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Post by Evil Yoda on Oct 5, 2016 14:38:08 GMT -5
I can't find an article anywhere that defend's Buck's choice to bring in Ubaldo. Equally head scratching, but eclipsed by the stupidity of not using Britton, is the decision to replace a high average, get on bases guy with a guy who can't hit (Reimold) and doesn't belong on a major league roster. For defensive reasons? Maybe, but then you pull Kim before he goes out to the field.
Buck's made the team better by motivating them. But some of his decisions defy logic.
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Post by mmmbeer on Oct 6, 2016 7:58:07 GMT -5
Eh. Using Britton wouldn't matter if they didn't score, only would have prolonged the game until he had to use Ubaldo anyway...
Bourn could have caught that fly ball in the corner. Not saying it was an easy play, but it did fall right beside his glove. that would have prevented the tying run from scoring.
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Post by Evil Yoda on Oct 6, 2016 8:55:48 GMT -5
The thing about losing the game that kicks you from the post season (or seals the fact that you won't get there) is that there is an entire off-season during which fans and pundits can debate the matter. It's unlikely that Harbaugh's idiotic penalty call is going to follow him for the rest of the season or the entire off season. This might follow Buck.
But I agree if you are asserting that this event was simply the end of a long chain of failures that led them to their early ejection, from the front office on down. Still, it was a very bad mistake. Atypically bad.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2016 0:36:55 GMT -5
The Orioles offense didn't even manage a hit after the sixth inning. That was the biggest difference Tuesday; the all-or-nothing offense came back to bite them.
Ubaldo was simply a bad choice to start the 11th, and that was compounded by leaving him in after he gave up two laser shots to start the inning. The conventional wisdom in baseball is, when on the road, you don't go to your closer unless you have a lead, but you have to go with your best in an elimination game. Britton is a ground ball pitcher, and both Encarnacion and Bautista have abysmal career numbers against him. Bring him in, hope he gets out of it, then you have Machado, Trumbo and Wieters coming up for the 12th. Maybe one of them gets into one and then you've got Britton for the save.
What's interesting is that in the NL Wildcard, Mets manager Terry Collins went to Jeurys Familia with no score in the top of the ninth, and he promptly served up a three-run homer to Conor Gillaspie. Sometimes the obvious move isn't always the best one.
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Post by Evil Yoda on Oct 7, 2016 16:06:16 GMT -5
All the sudden Wallace, the pitching coach, decides to step away from the day-to-day responsibilities of that job in favor of a less demanding instructional job.
Wallace had to leave the team several times this year. It may be that he has a relative (a wife, perhaps) whose health is failing, and he needs to be available for that person. It may be that, at 69, his own health isn't up to the rigors of a full season any more. Or it may be that Wallace gave Buck bad advice and Buck decided he needed to go, and was classy enough to allow him to resign. We will never know, but often when people resign for nebulous reasons it is because they were given that chance, and it was made clear that if they did not avail themselves of it they would be fired.
Buck says he expects the remaining coaches to return. I'm sorry to hear that as regards the hitting coach, Coolbaugh. He should be fired (or allowed to resign). They need someone who can help hitters who lose their plate discipline get it back.
Buck also believes Davis was troubled by that early wrist injury all year. I don't buy it. He went a couple of months (basically until the All-Star break) hitting after that injury occurred, and then his hitting basically crashed. That seems like something he said so that the club looks a little less dumb for signing Davis to a long term deal. Men frequently try harder in walk years, and then their first year on a new contract looks bad by comparison. We will know better after next season whether signing Davis to that deal was a mistake or not, but the early exit polls are not encouraging.
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