Really? Thats Really What You Want to Do Here? Or, Life with Buddy Bell

by royalsreview on Sep 5, 2007 12:12 AM EDT in News

Courtesy of Yahoo's play-by-play:

Top 9th: Kansas City

M. Sweeney popped out to shallow left
C.J. Wilson relieved J. Benoit
M. Teahen walked
E. Brown hit for A. Gordon
E. Brown grounded into fielder's choice, M. Teahen out at second
B. Butler hit for J. Smith
B. Butler singled to left, E. Brown to second
E. German singled to center, E. Brown scored, B. Butler to second
T. Pena Jr. hit for S. Costa
J. Huber ran for B. Butler
T. Pena Jr. grounded into fielder's choice, E. German out at second

1 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors
Kansas City 8, Texas 9

Yes, C.J. Wilson is left-handed. As a major leaguer, Pena's splits break down like this:

TPJ vs. RHP: .257/.277/.334
TPJ vs. LHP: .254/.273/.351

Ohh, now I get it. That totally overpowers the fact that since the All-Star Break Pena is hitting .211/.235/.268.

Yes, Costa is only hitting .125 against LHP's this season, but that is only in eight at bats. This year in Omaha, Costa has hit .261/.338/.362 against lefties. Not great, but not really evidence that he's completely helpless up there either.

Yes, in 2007 Huber only hit .235 against lefties in Omaha, but in 2006, again in AAA, he hit .346/.391/.605 against southpaws.

Brazell actually hit .344/.417/.656 against lefties in AA this season.

While in hindsight we can say that the lifting of Gordon "worked", Bell also burned Brown early in the inning, leading to the situation later. It comes down to, would you rather have Gordon and Brown both hit, or would you rather have Brown and Pena hit? Gordon is hitting a respectable .228/.278/.447 this season against lefties, and, like Huber, he mashed them last season in AA to the tune of .339/.371/.550.

The bottom line is that if you think Tony Pena Jr is the answer, your asking the wrong question, in the wrong language, to the wrong person.

The way the Buddy Bell's of the world can seemingly latch onto a devotion to lefty/righty matchups while ignoring much more basic statistical data is one of the quaint, but incredibly annoying realities of the game today. Out of all the information out there, you choose this to care about? This is like letting your girlfriend pick the movie from Blockbuster and she decides to pick a "guy movie" for you and comes back with Freddie Got Fingered or Death to Smoochy.

A relatively unstable concept like platoon splits is now right up there with the blind adherence to the closer role. Insanity. Look at Huber. Very few guys get locked into consistent platoon splits over the course of their careers, probably because there are very few left-handed pitchers, meaning the data just never gets meaty enough to say much.

0 recs | Comment 14 comments

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Comments

un-f**king-believable

exactly the exact 100% diametric opposite of what he should have done.

It was a bummer to see Billy Buckner get roasted in his start though. I have a feeling he will bounce back.

by wildthang on Sep 5, 2007 12:15 AM EDT 0 recs

you might as well make bold the Brown for Gordon

pinch hit, too. Gordon had had 6 hits in his previous 3 games, with 3 homeruns, after all.

by marbotty on Sep 5, 2007 12:18 AM EDT 0 recs

This move alone isn't as mindnumbingly dumb...

Because Huber and Brazell likely would have gotten out. However, moves like these add up over time. That's what makes this one so singlehandedly disturbing.

I've made my criticisms of Buddy well-documented throughout several Internet mediums, and I, like the vast majority of the Royals fanbase, will be glad when the mediocrity is out of the Royals dugout.

http://royalsnation.proboards62.com/

by Royals Nation on Sep 5, 2007 12:23 AM EDT 0 recs

There is worse than mediocre.

Having lived through a number of uninspiring managers, I can tell you that Bell is among the better post-Howser managers this team has had.

by jbrocato on Sep 5, 2007 7:36 AM EDT up 0 recs

The problem is

will it change? The 'experience' factor will again take grip and Jim Fregosi will be doing the same thing next year.

by sprntern8 on Sep 5, 2007 11:05 PM EDT up 0 recs

It seemed so obvious

You had one guy who isn't a very good hitter, but could really run. You had another guy who isn't an especially good runner, but he can really hit. They enter the game on the same at bat, one as a pinch runner, one as a pinch hitter. Yet its the EXACT OPPOSITE of what any normal human being would do. I wish he would have just stepped down on August 1 and let Elmo run the team.

by dman126 on Sep 5, 2007 12:44 AM EDT 0 recs

This one hurt,

I stayed with the game tonight for three hours, kept my hope up, and then had to see Buddy finish it like this. It just depresses me and pisses me off.

I really hope Dayton Moore hires someone less averse to studying the game than Buddy. Buddy is comfortable with batting average, lefty/right match ups, and that is about the end of his curiosity. I like a lot about Buddy, but his willful simple in-game management tactics cost the Royals too many games.

Buddy would be a better AAA manager than a MLB manager. He could do what he does well, motivate his players, at AAA and not worry too much about throwing away a few wins a year by his refusal to look over performance numbers.

Rock Chalk Talk for pretty good KU College Baseball Coverage

by James Quinn on Sep 5, 2007 12:46 AM EDT 0 recs

Ouch

Posting from back in Maine again, folks!

And I didn't understand the move when I first saw the highlights, and I still don't. Maybe Buddy was betting on Texas.

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Sep 5, 2007 8:57 AM EDT 0 recs

Well

I don't see how a fielders choice from Brown worked either.

by BlueEyesAustin on Sep 5, 2007 8:59 AM EDT 0 recs

Buddy F-cking Bell

Looking singularly at this game, I can understand pinch-hitting Brown for Gordon. Gordon really didn't look good this game. However..why now? We let Gordon hit all year. He was hitting .150 and we were playing him and not pinch-hitting. Why a meaningless game (except to us) game in September would he choose to pinch-hit for Gordon? Very curious.

The Pena/Huber situation is also very strange. I wonder what Huber's face looked like when he was told to pinch-run whilst Pena was pinch-hitting. It's moves like this that I wish we could fire Bell immediately after the game.

Small side-bar in defense of Buddy..he really has used the bullpen well over that last 3 months. It does help when he really doesn't have a bad pitcher in the pen so it makes decissions a little easier, but it's still moves like the Pena/Huber that shows he still doesn't know how to put his players in the best position to win.

One other small change I would have made in Buddy's sequence above. I would have switched German and Butler. On the Road we should be trying to get the lead..not tying the game. Butler has more power than German and could have given us the lead with a HR if German reached.

by Stook on Sep 5, 2007 9:46 AM EDT 0 recs

To paraphrase Billy Madison

"Buddy is a nuisance. He will be gone in three weeks. I apologize for this inconvenience."

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Sep 5, 2007 10:22 AM EDT 0 recs

What's wrong with Death to Smoochy?

It might not be a stereotypical "guy movie," but it was certainly funny. Great dark comedy.

Another thing I don't see anyone mentioning is that Huber can't possibly be a great pinch-runner, as he started his baseball career as a catcher.

Chaim Mattis Keller New York City's # 1 Royals fan!

by cmkeller on Sep 5, 2007 2:57 PM EDT 0 recs

Don't pinch-hit for your best hitter, Buddy.

I'm surprised that nobody else mentioned the fact that Bell had pinch-hit for Joey Gathright, the team leader in AVG and OBP. This decision is the one which cost him the extra PH which should have been used instead of TJ, not the move to PH Brown for Gordon. Maybe pinch-hit for Gathright with a power hitter who has a much better track record vs. a specific pitcher in a 1-run game with nobody on in the 9th with 2 outs, but never like this again.

No matter who replaces Buddy Bell, the Royals will continue lose if the talent is not used properly by the organization. For now, that means batting Gathright in the leadoff slot every night. In the long term, they should never bat their highest OBP or AVG guy in the lower third of the lineup.

I'm equally concerned about Teahen and Gordon under the new manager. I can't believe that anybody is seriously considering Teahen at 1B. Dude has the legs to cover RF plus a great arm, so why waste both at 1B? The thought is simply ridiculous. Billy Butler is probably not able to refine his defense in the OF (he had a 93 MPH fastball in HS) enough to warrant moving Teahen back to 3B and Gordon to 1B, and that's the only scenario which would justify moving Teahen out of RF. Had the Royals acquired Andy LaRoche instead of Hiram, that would have been a good enough reason to move Gordon to 1B, but he's probably their best bet at third for several more years.

by Stat Ninja on Sep 8, 2007 10:28 AM EDT 0 recs

Splitsville

I'm not really a fan of lefty/righty platoons, either, but it's hard not to love what Matt Diaz and Willie Harris have done in Atlanta this year. It's almost enough to make me re-examine the entire concept all over again.

by Stat Ninja on Sep 8, 2007 10:34 AM EDT 0 recs