3/18: Open Game Thread

“There was a situation that he hit into the double play with nobody out,‘’ he said. "The first thing we did is we went down and had Ronny (Cedeno) talk to him a bit about it. Because Ronny laid down another nice bunt. He’s got to have other weapons, especially if he has a desire to hit in the two-hole, and that’s what we’re talking about.”

"It’s nice when he’s hitting a home run and a triple down the other line but there’s more to this game.’’

"I think it comes down to production,‘’ Wakamatsu said. "And if he doesn’t produce, then we’ll look to go in a different direction.’’

Wakamatsu was asked whether he’s had situations before where guys were free-swingers and the team just allowed them to keep doing it because it was in their nature.

"But you look at those guys and I think the majority of those guys are higher on-base percentage guys,’’ he said.

ThundaPC - March 18, 2009 reply

Sounds like Yuni might be gone sooner rather than later

The criticism is getting stronger by the day.

OlSalty - March 18, 2009 reply

Deport Yuni back to Cuba.

Wilder. - March 18, 2009 reply

My favorite part is Wakamatsu sends his potential replacement down to talk to him.

I’m really really warming up to this guy.

Kermit. - March 18, 2009 reply

Agreed.

McLaren surely never would have been so forthright. Not this soon, anyway.

JLProck - March 18, 2009 reply

he did triple and homer

seriously.

marinerdan - March 19, 2009 reply

Who gives a shit?

Its ST, and he has been told specifically to work on his patience at the plate. I dont care if he goes 5 for 5 and all of then are HRs.

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

I need to clarify that by adding if he sees 5 pitches and goes 5 for 5 ...

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

Eh

The problem isn’t that he necessarily needs to see more pitches per PA right this second, it’s that he needs to start waiting for a good pitches to hit on a regular basis. The triple and homer were probably pretty good pitches to be swinging at so I don’t fault him for swinging at them.

OlSalty - March 19, 2009 reply

True but..

The fact is, that Wak wants him to work on something and he’s not doing it. Sure those might have been good pitches (sorry for being ignorant but i didnt watch the game), but it doesn’t matter. In ST, you should be working on things to better yourself for the upcoming season.

If i were Wak, i would give him all the chances he deserves, then cut him if i don’t get the results i want. But hey, thats just me, and im a nobody.

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

Please capitalize your proper nouns.

Matthew - March 19, 2009 reply

Someone shoot the inventor of inline auto-correction.

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

Swinging at hittable pitches is a good thing.

Waiting for the sake of waiting isn’t going to teach him discipline. He’d probably just ground out on a worse pitch, because he’d be behind in the count, because he’s Yuni. He absolutely needs to work on pitch recognition, but at least in this tiny sample size, he recognized hittable pitches and drove them.

Teej - March 19, 2009 reply

On that note,

How do you teach a player pitch recognition? I always think about that. It seems like you either have it or you don’t.

Stupid example, but in baseball video games, 90% of pitches look hittable to me coming out of the pitcher’s hand. Most of them aren’t, but I just can’t tell, and I can’t stop myself from swinging away. I walked zero times in my Road to the Show season in AA, despite really, really wanting to. I just can’t help myself. They all look so good! Will I get better the more I play? Can Yuni get better just through experience? Probably, but some things just can’t be fixed.

Teej - March 19, 2009 reply

That last line should say

Probably a little bit, but some things just can’t be fixed.

Teej - March 19, 2009 reply

With the leadoff man on and nobody out...

I don’t see why you would ever swing at the first pitch. Granted I don’t know what the score was during this at-bat, but let’s pretend that it was a 0-0 game.

The #2 hitter’s job is to move the runner. Period. Now how do we accomplish that? Well, looking for a pitch to drive through the 3-4 hole would be nice for one. Two, giving the leadoff man some time to steal a base would be nice. Three, a walk does the job.. working the count for a hit-and-run play.. etc

None of which can be accomplished by swinging at the first pitch. I’m not saying that Yuni wasn’t swinging at good pitches. I’m saying that if he wants to hit in the 2 spot, he needs to take a different approach to his ABs.

/rant

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

And again..

I’m sorry for being ignorant, as I didn’t watch the game. I dont even know if he was hitting in the 2 spot (that’s just what the article said in the seattle times), nor do I know if they were good pitches.

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

The #2 hitter's job is to not make an out.

Double period.

Matthew - March 19, 2009 reply

And if you always take the first pitch, people will figure you out and you'll be behind in a lot of counts.

I guess I just don’t subscribe to that definition of the No. 2 hitter’s role. Losing the advantage in an at-bat to give a guy time to (hopefully) grab an extra base with no outs seems like a bad idea. I’d rather have him looking for any way to not make an out, whether that’s working a walk or driving a good pitch. I’m not trading an out for an extra base in the first inning.

Of course, he hit into a double play . . .

I’m fully in agreement that Yuni’s approach at the plate is terrible. But there’s a big difference between taking pitches because they’re bad and taking pitches because you decided beforehand that you were going to.

Teej - March 19, 2009 reply

I wouldn't go as far as say always take the first pitch

Like I had said, I wish I could have seen the at-bats for myself.

But in this situation, the pitcher is going to try to get the batter to hit in front of the runner. My guess is that the first pitch was a nice pitch across the knees on the inner 1/3 of the plate. A pitch that gets hit on the ground in front of the runner. He should have been patiently waiting for something outside to hit behind the runner.

But all this is speculation for me, since I didn’t see the at-bat.

d0nkey - March 19, 2009 reply

Typically I only like to steal in front of bad hitters

of singles hitter when two are out.

JI - March 19, 2009 reply

I didn't mean to go off on a tangent here

My only real problem with this is that Wak told him to work on something, and he isn’t doing it.

A new manager can only put up with that for so long before he has to make a decision. Unless his name is Hargrove..

Lookout Landing

3/18: Open Game Thread

Comments

TV woo!

Where is it on TV?

I should have been more specific.

Ah, OK.

That's tomorrow.

Are they only providing 400K feed during Spring Training?

Nevermind, it is 400K feed.

Slayor

So I'm glad that the Guillen extension fell through...

I liked it when we were sorta in favor of it out of fear of the unknown

He did look less bad during the talks.

Hey remember when we forgot to offer him arbitration!

That was a fun night.

Yuni sees 2 pitches.

Hacker

I'm convinced.

I can't believe Gobble was around for that long.

...and the Royals sign Ponson

Yuni hacks at the first pitch.

He just doesn't get it...so frustrating.

Maybe he is trying to get this game over with so he can watch Cuba tonight.

And the second pitch.

Well that was crushed

Griffey plays the field tomorrow!

Rumor has it YOU play the field tomorrow...

To the best of my recollection

Yeah, Bob is a real asshole.

Huh

I refuse to explain this joke because that would make it not funny and I think it's gold.

Did it have something to do with an MLB.com article published near Yuni's debut?

Nothing to do with that.

Then I too am in the dark.

Bob does not equal Yuni in this joke.

Bob=anything but Yuni. Got it.

One guy buys Yuni's jerseys.

Goddammit.

I hate it when people explain their own punchline

I hate it when people are too dumb to get amazing jokes.

I was talking about JI.

It makes the joke not funny even though the original joke could have been gold

You guys are a bunch of enema stains

Call me crazy but I think jokes should be funny.

It's not my fault you have a terrible sense of humor.

Don't worry the best of us have bad days

I've got to say,

You're all nuts

The joke was that "Bob" is the fictitious only guy who buys a Betancourt jersey.

No, I got it.

I still don't get it.

Wait, it makes sense?

I got it

I thought it was funny.

You pulled a Matthew

I got it

I got it too!

Says the guy with the head injury.

That says something about the others

That their sense of humor is still working?

Just because I got it doesn't necessarily mean that I enjoyed it

It also doesn't necessarily mean that I didn't

Where am I coming from!

Your like a riddle wrapped in an einigma wrapped in a vest.

The vest makes him sound a little fruity.

Better or worse than a cardigan?

Would he look like Darkwing Duck?

This is an excellent way to respond to anything.

Is there Gameday for this? I can't find it.

The pitch was almost at his shoulders.

Oh hey, we're shelling Zack Grenkie

Another Mike Wilson FB!

So the video quality has turned poor...

The Cards got in a ST game in under two hours today

i have no idea who was up

Wow Aardsma wants the closer job.

Aardsma rules!

moar plz

Now if we could convince him to use Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as his intro that would be freaking sweet.