Stubborn and stupid

[klaiggeb]

Losing is one thing, and I'll be straight up; I'm as BAD a loser as there is on the planet.

But I could live with last night's loss;

Didn't like it, but it was a well pitched... NO, smartly pitched game by Cueto.

Now compare that effort to this piece of HORSE SH _ _ by Stubborn Samardizja.

I didn't need John Smoltz to tell me what his problem was;

NO off speed stuff.

jackass!

This is the same, stubborn CRAP that got him INTO trouble in the first place!\


I freakin' HATE STUPID, and tonight, Samardizja was/is STUPID!

Didn't he even pay attention to WHY he posted a 2.45 ERA over the last 10 starts?

I guess not.

God! I hate stupid!

Ass wipe!

boly

[sfgdood]

Exactly the reason Id have started Jeff in game 4 instead of in Wrigley. Too amped up.

[klaiggeb]

That was my thought, too, Randy.

But I'm thinking that Bochy was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

NOT starting Jeffy the Stubborn would have meant he would have gone something like 10 days without a start.

But it was a wrong move on so many levels.

You mentioned one; amped up.

Mine is, that Jeffy the Stubborn pitches so much better at AT&T. He's a fly ball guy.

Moore WAS, and still IS the better choice.

boly

[Rog]

Fact checker:

. Fly ball pitcher: Samardzija throws 34% fly balls, and Matt Moore throws 43%. From that standpoint, Moore would be the better choice for AT&T. Samardzija had a higher percentage (12%-) of his fly balls leave the park than did Moore (10%+). Samardzija yielded a homer every 13- innings at AT&T compared to one every 7- innings on the road. In a sample less than half as big, Moore yielded a homer once every 18+ innings at AT&T compared to one every 6+ innings in the other parks in which he pitched. The fly ball/home run home/away factors seem to favor saving Moore for AT&T.

Moore's sample is relatively small at AT&T, but in order to catch up to Samardzija's homer rate at home, he would have to yield 5 homers in the 52.1 differential innings. That's a decent rate (10+ innings per homer), but far more homer-oriented than Moore's present 17+. When we consider that Moore gave up one of the two homers in his six innings at AT&T as a visiting player for the Rays, the figures lean even more toward pitching Moore at home. In Wrigley, Samardzija, pitching most as the home pitcher, gave up a homer every 9+ innings. Moore hasn't pitched at Wrigley.

. The amped up factor could go either way. While Samardzija didn't pitch well in the Wrigley game #2, he didn't yield a home run, and was betrayed on a fly ball Hunter Pence should have caught but which became a double. I would say inconclusive on this one, although one could probably look at it in either direction.

. As for why Jeff didn't use more secondary pitches, I'm not sure we'll ever know.

It may be that Jeff should have pitched at AT&T. Then again, his ERA there was 3.53 compared to 4.03 on the road. That's certainly favorable toward pitching at AT&T, but Moore's differential (again, small sample size at AT&T) showed 3.16 at AT&T compared to 4.37 on the road. Jeff certainly didn't pitch well at Wrigley, but I'm not sure the facts going in indicated he should have pitching at AT&T instead.

One other point: If the Giants go deeply into the postseason, do we want Jeff pitching more inning -- or Moore? Jeff finished quite strongly and had a lower ERA over the full season, which leads me to believe we would rather see him pitch more. Pitching earlier in the Cubs series helps facilitate that.

With 20/20 hindsight, we'd have to question the use of Jeff in game #2. But looking objectively going into the game, I think the facts might have augured in the other direction.

Certainly I don't see evidence that the move was wrong "on so many levels," particularly when one of the reasons was that Samardzija is a fly ball pitcher. He really isn't. He's more like neutral between fly balls and ground balls. It is Moore who is the fly ball pitcher.

I'm sorry to have to disagree, and certainly Jeff's Wrigley Field results weren't good this time. But the facts -- including one that was mentioned in FAVOR of holding back Samardzija -- don't seem to point to point that way.

Bochy may have made the "right" move, only to have it work out poorly. Sometimes that just happens.