Point taken, but since Pudge left and Bad Inge has been replaced by Good Inge, the cringe-inducing swing-and-miss seems a lot less frequent to me.

I’m sure Jimmuh is telling French “you aren’t pitching against Grienke, you’re facing the Royals hitters” over and over….

I gotta give JL credit on how he’s managed Lyon. I was ready to release him a month ago, now he’s indispensable. JL has done a great job of easing him into pressure situations.

And of course I’d always rather take a W feeling sick to my stomach instead of an L or two under more comfortable circumstances, but to clarify my point:

Just because you hit black on the roulette table 18 times in a row doesn’t mean you’re gonna hit black the next 18 times. In my estimation, Rodney closing a tight game is analogous to hitting black on a standard roulette table, whereas the top six or seven closers in game recording a save are more analogous to hitting anything on the table but green.

I’d still rather be playing on a table I’ve hit green on a couple times (even if it means that table has produced a loss or two), given that table provides the latter odds at recording saves, rather than play on the table with the former odds where I have miraculously hit black 18 times in a row. In any case, I would never wish for a loss for the sake of my blood pressure, but I hope this has nonetheless clarified what I was trying to say.

Also to clarify — to speak to Mark from Chicago’s post — I don’t mean to imply at all that Lyon, Zumaya, or anyone else in the pen is more apt than Rodney to be closer. And perhaps Rodney is the best option we have, but that fact alone doesn’t make him an adequate closer. It only means there is hole (or potential hole) in the team that hasn’t necessarily hurt the team….yet.

If we’re scrutinizing batters on a pitch-by-pitch basis, and microscoping each instance where a guy “should” or “shouldn’t” swing, maybe that’s a sign of a failure to understand the sport.

Every hitter who ever picked up a bat has offered at pitches he can’t hit. Happens to absolutely everyone. You can’t call each instance a “mistake.” The goal is to not fail approximately 1/3 of the time.

Mark this post.