Red Mosquito

@SkitchP wrote:

BigRedLedbetter wrote:Yeah if Gordon goes and he is out by 20 feet that makes him one of the biggest goats in World Series history. Maybe they should have hit better and not been in that situation? A lot is being made of this. Bottom line the Giants had the better team 1-25.

So did the A's, Tigers, Cardinals, Nationals and Angels.

The Royals had #DevilMagic.

Good point. Best team doesn't always win I guess.

I think it's easy to remove yourself from the situation if you are not a fan of the team. If you root for say the Yankees or D Backs and you were like WHY DIDN"T THEY SEND GORDON??? Obviously you are not living and dying with the team. Now say it was Torii Hunter or Jackie Bradley or Leonys Martin or Joey Bats or anyone else on a team one of us loved probably more than a grown man should.....totally different. Especially if they are out by a mile.

I think the Royals final batter should be taking heat for his at bat. No patience at the plate. Swinging at pitches that were neck high. A better batter would have just accepted the four pitch walk and leave it to the next batter. Eventually Baumgardner would have had to throw a pitch in the strike zone. Odds are Baumgardner would have eventually gotten a good out but to just stupidly beat yourself, well there's no reason for that.

surfndestroy wrote:I think the Royals final batter should be taking heat for his at bat. No patience at the plate. Swinging at pitches that were neck high. A better batter would have just accepted the four pitch walk and leave it to the next batter. Eventually Baumgardner would have had to throw a pitch in the strike zone. Odds are Baumgardner would have eventually gotten a good out but to just stupidly beat yourself, well there's no reason for that.

That's just Perez, though. It's not like he went up there and changed his approach. He always swings at everything, and I think it's magnified that much more because of the pitcher he was facing.

philpritchard wrote:

surfndestroy wrote:I think the Royals final batter should be taking heat for his at bat. No patience at the plate. Swinging at pitches that were neck high. A better batter would have just accepted the four pitch walk and leave it to the next batter. Eventually Baumgardner would have had to throw a pitch in the strike zone. Odds are Baumgardner would have eventually gotten a good out but to just stupidly beat yourself, well there's no reason for that.

That's just Perez, though. It's not like he went up there and changed his approach. He always swings at everything, and I think it's magnified that much more because of the pitcher he was facing.

Agreed.

To play devil's advocate maybe pinch hit Dyson for Perez? Maybe he beats out an infield hit? Who knows.

BigRedLedbetter wrote:

philpritchard wrote:

surfndestroy wrote:I think the Royals final batter should be taking heat for his at bat. No patience at the plate. Swinging at pitches that were neck high. A better batter would have just accepted the four pitch walk and leave it to the next batter. Eventually Baumgardner would have had to throw a pitch in the strike zone. Odds are Baumgardner would have eventually gotten a good out but to just stupidly beat yourself, well there's no reason for that.

That's just Perez, though. It's not like he went up there and changed his approach. He always swings at everything, and I think it's magnified that much more because of the pitcher he was facing.

Agreed.

To play devil's advocate maybe pinch hit Dyson for Perez? Maybe he beats out an infield hit? Who knows.

I know you're just playing devil's advocate, but:

Dyson - career .209 AVG against lefties
Perez - career .307 AVG against lefties

Batting average is pretty much all that matters here since they needed a hit to tie it. Ned Yost does a whole lot of stupid things, but this wasn't one of them.

philpritchard wrote:

BigRedLedbetter wrote:

philpritchard wrote:

surfndestroy wrote:I think the Royals final batter should be taking heat for his at bat. No patience at the plate. Swinging at pitches that were neck high. A better batter would have just accepted the four pitch walk and leave it to the next batter. Eventually Baumgardner would have had to throw a pitch in the strike zone. Odds are Baumgardner would have eventually gotten a good out but to just stupidly beat yourself, well there's no reason for that.

That's just Perez, though. It's not like he went up there and changed his approach. He always swings at everything, and I think it's magnified that much more because of the pitcher he was facing.

Agreed.

To play devil's advocate maybe pinch hit Dyson for Perez? Maybe he beats out an infield hit? Who knows.

I know you're just playing devil's advocate, but:

Dyson - career .209 AVG against lefties
Perez - career .307 AVG against lefties

Batting average is pretty much all that matters here since they needed a hit to tie it. Ned Yost does a whole lot of stupid things, but this wasn't one of them.

Oh totally. It would have been a roll of the dice no doubt. Willingham maybe? Perez was probably their best option.

The Royals were relying entirely on Devil Magic. There was no way they were sitting their Team Leader hobbled in a previous inning against an untouchable pitcher. The narrative was way too strong.

@SkitchP wrote:The Royals were relying entirely on Devil Magic. There was no way they were sitting their Team Leader hobbled in a previous inning against an untouchable pitcher. The narrative was way too strong.

Chris_H_2 wrote:

@SkitchP wrote:

numbers wrote:I don't care if he would have scored or not, it would have been AWESOME if he went.

Unless he was out by 20 ft.

I would have rather the series end with that scenario as opposed to having a runner stranded on third and the hitter fouling out to the third baseman. I'd always remember this series for that bone-headed play. And it would be awesome.

This is so fucking stupid. You're more worried about being entertained by a whacky play than by seeing baseball played well.

For as exciting as everybody swears it would've been to see a series end on a play at the plate, not a single person I've talked to yet who has made that claim has been able to name the only series to ever end on a play at the plate.

World Series, or series in general?

Any playoff series. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it's only happened once.

Sid Bream, no?

Ended on a guy being thrown out at the plate, that is.

Since the only way this WS would have ended on that play would have been with him being out.

Also, that division series in 03 between FLA an SF.

Yeah, that's the one.

Lament wrote:Ended on a guy being thrown out at the plate, that is.

2003 NLDS

To this day I still cannot fathom why he sent JT Snow.

03 has gotta be the best playoff year ever.