Have any of you tried the Dilly Dog? I'm having a hard time imagining how a hot dog inside of a pickle would taste good.

AccidentProne said:

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Cole did not look happy about that defensive alignment

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To me, he has looked unhappy from Day 1 in Texas.

free_mhayden said:

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Playing for 1-run down 4-0 in the first.

Good grief we have a manager that just isn't very smart.

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I think Odor is hitting for a base hit, there. He did that the other night, as well.

Drag bunt... should have gone more towards 2nd. 1B fields the ball and he beats the P to the base.

It also forces the P to chase the ball, getting him out of a groove. Might try to get the pitcher to make a mistake or lose some velocity?!

Anyway you look at it, doesn't seem like an intentional Sac Bunt.

TXAggie2011 said:

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Sac bunt is probably the best chance Odor has to be productive and with 27 more outs, you don't have to try to get everything back with just a few swings.

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You don't sac bunt with your #2 hitter down 4-0 in the first inning with nobody out and a man on 2nd base.

Ever.

AccidentProne said:

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Cole did not look happy about that defensive alignment

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I'm guessing he missed his spot, which allowed the hitter to go the opposite way.

If he is upset... he can be upset with himself.

He spoke out about not going with a 6 man rotation and then has done nothing to be credible with his opinion. He could have garnered fan support by going out there and taking care of the Blue Jays. Instead, he got lit up on 2 HRs in the 1st.

When it is Sunday and you've decided to put a .483 OPS second in the lineup, maybe you bunt.

DallasAg 94 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Playing for 1-run down 4-0 in the first.

Good grief we have a manager that just isn't very smart.

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I think Odor is hitting for a base hit, there. He did that the other night, as well.

Drag bunt... should have gone more towards 2nd. 1B fields the ball and he beats the P to the base.

It also forces the P to chase the ball, getting him out of a groove. Might try to get the pitcher to make a mistake or lose some velocity?!

Anyway you look at it, doesn't seem like an intentional Sac Bunt.

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He already squared around in the first pitch of the at-bat. So there was certainly zero element of surprise.

Based on what Bannister was quoted as saying before the game, Texas was going to try and force a run across early any way they could. Well, I guess they were successful. If only "not getting shutout" was the name of the game.

If you are bunting for a hit in the first inning down 4 with nobody out and a man on 2nd base and you bunt it directly to the first baseman and are tagged out by a mile than it was just a waste of an at-bat.

This team continues to do things with negative expected value and not surprisingly they end up not getting positive results.

TXAggie2011 said:

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When it is Sunday and you've decided to put a .483 OPS second in the lineup, maybe you bunt.

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It's not even defendable down 0-0 with your ace on the mound.

It's absolutely not defendable down 4-0 with a guy on the mound that statistics show isn't going to put up 0's the rest of the way.

It's stupid baseball. Just no other way to define it.

DallasAg 94 said:

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AccidentProne said:

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Cole did not look happy about that defensive alignment

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I'm guessing he missed his spot, which allowed the hitter to go the opposite way.

If he is upset... he can be upset with himself.

He spoke out about not going with a 6 man rotation and then has done nothing to be credible with his opinion. He could have garnered fan support by going out there and taking care of the Blue Jays. Instead, he got lit up on 2 HRs in the 1st.

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Cole strikes me as the kind of guy that is going to cast a lot of blame to other people as his ability to get outs continues to wane.

Banni-ball

TXAggie2011 said:

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When it is Sunday and you've decided to put a .483 OPS second in the lineup, maybe you bunt.

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Then don't put him in the lineup at all

(Average) expected values are just that...averages, not expected values for one of the worst hitters in Major League Baseball.

The clearer outrage here is that one of the worst hitters in baseball is hitting second.

DannyDuberstein said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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When it is Sunday and you've decided to put a .483 OPS second in the lineup, maybe you bunt.

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Then don't put him in the lineup at all

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Indeed.

Your #5 hitter is batting 0.195 and you've already shown you aren't willing to allow him to bunt for a free single.

Your #6 hitter is batting 0.077.

Your #7 hitter is batting 0.182.

Your #8 hitter is batting 0.148.

Your #9 hitter is batting 0.000.


When that is what you are working with #5-8, then it is just galactically stupid to play for 1 run down 4 with the only pop in your lineup (Andrus/Beltre) coming up.

A team that isn't hitting well likely isn't going to win many games. A team that isn't hitting well that is down 4-0 likely is going to win even less. A team that isn't hitting well that is down 4-0 and is sac-bunting is making the margin of error for getting a win absolutely minuscule.

TXAggie2011 said:

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(Average) expected values are just that...averages, not expected values for one of the worst hitters in Major League Baseball.

The clearer outrage here is that one of the worst hitters in baseball is hitting second.

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I don't think anyone is arguing that Odor shouldn't be batting 2nd -- though when you look at this lineup there's not a whole lot of instant-upgrades.

But you don't compound the mistake of batting a ****ty hitter 2nd by having him sac-bunt down 4-0.

If it's 0-0 or 1-0 then it's still bad statistical baseball, but maybe your flawed thought process is "Hamels will shut them down the rest of the way and that run will be big."

There's just no defending it down 4-0 early though. A single run against an opponent that at that point will likely score 6+ runs not worth giving up an out for.

I'll put it this way -- the statistical/percentage chance of a bad hitter like Odor batting 2nd impacting the ultimate outcome of the game is less than the statistical/percentage improvement that sac-bunting down 4-0 with nobody out and a man in scoring position gives you.

And yeah, I'm not saying anyone is justifying Odor hitting second. Only highlighting conventional wisdom and league-wide average stats don't apply to him.

Why would having 26 more outs matter?

If your team can't hit and you are down 4-0, then you don't give away outs. Especially with runners in scoring position.

I know Odor batting 2nd isn't a smart decision, and I know you love to dig your heels in.

But in no world was that decision a smart one that is backed up by any kind of data.

The Toronto broadcast team even just laughed at it in the game-break. "Playing for 1 run down 4."

TXAggie2011 said:

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And even considering the generic situation, the expected run value from 2010-2015 in that situation was 1.100 according to Retrosheet. And the chance of scoring any runs score in that situation is 61.4%.

They got what was expected from a generic situation.

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The decision wasn't stupid because they got less runs than was expected in that situation.

The decision was stupid because DOWN 4-0 your team already needs more than just the expected offense to win.

So, yes, they got about what was expected from a generic situation.

Using that same data from 2010-2015 you'd find that a team down 4-0 in the bottom of the first has roughly a 14.6% win expectancy.

So settling for the expected 1 run in that generic situation is going to have you lose time after time after time.

It's dumb baseball, but keep digging your heels in.

Down 4-0 in the first when you're this Texas Rangers team and you need a damn miracle to win.

But even most of the biggest dug-their-heels-in-against-bunting analysts acknowledge when batters are sufficiently poor, the decision to bunt becomes muddled if not altogether in favor of a bunt.

Usually when you chase a miracle with a bad player, you just end up digging yourself a bigger hole. Sometimes you instead take what is in front of you and hope you can build off of that.

Guess we didn't want Odor bunting a runner into scoring position for Elvis there.

Thank god for the "miracle" of a base-hit.

Good for Odor.

I think we should just play for 1-run here and build for the later innings rather than hope for a "miracle".

If they bunted with 1 out already in the first inning I would see a better connection between the two events.

I know, was just piling on.

As it stands, ended up as a game primed for a "we were just one big swing away" Banny quote.

Find a shovel without a hole.

Maybe we can trade Colon for some prospects.

I hope Colon pitches until he's 50.

Ohtani perfect through 6

I wonder if the "Opening Day" painted grass is going to be there until mid-July.

Seven Costanza said:

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I wonder if the "Opening Day" painted grass is going to be there until mid-July.

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Beats the hell out of outfield crop circles up to the ASG

Maybe after the W, yesterday... Word came down to Banny that JD didn't put this crappy team together to Win games... I think JD wanted to dismantle the team last year, but we ended up playing better and getting more Ws, than anticipated. Kinda screwed things up to have to be in the "Should we sell or buy" range.

JD told Banny, "we better not even be close" to discussions of buying. It will be Sell Sell SELL!

And so, you play for 1 Run down 4 with your Ace on the mound.

You send runners at 1st and 2nd with no Outs, when the SP is struggling.

Are we going to get anything more than a bag of balls for Hamels?