Lookout Landing

Has never pitched on 3 days rest in his career.

Tough time to begin experiments. And teams have come back from 3-1 deficits before. I’d rather have him pitching the next game.

Pitchers generally show a very slight dropoff pitching on 3 days rest.

And 95% of Cliff Lee is better than 100% of Joe Blanton.

Cliff Lee is not in a "general" category. He's like a champion racehorse.

So I would not extrapolate “average” statistics to him. I would believe his manager knows him better than you or me. The guy who led his team to the championship last year, and is in a competitive series this year.

I do not think that the manager or anyone can possibly know anything that would make them think that

Cliff Lee will suck or fall apart by resting one less day before pitching again.

The difference between staring Lee 2 or 3 times in the World Series is more -WEXP than all the stupid things Girardi has done so far.

Hard to believe you are not an MLB manager.

But you are not.

Managers are not flawless.

Neither are you.

But this is a stupid decision and it's stupid to say I'm wrong because I'm not a manager.

It's stupid because you say it is?

Nice argument.

The numbers say that pitchers are only very slightly worse pitching on 3 days rest rather than 4.

There is no reason to believe that Cliff Lee is any different that isn’t speculation.

Sure there is.

He just went 9 innings his last start. He’s never (and that is a long time) done it before. Strategically, perhaps you don’t want to experiment against CC in a WS game when you have little backing up Lee if the gamble (and it is a gamble) backfires.

Plenty of reasons. Give it up. You say one thing, the manager says another. You lose.

Pure speculation with no numbers to back it up. You lose.

He's not pitching.

The manager has a WS ring. You have none. I’ll take Manuel’s decision based upon his experience and knowledge of his pitcher.

This is a really stupid argument.

Joe Girardi has 3 world series rings and he’s done stupid things throughout the playoffs.

And it's stupid to think you know more than Lee's manager

because you can quote general statistics. You can’t gereralize everything back to the Law of Large Numbers.

With the amount of stupid decisions managers make...

I give almost no weight to their speculation about how a pitcher will pitch in a situation that the pitcher has never been in before.
What could Manuel possibly know about Lee that makes him think that he is vastly different than general pitchers?

Well, he lives with the guy.

He talks with the guy. He watches every pitch, not just the box score. He talks with the pitching coach and catchers.

What do you got?

All I got...

Is this.
If you asked Manuel, do you think he’d have any good reason that isn’t pure speculation that Cliff Lee has something about him that makes him very, very different than the average pitcher when it comes to pitching on short rest?

I'm sure al statistics are used in evaluating decisions.

As well as “intangibles”, as the “average” pitcher is not Cliff Lee.

But there is no evidence to support that Lee is different.

And I can’t believe you at all if you are going to claim that managers have some inherent ability to guess whether or not any certain pitcher can or cannot pitch well on short rest compared to average.

What could Manuel POSSIBLY know about Lee that would make him think that he’s different?

We can spin this until dawn.

Blanton is matching CC. Lee is the powder that is being kept dry – the matchup between CC and Lee, one might argue, favors CC (based upon how lousy the Phils hit against him).

So argue theory all you want – so far, the practice seems to be working out.

Now you're bringing up a possible argument...

based on how the Phillies hit against Blanton in game one? That’s just idiotic.

Not as a manager.

It could be a strategic move, anyway the Phillies work this they have to win 3 games.

Perhaps they like the idea of rolling the dice on Blanton against C.C. here, and having a fresher Lee available for game 7.

Pearl Jam is giving a shout out to Raul at their show in Philly last night.

Blanton looks like he is surprised that he smells.

Fin - November 1, 2009 reply

I guess that this meme is dead.

Fin - November 1, 2009 reply

So

Fin - November 1, 2009 reply

Well, that's sweet.

royalcurve - November 1, 2009 reply

"This is for Raul because he's a force of fucking nature". That was cool.

I'd like to take this opportunity to nominate CC's headshot for headshot of the year.

The donut comment the first time we saw it was dead on.

Terminator X - November 1, 2009 reply

Wow Blanton blows.

Looks like I can go back to studying early tonight.

XFD A-Rod got hit again.

I love the Phillies.

XFD?

Robert - November 1, 2009 reply

XD with a "fucking" in the middle.

XD?

Dewey N - November 1, 2009 reply

It's a laughing face with squinting eyes.

So hows the baseball going?

Robert - November 1, 2009 reply

I'll just go ahead and leave this here

Big Jared - November 1, 2009 reply

Oh Dear...

Scrupio - November 1, 2009 reply

Fantastic.

Is this real?

Rachmaninoff - November 1, 2009 reply

I have no idea.

I just randomly stumbled on it.

Big Jared - November 1, 2009 reply

What the fuck is this.

redwolf75 - November 1, 2009 reply

Hahahahaha the Yankees get a warning

I hope it takes the inside part of the plate away from Sabathia.

Didn't know you could get an error

for throwing it perfectly to home plate. Late, but whatever.

Paytheline - November 1, 2009 reply

Sorry I'm late...

SethGrandpa - November 1, 2009 reply

Jek Porkins of Red Six!

katal - November 1, 2009 reply

Blanton is holding his own so far.

44FAN - November 1, 2009 reply

It seems like Sabathia

has had his photo posted this year at least as much as even some M’s pitchers.

It's a look that says

“I enjoyed those steak fries, and am very content”

Grady Clapp - November 1, 2009 reply

The not looking at the camera irritates me somehow

The first Phillie to say something about the strike zone is getting tossed.

katal - November 1, 2009 reply

Howard is fast!

Here we go now.

How, Howard missed home plate.

How did I type "How" instead of "Wow".

Whatever.

At least you didn't type "How, Woward missed home plate."

I thought you were trying to start a chant.

Well, ESPN has its storyline for tomorrow.

katal - November 1, 2009 reply

Sliding inches over home plate is just as good as touching it, everyone knows that.

jorge Posada did'nt exactly seem to have control of the ball in my view.

44FAN - November 1, 2009 reply

Whoospie-daisy

Dammit, come on Blanton

I heard that, C.C.

What a lively thread.

.Taylor - November 1, 2009 reply

Is FOX going to fined for a fleeting explicative in a year?

Janic - November 1, 2009 reply

I hear this Utley kid is a good player.

"Utley, Howard and Ibanez have been dominated"

by the Yankee LH pitching this Series (McCarver). I must have been hallucinating Utley’s 2 HRs off CC in game 1.

Every time O'Brien and Sutcliffe say something stupid that annoys me

I just think of FOX and suddenly things don’t seem so bad.

Not to mention Utley's RBI double in the 1st today.

THROW A FUCKING PITCH!

I hope Joe Morgan spends eternity listening to a shortwave time signal.

That was disappointing

odds on when Posada gets tossed?

sliderinside - November 1, 2009 via mobile reply

That would be fun to see

How about a bet that Joe Morgan is the kind of guy that likes to say “hitters are paid to hit, not walk”?

Even though he had a career 16.7 BB%

It's really annoying that he was a great player.

If you buy the Baseball Projection historical WAR,

he was unbelievable.

Fuck me he was good from '72 to '76.

He took a mild swipe at Swisher for his walk that led to a run scored.

I can barely follow his fucking chain of logic half the time. This my greatest single sitting exposure to Morgan and it’s annoying as hell.

I haven't heard him once this year

it’s been wonderful.

Unfortunately that means haven’t heard Jon Miller either but that’s a price I don’t mind paying.

I just don't get

where his beliefs even come from. They clearly don’t come from his own career. It’s just mystifying.

I don't seem to recally seeing those stupid towels in New York.

recally?

Hahah that's almost "rectally"

gregrabble - November 1, 2009 reply

That was pretty sad Raul.

Chan Ho Park being a good pitcher confuses me.

It's got to be the beard.

Quick!

Be patriotic!

It's November and there is baseball on TV

Robert - November 1, 2009 reply

i think the FOX word for the day

Is “quick pitch”

I haven’t watched a ame on fox all year (no TV is a bi reason) but McCarver is every bit as bad as you guys have said.

Thanks LL for raising my knowlede level. I think I will turn off the sound now.

PS…commercials these days take absolutely no thought. Just recycle the movies / songs from 20 years ago, rinse, repeat.
And I wonder sometimes why I work for a living.

sliderinside - November 1, 2009 via mobile reply

Is your G broken?

looks like the "g" on my phone is sticking

sliderinside - November 1, 2009 via mobile reply

McCarver keeps saying the hitter "spoiled the pitch" when they foul a ball off.

This is an odd thing to say and kind of annoying.

44FAN - November 1, 2009 reply

Don't all announcers say that occasionally?

I agree though, it’s always struck me as a bit odd.

I can see it sometimes, like a full count or something and a hitter realizes at the last second that a breaking ball is going to be a strike

and he fouls it off.
I definitely felt I spoiled a pitcher’s pitch when I did that to people.

UTLEY!!

UTLEY!

Utley!

Heck yeah!

Utley is good

More domination of Utley, right McCarver?