Don't Call It A Comeback

I've been gone for a while-- climbed some mountains, found myself, wrote a song about it, had surgery and spent too many hours creating my own Stanley Cup champion on NHL 2k10 (Kaner!!!).  In the process, I've neglected you loyal reader.  For that I am deeply sorry.  Hopefully I can make it up to you.  I'll buy you a beer- or just try to write more.

There was a lot of Stanley Cup bad writing- and I'll get to that in due time.  There's also more bad thoughts I'm gonna go after in the next few days:  Dr Phil commenting on Lebron James, the Bears beat writers writing about how incredible the Bears are, former Bear Muhsin Muhammad talking about how easy Mike Martz' million+ play offense is, and much, much more.  Oh, there was Lou Piniella throwing a fit over criticism Steve Stone made of him-- then (the next day) doing what Stone suggested. (Don't think I'll need to write on that one.  It takes care of itself).  So get ready for this and much, much, much more.  (Much more)

I don't want to make the reset entry too long so I'll make this one a quick one:

Let's pretend you have 2 catchers:  Catcher #1 is hitting .268 with an on-base percentage over .400.  He's hit for a little power (7 hrs).  He's two years removed from being an All-star.

Catcher #2 is hitting .236 and doesn't walk too much.  He has also hit 0 (zero) home runs for the year.

Add in the fact that your team hasn't hit all year and is desperately trying to score runs.  Knowing this (as balanced as I've made it), which catcher would you start?

If you said Catcher  #2-- Congratulations!  You can be the manager of the Chicago Cubs.  Lou Piniella, through a season of odd choices spanning from moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen to not getting an up & coming prospect more playing time, has made another odd choice of starting Koyie Hill over Geovany Soto.  Here's a Daily Herald story on it. 

Here's Lou's quote: I'm probably going to put Hill behind the plate, too. We're not scoring any runs. We need somebody that keeps the other team from running. We'll do that tomorrow and see what happens. I know these guys are trying. I know they're trying. But, boy, I tell you what, we see the same thing every day, day in and day out.


So you're not hitting, not scoring runs so the logical solution is to get a worse hitter as many at-bats as possible.  I still can't even understand it.  Really, I can't.  I haven't seen any stellar defense out of Koyie Hill.  All I know is that he's a pretty consistent out and a pretty consistent bad at-bat.  


Have I not done this justice?  Go here to fangraphs.com article on this.  Its called Piniella is losing his marbles.  That sums it up nicely.  


From the story: 
The reason, of course, is the old manager crutch: handling pitchers. Since Hill can’t hit, he’s earned the reputation as a good defender. 


For some reason, I hadn't thought about that before.  I'm surprised I haven't-- but its a simple idea.  A guy can't hit, therefore, he must be in the league for some reason.  That reason must be he's a great defensive catcher.  So simple and so wrong and such a bad sports thought. 


Well, its good to be back.  I'll be back with more cutting & pasting & snarkiness & everything that the reader would like.   Here's some The Mountain Goats