, other medications.”
Oh my. “Over time”.
Good that we didn’t trade Lowry when he had value and relative health!
I would have done the same thing with Wilson. This game didn’t mean shit. None of the games this year mean shit. The season doesn’t mean shit if you look at the refuse that populates the roster at any given moment, when it comes to position players.
This was merely a teaching experience for Bochy letting it be known, that at some point, Wilson is going to have challenge guys like Burrell and Howard and Utley in games that actually mean something. The last inning was a pressure cooker kind of inning that comes in playoff baseball, and that was one hell of a learning experience for Wilson. I was particularly impressed as the ball left the yard. Wilson never says a word. He doesnt hold his head or do any of the other stupid shit that so many others do. He never grimaces. He doesn’t look intimated or defeated either. He was perfect Rob Nenn, Mariano Rivera redux. He still looked confident coming off the mound as if to shrug and say “you got me on that one, but I got you on the next two”
With a young pitcher who is still learning his craft, you can tell a lot more about his attitude towards himself with the way he handles a blind-side defeat, than a 1-2-3 eight-pitch save with a 3 run lead.
I don’t agree. Game after game, our pitchers are coached to pitch around the top hitters in the lineup, the inning, or in a particular situation. Bonehead is the first manager to run out there and come up with a way to slow the game down, avoid trouble, at all costs, damn the development of the players, the pace of the game, whatever.
I’ve been complaining for years about our pitches tendency to take an at-bat from 0-2 to 3-2. The 0-2, two foot outside waste pitch is a staple of the Giants approach to the game. Rags’ whole approach is avoid avoid avoid. So, going after Burrell there isn’t a learning experience. If that was a playoff game, YOU WALK BURRELL TO GO AFTER FELIZ. And anyway, you can’t say the game was meaningless AND a playoff atmosphere at the same time.
Most of our pitchers are, as you say, taught to pitch around and Buckethead is egregious in his relentless pursuit of “book” moves. What I threw in there was more specific to Brian Wilson and other young and upcoming closers of his ilk. This is what you do with a guy you are grooming to be a bloodthirsty butcher out there. Its a mental thing with a closer. To not surrender to anybody, anytime, under any circumstances. It is the mentality of the Free Safety. An assassin’s makeup. Once that is determined, one can advance to the more nuanced moves where a guy like a Nen and Rivera or even Smoltz pitched around certain guys.
And what I’m alluding to is what do you do in a playoff game if THERE IS NO BASE TO put Burrell on. Do you really want the first time for Mr. Wilson to have to go after somebody with only one pitch to actually be in the bottom of the ninth inning of a real playoff game. What I meant and I think you may not have understood this, is that last nights game was a “simulated playoff situation”.
Its a similar teaching tactic used in air combat training. You simulate worst case scenarios in a safe environment. You do the same thing with a young team when you are trying to figure out who has balls and who doesn’t. Who can perform under adverse conditions in pressure situations and who cannot. So yes, you can have a meaningless game and a playoff simulation situation simultaneously. How’s that for alliteration?
Well, I guess my only retort would be to say that if you see last night as a simulation, then treat it EXACTLY like you would if it were a playoff situation. In that situation, you would have to walk Burrell and pitch to Feliz with no base available. That being the case, I think you still come around to the point that there wouldn’t be many, or even ANY situations in which you would choose to face Burrell with third base open over Feliz with the bases loaded.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs, because I do agree with you; but I think there’s been more thought about it between you and I these last 12 hours than Bonehead put into it at all. I don’t believe that he considered he was putting Wilson in a simulated playoff face-off; either Wilson completely missed his off-the-plate location, or Rags and Bonehead forgot who was on deck. Krukow called it a challenge fastball when the ball finally landed; again, I ask, why do that? Why challenge the hottest hitter on the team when you don’t have to? As I write this, I guess I’m thinking I don’t agree so much.
The simulation you’re talking about sounds good in theory, but isn’t getting the save the real test? I’d think that going through Utley and Burrell in the ninth with a one-run lead is enough of a beat your chest kind of accomplishment, without having to “challenge” the hottest hitter with a chance to give your pitcher a win. Seem like that’s enough pressure…. No?
“…but I think there’s been more thought about it between you and I these last 12 hours than Bonehead put into it at all.”
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Boy. Isn’t that the truth?
Well, maybe I’m just a little more old school and really want to go after the best with the best with everything on the line. Thats all there really is to look forward to when you are on a team that sucks green rocks. I hate intentional walks when you have dominating stuff. Obviously if its the pitcher, thats one thing. But when you’re out there, and you have really dominating stuff, you want to beat the shit out of the other guy. When you’re on a drub team, there is not a lot to play for except for the matchups. Yeah. He prolly gets Feliz. Hell, you or I probably get Feliz. But that is bigger. Burrell who hits a ton, or Feliz who swats at invisible gnats. When you get beat by their best thats one thing. Getting beat by a shit like Feliz, no matter how much more favorable the matchup, is still sucko.
Like I said earlier. He only missed by a little bit. It always comes to execution. Anyway. I respect 100 percent your point of view, and I know you do mine. I just like mine a little better. But thats probably because you were a catcher and I had the extremely difficult task of always trying to keep guys like you from screwing things up from 60 feet away, so its no surprise that we disagree.
Good to see you really engaged again.
Hey everyone… a must read for Giants fans is up on Fire Joe Morgan. http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ — ripping Tim K. to shreds for his analysis that Fred Lewis is better this year than Bonds would have been. Great stuff…
thanks for the link – I’m a regular visitor at FJM, but that was a great one.
I came in from working in the yard, thinking that the game was over. I turned on the TV and the game’s in the 10th. “Hey, Giants are up and Burrell’s got two strikes, alright,” I thought. BOOM. I just laughed and turned off the TV. Perfect time to enter, perfect time to leave.
What’s up with Misch? His line looked okay. And, now I see from Joe that he only had 69 pitches?
Because we’re trying to save his arm from injury.
“Hey Lincecum! I know you just started two days ago, but get warmed up in the bullpen – you’re going in!”
forget that…why was misch lifted after only 69 pitches…2 being mistakes
and the pitch call was all on benjie
ya….happy pete is up next
but the fact remains…happy pete was up next…and he loves a fast ball
but good to see john getting excited by these games…must mean the team is doing some things right
it was a fun game
The pitch call was NOT on Molina, it was on our manager who should have gone out there and instructed his pitcher to pitch around Burrell because Pedro Can’t-Hit-a-Low-and-Outside-Curveball-to-Save-His-Life-But-You’d-Better-Believe-He’s-Still-Swinging Feliz was on deck.
So all that, all those relievers used, all for naught. And I can’t shake the feeling that the bullpen’s going to get pummeled (and overtaxed) this series.