July 2, 201511 yr Anybody else notice that he is now sliding feet first -- and does not look comfortable doing so? He seems to slide VERY late and comes into the bag at warp speed. Helped him kick the ball out of the 3B glove last night, but could easily lead to a turned ankle OR bouncing off / over the bag. Of course, sliding head first leads to a lot of injury exposure as well. Hmmmm. So is this your way of agreeing?
July 2, 201511 yr Loved this gem, cost the Reds nothing but.... Bottom of the seventh, Reds up 2-1 with Cueto on second and Votto on first and none out. Phillips bunts. Brilliant. Either Phillips or Price should have been called on the carpet for that move. Cueto was thrown out at third, the Reds went on to score 0 runs in the inning. Let's run down how many ways this was a moronic idea. 1. Cueto is fat and slow to begin with and had pitched seven innings. 2. Cueto runs the bases how often? 3. Cueto practices sliding how often? Has slid in game conditions how many times, ever? 4. Suppose Cueto decides to slide (it was a bang-bang play and had he slid he may have been safe.) And, breaks his ankle, tears up his knee, or something in the process because of reasons 1,2, and 3. Where are we now Reds fans? I'm sure Dusty called in the play from Cali. I blame him... On the bolded, it was likely Hamilton as there were no outs. Cueto still the lead runner so none of the scenarios mentioned change.
July 2, 201511 yr Loved this gem, cost the Reds nothing but.... Bottom of the seventh, Reds up 2-1 with Cueto on second and Votto on first and none out. Phillips bunts. Brilliant. Either Phillips or Price should have been called on the carpet for that move. Cueto was thrown out at third, the Reds went on to score 0 runs in the inning. Let's run down how many ways this was a moronic idea. 1. Cueto is fat and slow to begin with and had pitched seven innings. 2. Cueto runs the bases how often? 3. Cueto practices sliding how often? Has slid in game conditions how many times, ever? 4. Suppose Cueto decides to slide (it was a bang-bang play and had he slid he may have been safe.) And, breaks his ankle, tears up his knee, or something in the process because of reasons 1,2, and 3. Where are we now Reds fans? I'm sure Dusty called in the play from Cali. I blame him... Respectfully disagree STRONGLY. 1 - Cueto is neither fat nor slow. He is a professional athlete with, at worst, slightly below average speed. Granted, he rarely runs hard when he makes contact, but if he thinks he can get a hit, he hustles. 2 - Running the bases in this situation is not rocket science. It is 3 - If you are a NL P and you can't slide, you are not prepared. We are not asking for textbook popup slides here. Knothole kids are doing it thousands of times this weekend. 4 - Suppose he separates his throwing shoulder waving in a runner from 3B on a passed ball. (Happened to Terry Harper for the Atlanta Braves.) Point is, you can't eliminate risk. Most importantly, if Phillips executes properly Cueto's baserunning is irrelevant. I didn't see the play, but MLB At Bat describes it as a bunt fielded by the P who threw to the 3B for the out. The proper execution on that bunt is to force the 3B to field the ball. Phillips didn't do that. If he does, Cueto likely waltzes into 3B without a throw. "But what if the 'wheel play' was on and the 3B fields and throws to the SS covering 3B?" Well, presumably in that situation Cueto will have gotten a better jump from his lead off of 2B because the SS cannot hold him on. "But what if the 2B was holding Cueto on and the 'wheel play' was on?" It would be very unusual because that leaves 1B essentially uncovered if Phillips gets down a decent bunt and you risk bases loaded and no outs. (You are not throwing out Hamilton at 2B under any circumstances.) If it works with some very basic execution, you have 2nd & 3rd w/ 1 out and Votto up. Twins are forced to pull the IF in to cut down the run. Cueto can be plated with a SF or a hit (or a balk or a passed ball or a wild pitch, etc.). If it doesn't work, you have Hamilton at 2nd with a decent chance to steal 3rd (although tougher with a LH hitter up) and you virtually eliminate the inning killer DP that Phillips could have hit into.
July 2, 201511 yr Respectfully disagree STRONGLY. 1 - Cueto is neither fat nor slow. He is a professional athlete with, at worst, slightly below average speed. Granted, he rarely runs hard when he makes contact, but if he thinks he can get a hit, he hustles. 2 - Running the bases in this situation is not rocket science. It is 3 - If you are a NL P and you can't slide, you are not prepared. We are not asking for textbook popup slides here. Knothole kids are doing it thousands of times this weekend. 4 - Suppose he separates his throwing shoulder waving in a runner from 3B on a passed ball. (Happened to Terry Harper for the Atlanta Braves.) Point is, you can't eliminate risk. Most importantly, if Phillips executes properly Cueto's baserunning is irrelevant. I didn't see the play, but MLB At Bat describes it as a bunt fielded by the P who threw to the 3B for the out. The proper execution on that bunt is to force the 3B to field the ball. Phillips didn't do that. If he does, Cueto likely waltzes into 3B without a throw. "But what if the 'wheel play' was on and the 3B fields and throws to the SS covering 3B?" Well, presumably in that situation Cueto will have gotten a better jump from his lead off of 2B because the SS cannot hold him on. "But what if the 2B was holding Cueto on and the 'wheel play' was on?" It would be very unusual because that leaves 1B essentially uncovered if Phillips gets down a decent bunt and you risk bases loaded and no outs. (You are not throwing out Hamilton at 2B under any circumstances.) If it works with some very basic execution, you have 2nd & 3rd w/ 1 out and Votto up. Twins are forced to pull the IF in to cut down the run. Cueto can be plated with a SF or a hit (or a balk or a passed ball or a wild pitch, etc.). If it doesn't work, you have Hamilton at 2nd with a decent chance to steal 3rd (although tougher with a LH hitter up) and you virtually eliminate the inning killer DP that Phillips could have hit into. This. If BP didn't bunt people would be angry. He bunts, people are still angry. I don't get it. People look for the negative in everything. The decision to bunt was a solid one. It was just terrible execution.
July 3, 201511 yr Respectfully disagree STRONGLY. 1 - Cueto is neither fat nor slow. He is a professional athlete with, at worst, slightly below average speed. Granted, he rarely runs hard when he makes contact, but if he thinks he can get a hit, he hustles. 2 - Running the bases in this situation is not rocket science. It is 3 - If you are a NL P and you can't slide, you are not prepared. We are not asking for textbook popup slides here. Knothole kids are doing it thousands of times this weekend. 4 - Suppose he separates his throwing shoulder waving in a runner from 3B on a passed ball. (Happened to Terry Harper for the Atlanta Braves.) Point is, you can't eliminate risk. Most importantly, if Phillips executes properly Cueto's baserunning is irrelevant. I didn't see the play, but MLB At Bat describes it as a bunt fielded by the P who threw to the 3B for the out. The proper execution on that bunt is to force the 3B to field the ball. Phillips didn't do that. If he does, Cueto likely waltzes into 3B without a throw. "But what if the 'wheel play' was on and the 3B fields and throws to the SS covering 3B?" Well, presumably in that situation Cueto will have gotten a better jump from his lead off of 2B because the SS cannot hold him on. "But what if the 2B was holding Cueto on and the 'wheel play' was on?" It would be very unusual because that leaves 1B essentially uncovered if Phillips gets down a decent bunt and you risk bases loaded and no outs. (You are not throwing out Hamilton at 2B under any circumstances.) If it works with some very basic execution, you have 2nd & 3rd w/ 1 out and Votto up. Twins are forced to pull the IF in to cut down the run. Cueto can be plated with a SF or a hit (or a balk or a passed ball or a wild pitch, etc.). If it doesn't work, you have Hamilton at 2nd with a decent chance to steal 3rd (although tougher with a LH hitter up) and you virtually eliminate the inning killer DP that Phillips could have hit into. Last graph first, the Reds scored zero runs in the inning. Inning killed. That aside, I just can't see any reason this is a good play in MLB. Particularly for a team ready to move said base runner for a chance at enhancing the future. 1. Cueto is a a pro athlete just like John Kruk. Great pitcher, elite. I'm not going to call him "athletic" though. Why does he rarely run hard on contact? 2. Baserunning is never rocket science, but often overlooked. How much has Cueto worked on it, ever? You can't move on contact in this situation. 3. National league pitchers slide much? Really? There's a reason he didn't slide. Kershaw going to slide into third up 2-1 in the seventh on a bunt attempt? This isn't knothole. 4. You can't eliminate risk, the Reds keep Cueto in the rotation and he could get hurt on any pitch. It happens. You don't enhance risk. This play did that. Major league difference. This. If BP didn't bunt people would be angry. He bunts, people are still angry. I don't get it. People look for the negative in everything. The decision to bunt was a solid one. It was just terrible execution. Not looking for the negative at all. Just a stupid call. Zero reason to put Cueto in that situation. Pull him, or let BP bat. It's not the ninth, and you have the lead. In all honesty, up 2-1 with no outs in the bottom of the seventh, if BP doesn't bunt I'm not even blinking an eye. On graph two, the Reds and bunting have been suspect for a year or two. The possibility of terrible execution has to enter the equation.
July 3, 201511 yr ^^ well if you are that blind to why the bunt isn't a terrible call then I have nothing to add to this conversation.
July 4, 201511 yr ^^ well if you are that blind to why the bunt isn't a terrible call then I have nothing to add to this conversation. You added nothing in the first place. Equation is simple. You have the lead, late in the game. Franchise pitcher (and the franchise's top trading block) is the lead runner. Why put him in harm's way? Simple question. If Cueto had slid he would have likely been safe. Why make him slide? This isn't grade school ball. Terrible call. Tell me one good thing that could have come from the situation that outweighs the potential for bad.
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