Wednesday Morning Pitcher

[Who'sYourData?]

Of course I am not the baseball coach and we are 9-2 so I trust his judgement.

I knew it would not take long for someone to throw a statement like that in there, nobody is questioning his judgement or him as a coach or any other ridiculous things that one would try and pull from this post, it is just simply to get your opinion and what you would do.  

I was referring to this post.  It appeared that you were waiting for someone to criticize Prado, so you could jump on them.  I didn't mean it as any big deal, just wondering if that was your intent.

I'd rather discuss things like which pitcher to send out to the mound, then things like "should he be fired after this game?"  Hopefully, we won't get to that point with baseball any time soon.

[Ruger7mmmag]

With the way the schedule fell, no doubt I would've pulled the same strings as Coach and left the big guy in.  Once he's out there throwing, as a starter usually, he should only get better in the 9th as he finds his groove.  Pitching to their best hitter with a base open?  Having a 3 run cushion, I do it as well.  You trade runs for outs and don't put the go ahead guy on.  Especially against your "ace" whose been lights out.  If anything, you got the guy 0-2; no way he should get anything remotely good to hit on the next three pitches with that base open.  That's where the screw up happened, but that's not the coach, that's execution by the player.

When you get a guy down 0-2 with the base open, that's when you should knock him down and then come back with a breaking ball out of the strike zone.

Once he made the choice to bring in Otero, he had to stick with him for the duration.  If you want someone else in there, you don't even bring him in as it's not worth it to fire your ace up when you probably will throw him again this weekend.

I know one thing, that loss really hurts bc though we are 9-2, those wins aren't against anyone special and it's not like we lost to a 9-0 UF team so you can bet regardless if USF sweeps this weekend, they'll at best stay put and if they lose one, you can bet they drop.

The key is, this team has a butt load of home games so they are going to have to wipe the floor this year to get a SOLID record to get invited to the postseason.  I was looking at their schedule the other day and it's probably one of the easiest I've ever seen.  If these guys don't get 15 games above .500, there's no way anyone is going to take them seriously regardless if they win the Big East.  Especially if they lose the decent games like Stetson and UF.

[Jamie]

Pitching to their best hitter with a base open?  Having a 3 run cushion, I do it as well.

They only had a one-run lead at the time.

I said it last night and I'm staying with it - I would have walked LaPorta to load the bases. Any ground ball goes home for the force-out and hopefully to first for a double play to end the game. Even if you don't get the runner at first, there are still two out and then it doesn't matter where the runners are.

[pdiddybull32]

If they walked Laporta it wouldnt have been bases loaded it would have been 1st and 3rd

[JoeB]

If they walked Laporta it wouldnt have been bases loaded it would have been 1st and 3rd

Correct.  And normally you don't put the winning run on base in the ninth inning.  I've seen it done only a few times on purpose (Bonds and Ryan Howard come to mind).  I liked that we went after him in that situation.  You throw a better 0-2 pitch and who knows how it ends up.  

[BullsWinBucsWin]

If they walked Laporta it wouldnt have been bases loaded it would have been 1st and 3rd

You throw a better 0-2 pitch and who knows how it ends up.  

Exactly.  Like I said, I initially was calling for the intentional walk, and still think it would have been a solid play to set up a possible DP.  But I also like the fact that Prado has faith in his ace and wants to be aggressive and go after the other team's best hitter.  Would have sent a hell of a message if it had worked out.  

[jg]

He has been the horse all year. Yurri has been walking too many people, that was probably the reasoning, and this was a little bigger than normal game.

[UnstoppaBulls]

If they walked Laporta it wouldnt have been bases loaded it would have been 1st and 3rd

Correct.  And normally you don't put the winning run on base in the ninth inning.  I've seen it done only a few times on purpose (Bonds and Ryan Howard come to mind).  I liked that we went after him in that situation.  You throw a better 0-2 pitch and who knows how it ends up.  

The rule is to not put the "tying" run on base.  This works because if LaPorta hit a HR then UF is winning.  If you put him on and they hit a HR, hey, they are up by 2.  

The Infield was also in during the LaPorta at bat.  This is like putting the infield in against Bonds or Pujols, they just don't hit ground balls.