i again have to respectfully disagree. bacon i believe is an allowable meat costume. but i can respect your opinion and will save my bacon costume for rough riders games.

@becca: I’m sure Evan would bend his rules for you!

@justsaying: you could be the day old gallon of milk! we could be a pair.

i could do that…..i hate old milk……even with green sandwich meat……

@evan you’re not at the post game buffet are you? don’t want to intimidate your appetite…….

becca: Let me know when you go tro see the RRs. I would like to see your bacon.

Dang netbook keyboard.

I think Wash didn’t want to PH for Davis because he didn’t want to put AJ at 1B if they didn’t score.

@rob m – then wash isn’t managing to win the game and that’s simply inexcusable as well. either CD needs to learn to bunt so he can perform in that situation or they pinch hit for him.

simple fact of the matter is this, leadoff runner at second has to be at least advanced to third with either one out or no outs. with two strikeout kings (in CD and Salty,) the dynamics change if Byrd is at third. in this case, if Davis or Andrus, the bunt moves Byrd to third with one out (or the possibility that Andrus beats out the bunt), the pitcher has to adjust how he throws to Salty. he can’t throw stuff in the dirt with a runner at third so that puts him pitching closer to the plate and gives Salty a chance to make better contact.

if for some reason, Salty gets out, you’re still going to pinch hit for Vizquel 99% of the time anyways and again the AB is still changed for Jones as well.

it just made me, a die-hard Rangers fan, want to barf that we continue to miss in places in late innings when we only need one run to win the game.

@kj i get what you’re saying. but the result would have been the same had vizquel whiffed as badly as everyone would have expected him to do. either way, it’s something i don’t guess i’ll ever understand.

I agree that there is plenty of room for debate on Wash’s decision in the 9th, but still don’t think that its cut and dry the wrong decision to leave CD in to bat. Bringing in Elvis, the defense knows why he is there, and Tejada can break extremely early on the wheel play at 3rd, with an avg. speed guy on 2nd. At least CD is a lefty and has a chance to pull the ball either deep or on the ground to advance Byrd. I highly doubt that CD handles the bad well in a sac bunt situation (and has never delivered one at the ML level), and that is most likely the lowest % play of all. No doubt having the MLB strike out leader at the plate is not favorable, but IMO its the lesser of the two evils. As stated in my original post, once left in, CD has to deliver there with a hit, ground ball to the right, or deep fly and advance the runner.

PH with Boggs or Jones is a different story, i have no idea how their sac bunt skills are, and maybe that is enough to make Tejada hold long enough to give Byrd a better chance in advancing on the bunt, or simply maybe having a better chance of advancing the runner than CD did with no sac called at all.

I’m not trying to be the lone Wash defender, believe me I think he makes plenty of very questionable decisions, I just think that there is enough room for debate here not to dog-pile on him for his strategy …at least for not pinch hitting with Elvis.

oh wes that’s who i would have wanted to pinch hit……elvis……leadoff training…..higher “rational” chance…..

and speaking of elvis or the lack thereof…..i’m more ticked that elvis is pulled on harrison’s start cause two of the balls up the middle gets caught by elvis….no offense coach vizquel……

@wes- i just don’t see how you can call Byrd an average runner. and if he is, then how is davis getting something on the ground going to be any better than getting andrus in to sac bunt? and expecting the strikeout leader to make contact is a much riskier proposition that certainly didn’t pan out tonight for us.

the fact is simple- it’s inexcusable that a team can’t move a lead-off double over to third. it’s not the first time this has happened this season.

@kj: i completely agree with you that the runner HAS to be advanced in that situation. pulling the ball to the right side of the infield forces a longer throw to third (giving byrd more time to advance) than a bunt.

If the Rangers continue playing .574 baseball the rest of the way, My ADHA wrecked brain figures that to net about 93 wins. If they tank and go .500 the rest of the way that will mean 87 wins or so, give or take a dozen or two. I can live with either of those eventualities. Wash had already figured that out and so I give him the benefit of the doubt. Wash Rocks.

@kj: agreed that asking the world leader in strikeouts to either pull the ball on the ground, pull a deep fly ball, or deliver a base his is not good %’s. pinch hitting for CD with elvis and asking him to deliver a sac bunt with the corner infielders 10 feet from him b/c they know why he is pinch hitting is low % as well.
the wheel play would be on and unless elvis delivers an exceptional sac bunt the infield will try to throw byrd out at 3rd.

I could be mistaken here, but isn’t it pretty much baseball doctrine that you DON’T bunt if the wheel play is on? The batter is supposed to NOT bunt and swing away.

CJ holds the fort
lead-off double does not score
Ron goes “full-retard”

@haiku Wow we did overlook cj didn’t we…….2 scoreless and no drama, he’s starting to lull me to sleep…..
@KJ isn’t it a joy to have an AB with the options andrus gives you……it’s as if someone remembered how to play the game and poof elvis appears……………

Thanks, KJ. Order out of chaos.

The hot dog costume note is worthless without a photo.