Russell blows yet another game
By Jake • May 2nd, 2008 • Category: Jake's Take
John Russell sucks. He sucked 2003 - 2005 and he still sucks now.
Period. End of story.
You would think this guy would have a clue about managing a baseball game and what win probability means.
Nope.
(Above link is to a Windows Media file)
For those that can’t get the above video to work, or are hearing impaired, here is a brief analysis of what happened:
Second inning, one out, a tie game, and men at second and third with Will Nieves coming to the plate, and John Russell has the infield play in. Ex-MLB manager and veteran MLB player Ray Knight was doing the play-by-play call for MASN and said this:
“I don’t know that I know a manager in Major League baseball that plays the infield in, ah, in the second inning with runners at second and third. You usually have the infield back - and this allowed a two-rbi single. Because, if [Sanchez is] back, he’s able to make this play and at least knock the ball down at second base. But, that’s a strange play…”
Strange isn’t the word for it - incompetent is much better. (His third time this young season having done that, btw.)
Anyway, Nieve hit a groundball right where Sanchez routinely plays with a man at second and, as Knight said, would have prevented at least one run from scoring and recorded another out. All things being equal, the score would have been no more than 1-0 after the second and in all probability, still tied 0-0.
Then in the 8th inning with the score 2-2, one out, and a man at first with Nick Johnson at the plate with a 2-2 count, John Grabow floated a perfect belt-high strike across the plate for strike three, and the second out.
Unfortunately, Doumit didn’t hold and frame the pitch - he moved his mitt and home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom, known for calling a pitcher’s strike zone, called it a ball. Replays of the pitch and a review of the pitchF/X data clearly show it was a strike and very similar to one that Cederstrom called a strike on the first pitch of the game to Nate McLouth. Still, for whatever reason, we didn’t get the call.
Grabow lost his cool and the next pitch was thrown near Johnson’s head walking him. Then Milledge struck out which should have ended the inning had it not been extended, and Kearns then singled to right scoring the winning run in the Nats last at bat.
This was a game the Pirates should have won 2-1. It’s bad enough we have to watch Mickey Mouse baseball players wearing the Pirates uniform - we don’t need more futility being added to the circus act from a “manager.”
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This audio tape has Knight saying that a coach told him the Pirates have the worst defensive team he’s seen so far this year in his 13 years of experience in the “big leagues.”
A little research of both coaching staffs shows there isn’t one coach on either staff with 13 years of experience in MLB other than, of course, Pat Corralas who has 22 years in the bigs. That only leaves two possible candidates for Knight’s statement: Randy St. Claire (12 years pro experience) and John Russell (13 years pro experience). For now, I’ll attribute the statement to St. Claire since I don’t believe Russell would disparage his own players like that. But I wonder… I really wonder.
It goes without saying our defense is horrid and has been for years. The only defensive components I like are Duffy in center, Paulino behind the dish, LaRoche at first, and Wilson at short. Those four players provide the Pirates with fundamentally sound defense at their positions which might enable all the soft tossers we have to keep games closer on average. Other players like Bautista, Bay, and Sanchez exhibit below average skills routinely, and we get away with Nady because of the fewer amount of line drives put in play to right and right center.
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Excluding the Oliver Perez wipe out, the last six games the Pirates have played we have accumulated the following statistics off starters we have faced:
142 plate appearances with 7 BB (just one scored), 1 HBP, and 0 Sac Flies
134 at bats28 total hits
- 15 singles
- 6 doubles
- 7 home runs.209/.253/.410
Our offense has tanked like a lead ball in water - it’s becoming all or nothing at the plate.
How pathetic.
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You might have noticed how little the Nats hit Zach Duke and his soft stuff away. They have a fastball wailing machine and that doesn’t bode well for Dumatrait unless he shows stuff I haven’t seen from him yet. Still, he’s a southpaw and for whatever reason, if Guzman and Nieves are contained, the rest of the lineup spits out zeros nearly all day long against lefties.
Now knowing that, if Dumatrait gets mauled early as I think he will, then I think we’ll see a quick end of the ‘Dumatrait in the rotation’ experiment since these are about the worst southpaw hitters you’ll find in one lineup in the game right now.
The question then becomes, who gets the call? JvB or Burnett? Or, does it really matter? I suppose not.
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Looks like Snell might be saved Sunday - the game has a chance of being a washout.
Jake is a contributing writer at Bucco Blog. He's a bird dog (puppy) covering NC and SC (not for the Pirates), has kin on the 25-man of an AL club, and is married with a four-year-old son. His passion is the Pittsburgh Pirates - the team he tried out for. You can always find Jake hanging out at his personal site: http://pirates.mlblogs.com.
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Jake, its been weeks but your negativity finally has brought a solid observation when it comes to our infield being in, in the second inning, with a runner on third, its a 50/50 call with our offensive ability, with a runner on 2nd and 3rd, you don\’t do that in the 2nd inning ever, I don\’t care how small our chance of scoring is. That is the only saving grace Russel has with that decision is, we can\’t score so it doesn\’t matter when they score, it kills us. But that decision cost us one run if not two the way Duke was pitching.
In my opinion there was another goat in last night\’s game: Jason Bay. I am so tired of watching him wail at pitches way outside the plate! Prior to Doumit\’s HR, Bay swung feebly on a ball way outside the plate on what would have been ball 4. Either Bay needs glasses or what? He does this constantly. If he had walked, Doumit\’s HR puts the Pirates up 3-2! He currently is a liability, in my humble opinion.
Why were we pitching to the 8th hitter with two on and one out in the 2nd? The pitcher was up next, why load the bases and play for the double play? Perhaps Perez strikes out, but then there are two outs and the sac fly is gone. I couldn\\\\\\\’t believe we even pitched to the guy with first base open! I also agree that the infield in was wrong, but it was how far in they were that startled me. They could have easily gone even with the bag and got better results…
I have to agree. 2/3 games have not been managed well. The 5-4 loss to the Mets should have been a win if the right strategy was put into play. This decsion seems a bit odd. Very early in the game to play to stop a run from scoring.
Jake,
I definitely agree with your take on Russell playing the infield in that early. That’s a no-brainer. But your statement that Paulino plays “fundamentally sound defense” is laughable, and borders on complete insanity. Paulino has had way, way too many mental lapses out there over the years to be considered a fundamentally sound defensive cather. Being a consistent receiver is the key to being a fundamentally sound catcher.
Doumit 351 avg 5 hrs 5 2bs
paulino 250 avg 0hrs 2 2bs
\”The only defensive components I like are Duffy in center, Paulino behind the dish, LaRoche at first, and Wilson at short.”
1. Are you even sure Duffy still wants to play baseball? Who wants a headcase like that on their team? Not me.
2. Paulino is a below average catcher. Yes, he is defensivley better than Doumit - but he aint the next coming of Pudge either. Plus he’s fat & lazy. We gotta score runs too so I’ll take Doumit.
3. LaRoche - Well, April is over - will he start to hit now? Because if he doesn’t it’s pretty stupid to have a guy hitting .150 playing first base every day no matter how good his glove is.
4. Jack - please get better - fast!
also doumit has scored 18 runs to paulinos 1
so you want duffy over mclouth…and paulino over doumit?….and this makes us a better team? come on man not even you believe that
First thing would be to move Freddy back to third and put Rivas at second. They wouldn’t be any worse on offense, and when Jack comes back that would be a respectable infield. Duffy would be a slight upgrade over Mclouth defensively right now but I don’t think they can afford the lose of Offense. And the more Mclouth plays in the field the better he is getting. There is no answer at catcher unless we pick someone up. It doesn’t say much about Russell that he is a former catcher and that our two catchers are below average defensively. Is it poor coaching or is it poor talent?
What might make us a better team and this of course is pure blue sky speculation is the following lineup:
McClouth, Bay, Doumit, Nady, Laroche, Sanchez, Wilson, whoever, pitcher. This was alluded to in the post-gazette and I like it.
Likewise if push comes to shove try Doumit at first and Paulino at catcher. I want Laroche to come around and think he will do so as he has shown some signs of coming around but I\’m unsure he is part of the future as of now.
They suck in any event so why stay with the same old same old.
Mike - I can do a 300 word write up like Dejan at the Post-Gazette does and tell you how wonderful everyone played, gush about Sanchez’s first home run of the season, and put little quotes in from John Russell about how everybody played well. Or I can hit you between the eyes with the reality that is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Understand the difference between ‘negativity’ and ‘reality.’
John - Bay’s game is dead and every team in baseball knows it.
Matt - agreed, Paulino has had quite a few mental lapses. But of the two, defensively, I’ll take Paulino all day long.
Mike g - rbis and runs scored by a catcher who can’t get strikes called on a 15″ plate, much less a 17″ one. I’ll stick with pitching and defense first, then worry about mashing later.
Jeff - defensively, absolutely.
SoCal - I think Freddy’s arm is toast so 3B isn’t an option any more. It’s become crystal clear he was moved to 2B because he had to be based on his shoulder, not because the club really wanted that.
And I disagree with most fans who think Doumit is even close to Paulino defensively. It’s not even close folks. Not in my mind, and not in the very obvious stats like which catcher gets the zone called, handles the staff better, and better game management. Not even close. It’s great Doumit is a line-to-line masher, but he doesn’t have a position to play unless we start thinking first base and even that makes me shudder with his game
It’s pretty easy to see why Shaprio ran Huntington out of the front office - the guy has no evaluation skills at all and now he’s coupled with Asst GM’s who are as bad as he is.
Hey, here’s an idea - let’s keep this group together and see how they do next year. I mean, heck, if they “underperformed” last year, just think what they can do next year if they did perform.
God this team sucks.
When they decide to clean house and rebuild it should extend beyond the players to JR and Andrews. Bring Jewett up. Andrews is going to destroy all the arms and JR isn\’t a big league manager. How many of the other teams are laughing at this organization? Accountability is not a convenient word. It is an all encompassing word. I believed they hit rock bottom last year. I hope that it is this year. I don\’t know how much more of this I can take. If Cutch wasn\’t on fire right now in AAA there wouldn\’t be any flicker of hope left. One player doesn\’t save a franchise (in baseball at least), but everyday I check the minor league results before the Pirates. There are bright spots, but none are too close to helping. We need Cuban to make Nutting an offer even he can\’t refuse. Come on Mark, the Mavs are a mess, give baseball a go.
Paulino is a better game caller. But he can\’t catch a throw from the outfield and get a guy out - no matter what. His bat isn\’t better…Doumit needs to start - at catcher. Bring in a better catcher and get rid of Doumit - fine, but until then he is a better all-around ball player than Paulino.
Other than that…I agree wholeheartedly…this team sucks. It is the most pathetic excuse of a MLB club I have seen - and I\’ve seen some bad ones in the last 15 years. God bless Nady and McLouth for at least giving me two guys to pull for, and who have a legit chance to pull through!
You said it Paul. The only hope is if Nutting sells the team. And God I hope he sells it to Cuban. The only way I see it happening is if this team loses 100 plus games and Neal blows all the midseason trades. Wait a minute… Those two things will probably happen! Right now I am hoping the Pirates lose every game. Then Nutting is so embarrased he has to sell or MLB forces him to.
This team has two guys right now that i consider legit prospects - Evan Meek (who has a great arm but control problems but if the right coaching can develop into a sutd reliever) and Andruw McCutchen - has shown more 5 tool attributes with Trent Jewitt who should be the manager of the Bucs this year then any. The Doumit arguement how much of Doumit production has really meant anything last night homer tied the game outside of that what maybe one or two other times this year what is Doumits era vs. Paulinos era of handling pitchers. Pirates need to take all the assets they have which is very little and gut and rebuild with 19-22 year old talent high A to AAA guys.
Trading Plan
!. Ian Snell , Damaso Marte to the Yankees for Austin Jackson(OF), Ramiro Pena (SS), David Robertson (RHP)
2. Adam Laroche to the Giants for Pablo Sandoval(C), Ben Snyder (LHP)
3. Xavier Nady to Mets for Mike Carp (1b), Jonathon Niese(LHP)
That\’s three trades that start the legit rebuilding process we need since our minors are so poor and we think that video scouting is the way to go hahahaahaah.