Everything is perfect, but there is a lot of room for improvement. --- Shunryu Suzuki-roshi
I expect any competitor to want the ball. To try to talk his way into the game. Always, always thinking you're the best, you're the guy. They don't make it to the Majors is they don't think that way.
It's Dusty's job to tell him "no". He can't be swayed by a passionate guy lobbying.
Outside of that. I do not care about Cueto being caught on camera laughing. How do you know that a coach or player didn't say something to him to make him laugh precisely because he was down on himself?
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...wild-card-game
Five Takeaways From the Reds-Pirates Wild-Card Game
The article also has these two images which sum up the feeling of the game:Francisco Liriano just had the best season by a left-handed starting pitcher vs. left-handed hitters in major league history. The Reds responded by … doing nothing.
We wrote about Liriano's mastery of lefties last month, and Rany Jazayerli doubled down with another look in Tuesday's wild-card preview. The numbers for left-handed hitters against Liriano's slider in particular look like a typo: .067/.103/.080, a vortex of pain well illustrated in this graphic by Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry.
There was no way the Reds were going to bench lefty-swinging perennial MVP candidate Joey Votto, against Liriano or anyone else. Realistically, Jay Bruce and his lefty bat probably weren't going to get scratched either. But it would've been nice to see Reds manager Dusty Baker make an adjustment with Shin-Soo Choo. This season, Choo hit just .215 and slugged just .265 against left-handed pitching, scratching out a respectable on-base percentage mostly by taking many for the team. Combine that feeble offense with Choo's worst-in-baseball center-field defense, and you'd figure the Reds could have two reasonable alternatives to the status quo: (1) move Choo down in the lineup in the hopes he'd have to face Liriano only twice, or (2) stick Choo on the bench and give Billy Hamilton, his blinding speed, superior defense, and suspect bat that's at least stronger from the right side a shot instead. Nope. A creature of managerial routine if there ever was, Baker left Choo in to hit leadoff.
Now this is Swag!
Last edited by klw; 10-03-2013 at 12:09 PM.
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