Gardy Learns His Lesson

by Dr. Yogi on Oct 7, 2009 3:22 PM EDT Comment 8 comments

From Kelly Thesier, it looks like Michael Cuddyer will bat clean-up tonight, while Jason Kubel will be hitting 5th. In last night's epic battle, Carlos Gomez came in for Kubel as a defensive substitute as he has been doing most of the year. That in itself is a good move, but it also left Gomez hitting behind Joe Mauer. No sane manager will pitch to Mauer with runners in scoring position while the light hitting is Gomez on deck. It happened last night, and Mauer was given the intentional pass.

With Cuddyer and Kubel swinging the bat almost equally well at this point in the season, this is the right move. There is no way Cuddyer is coming out of the game, because our 1st base options after him are very slim. Not to mention he is playing outstanding defense of late there. He's making the wild throw-tag the runner out play look like it's the status quo.

Kudos to Gardenhire who is at least learning from his mistakes.

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Kubel is batting 5th and not 4th

tonight only because Sabathia is a lefty. I’m sure it has nothing to do with last night.

by Mike I on Oct 7, 2009 3:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

LHP verses RHP

Gardy has flipped them against every LHP the past two weeks – this is just more of the same.

by CCTwinsFan on Oct 7, 2009 3:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Really? What's the logic in that?

"You should enter a ballpark like you enter a church." - Bill "Spaceman" Lee

by Dr. Yogi on Oct 7, 2009 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It was only flipped last Thursday against Robertson...

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2009-batting-orders.shtml

For other LHS, they didn’t flip.

Kubel’s only faced Sabathia twice. He’s 0-2 in two low-leverage PH situations.

by DavidRF on Oct 7, 2009 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The only Twins with any success against Sabathia are Redmond and Casilla

… hopefully that changes tonight.

by DavidRF on Oct 7, 2009 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

well i think this is the right move and it shuld stay that way,

first of all L/R/L, next the gomez point, and for the majority of this stretch Cuddyer has had the bigger power surge

by Cody_3_twins on Oct 7, 2009 10:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Gardy teaches a lesson

This is pretty simple.

It’s done this way to prevent a RHP from walking Mauer to get to Cuddyer. Back-to-back lefties ensures a RHP who walks Mauer intentionally must face Kubel.

For the defensive team to gain the favorable matchup, the manager must bring in a LHP to face both Mauer and Kubel, and if either one extends the inning then a switch back to a RHP is necessary for the favorable matchup with Cuddyer.

If you saw Sunday’s game, you saw why this is a good move.

The Twins were 14-4 with this arrangement.

Gardy did the teaching here.

Amused observer of the old ladies backyard laundry gab.

by Johnny Safron on Oct 7, 2009 11:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs