traderumor
05-11-2009, 01:34 PM
It seems to me, purely anecdotally, that the righty vs. lefty aspect of baseball may be taking a lower priority in decision making, or should be if it is not.
We sport a solid rotation with no lefty yet again, and it doesn't seem to bring but a fleeting thought to me that it is something that needs addressed. As I have seen others say on here, "I want someone who can get people out, whichever hand they throw with."
It also seems that the LOOGY is starting to be seen as an expensive luxury, sort of like a CPA ;) . Every one needs one, but nobody wants to pay for them (Trevor Miller's laundry list of org's over the years turned this light on), so teams try to do without one, but some other team is always there to give them a moderate reliever's salary. The LOOGY seems expendable, but then you get into the late innings without one and the lefty slugger who at least could have their power taken away with the LOOGY and you wish he was there.
Then there is concern for lineup heavy handed one way or the other, or Dusty's mind-numbing insistence that our two best hitters need to be split in the order because of the hand they hit with. Should hand matter when constructing a lineup? I laugh when looking at Gene Mauch's 69-70 Expos, who batted four and five lefties at a time in order (Mack Jones, Rusty Staub, Jim Gosger, Ron Fairly, Jim Fairey and others), which is currently against the grain (as Mauch often was) and has been over the years. But you wonder, in the grand scheme of things, is it much ado about nothing? Should the Reds care what hand a pitcher throws with or a hitter hits with when drafting? Are there enough lefty/righty killers to warrant any concern at all about this traditional baseball roster management and managerial manuevering attribute?
We sport a solid rotation with no lefty yet again, and it doesn't seem to bring but a fleeting thought to me that it is something that needs addressed. As I have seen others say on here, "I want someone who can get people out, whichever hand they throw with."
It also seems that the LOOGY is starting to be seen as an expensive luxury, sort of like a CPA ;) . Every one needs one, but nobody wants to pay for them (Trevor Miller's laundry list of org's over the years turned this light on), so teams try to do without one, but some other team is always there to give them a moderate reliever's salary. The LOOGY seems expendable, but then you get into the late innings without one and the lefty slugger who at least could have their power taken away with the LOOGY and you wish he was there.
Then there is concern for lineup heavy handed one way or the other, or Dusty's mind-numbing insistence that our two best hitters need to be split in the order because of the hand they hit with. Should hand matter when constructing a lineup? I laugh when looking at Gene Mauch's 69-70 Expos, who batted four and five lefties at a time in order (Mack Jones, Rusty Staub, Jim Gosger, Ron Fairly, Jim Fairey and others), which is currently against the grain (as Mauch often was) and has been over the years. But you wonder, in the grand scheme of things, is it much ado about nothing? Should the Reds care what hand a pitcher throws with or a hitter hits with when drafting? Are there enough lefty/righty killers to warrant any concern at all about this traditional baseball roster management and managerial manuevering attribute?