That the rest of New York pales in comparison to the energy requirement of the metropolitan area of NYC itself.

We always hear about how great the 1985 team was at doing the little things (let’s ignore for a minute how bad that offense was at scoring runs, even for that era). What teams more recently are succeeding for doing the little things? Is it just the 2004 Red Sox?

But at some point in 2009 I think Ryan was talking about how someone (him or someone else) had asked Greinke what he thought about sac bunts when he was pitching, as it put the batters closer to home. Greinke basically said, “I love it; it gives me a free out”.

Something referred to as a “little thing” being promoted all the time.

I’ve come to the conclusion that 1) Judge is ignorant, 2) Judge is stubborn, and 3) Judge likes Jason Kendall and Chris Getz as human beings, and he will defend their value until he no longer can.

I feel that a lot of us would be more enthusiastic about his writings if a.) he did more Gordon training type, insider pieces or b.) he worked to understand where we’re coming from.

puts too much weight on the little things. It takes a helluva lot of sacrifices to equal one two run homer. I was more amused by the line when he says the unnamed hitter singled, but hit the ball too hard. That’s just stupid.

I would have been upset at the situation he described if I had been at the game. Not because Berroa hit the ball to the wrong side or that Buck had a GIDP, but because they did it on the first pitch which (as the situation was described anyway) in both cases was exactly the pitch you want to let go. I agree with hitting to the right side in that situation, if you can, whether you are a good or bad hitter. (Though you should still try to hit a line drive, not a “16 hopper”- believe me you will get your share of 16 hoppers when you TRY to hit a line drive) The way you try to do that is to look middle out and let the inside pitch go. If the pitcher throws an inside strike and you are down 0-1, then you have to adjust and sometimes you end up grounding to third anyway as Berroa did. But swinging at a down and in pitch on the first pitch IS bad baseball.

Likewise in the Buck situation, you are looking for a pitch in the upper part of the zone. If the first pitch is down, you should let it go. If the guy throws it for a strike, or gets you down in the count later, you may end up swinging at a pitcher’s pitch later, but don’t beat yourself on his pitch out of the gate.

I want my team to understand situations and act appropriately. I even want them to be able to bunt, because there are some situations (a lot less than Lee Judge thinks there are) that are appropriate for that. I think that Chris Getz does have a pretty good head for the game, but the reason he has to think about situations and sacrifice himself more than most players is that he has an inability to do the MOST important hitting skill-driving the ball. (Kendall, at the end of his career, was the same way) I think this simple fact goes right over Judge’s head.

You shouldn’t be asking these questions. When Getz lays down a bunt, it’s always with a guy on 1st with 0 outs. He sac bunts that guy to 2nd. With 1 out, the next hitter always hits the ball to the right side to move the runner to 3rd. Then, with 2 outs, the next hitter gets a base hit to drive the runner in. That’s how it happens. That’s how you manufacture, not runs, but a run. That’s how you win games. Well, or you could have a bunch of guys coasting on talent hitting extra base hits, but they’re not manufacturing runs, and that’s not honorable.

Judge writes about manufacturing runs as if it happens often. He acts like playing small ball is the cause for most runs being scored. Just like Scott said, he’s inflating these small things into important events because sometimes they are influential in a game.

But I also think he truly believes everything they say. Not really sure how this stuff is new to him, but at least he has his little clique on his website.

Certainly not with fans or broadcasters. And I think it is still true to a significant extent of MLB teams. As a small example, even though the Yankees have had a terrific run scoring lineup, I’ve seen both Torre and Girardi call for sac bunts in the first inning. And I don’t think they are especially unique in that regard. There’s still a lot of old school, traditional, small ball BS in baseball. We’re still a long ways from the first sabermetric manager (post-Earl Weaver era).

When I hit to the right side for a weak grounder with a runner at second after he told me too.

He cut me from the team the following spring.

Of course that team won 4 of 5 state titles (3 of my 4 years of high school), and then another 7 in a row after I got out of high school

I will let every kid swing away.

I think it was about the retirement of Craig Counsell. Basicall no, Counsell only had like 1600 hits over 15 seasons, and we found a few examples of long-time utility guys that had even fewer hits. Jose Vizcaino comes to mind.

with using human perception as an evaluation tool for anything longer than one game. He likes Chris, so his mind focuses on the positive and always remembers the one game that he validated that belief by doing one of the little things Judge likes.

We all do it. I had heard the stories about Gio’s lack of range, but I wanted him to unseat Getz. I happened to see him in two minor league games and in both he made an outstanding play ranging far to his right. Since it also reinforced what I wanted, in my mind, using this incredibly small sample, he had much better range than anyone gave him credit for. As it turns out, he does not. He just made a couple of nice plays and I saw what I wanted to see. Even the worst fielders make nice plays on occasion. I have even seen Wilson Betemit have a couple of good ones. (It took a much larger sample size, though)

If you want to tell me who did small positive things in the latest game that I might have missed, I am all for that. But using one fond memory to try and convince the masses that Getz is somehow a baseball genius who always puts the ball where he wants to put it- that’s just folly.