Reese Kaplan -- That Stench You Smell Is Cranial Flatulence

During this game a chat group in which I participate was going back and forth as it appeared the Mets were going to squander a lead and a game in this late juncture of the season when you really can’t afford to be doing that.  The questions came up about credit and someone questioned others in the group about assigning blame. 

Any analytical thinking process requires people to look for root causes of what went wrong that caused an unfavorable outcome to occur.  If a cashier at a convenience store chose to go to the bathroom, leaving the door unlocked, allowing shoplifting or cash register raiding to occur…do we credit the thieves, or do we look to place the blame on the poor decision making of the cashier?

The same should apply when considering what went wrong in a baseball game.  When there are obvious failures of execution, people are quick to point them out.  To this day, for example, we still hear about Carlos Beltran in a critical situation never taking the bat off his shoulder and getting called out on strikes.  The late Bill Buckner to his dying day was known mostly for failure to field a routine grounder during the World Series. 

When you watch a game, a meaningful September game, it’s therefore not only understandable but also natural and essential to figure out how things went wrong.  As a manager in my regular job, I don’t expect people to be perfect, but I do expect them to learn from their mistakes.  In fact, I often say, “I pride myself on never making the same mistake twice when there are always news ones waiting to be uncovered.”

Towards that end we have all come to question many of the strategic decisions made by manager Mickey Callaway, whether it comes to quick hooks on effective pitchers, delayed hooks on struggling relievers, favoring unproductive players ad nauseum, there are legitimate reasons to question his judgment.  Some feel he’s there because his players like him, others think he’s there as a Wilpon puppet and others simply shake there heads and wonder why. 

For that last group the events of tonight’s 9^th inning certainly have given them ammunition for their position.  First came the choice to stretch Seth Lugo into a 2^nd inning with no off-day tomorrow and having used him for multiple innings in two of his last three outings and having used him last night.

“But wait, do you really want to see Edwin Diaz in the 9^th inning?  Don’t you remember how many HRs he’s given up and saves he’s blown?”

That’s a valid point.  In fact, the broader question, if not Lugo, who would you have used?  I’m not sure I have an answer to that one but it was clear with the leadoff batter getting on base that perhaps you were pushing your luck a bit.

That decision is not the one that really makes people grate their teeth.  It was the bottom of the 9^th after Lugo had blown the save to let the Dodgers take a 3-2 lead.  Obviously you’re not going to pinch hit for Michael Conforto or Wilson Ramos or Robinson Cano.  When Cano worked out a 2-out walk, Callaway did the right thing by sending in pinch runner Rajai Davis.  Having him get into scoring position would enable you to tie the game on a single. 

Two Callaway brain farts occurred nearly simultaneously.  First, you had right handed power hitters on the bench in Rene Rivera and Todd Frazier (if his hand was up to the task).  You had newcomer Jed Lowrie who is a switch hitter available.  Any of them could have delivered a double or HR to help tie or win the game.

Instead Callaway went with light hitting and mercifully now seldom-used Joe Panik as the pinch hitter.  The announcers said that Panik had good success against reliever Kenta Maeda (7-19 lifetime) but Panik is not the same hitter he’s been throughout the earlier stages of his career.  Do you remember that Joe McEwing had great success against Randy Johnson?  If you had the choice of Ty Wigginton or Joe McEwiing in a one-run game, how many of you would have advocated McEwing as the smarter choice?  The odds still are that Johnson would dominate the inferior hitter.

I tried to be charitable thinking, “well, when Davis steals second then all Panik needs to do is hit a dribbler that gets through the infield to tie up the game,” but then the second brain fart happened.  What is the point of sending up your speediest player as a pinch runner in this situation when putting him in scoring position would possibly lead to a game being tied with a single AND THEN NOT HAVE HIM TRY TO STEAL? 

If he got thrown out (by a catcher who was only 5-19 nailing runners and a pitcher who was only successful in holding potential basestealers 1-7), then you tip your hat to the opposition for a job well done.  However, to concede the game with one of your weakest bats and then not to send the runner is cranial flatulence of the highest order.