Comments on: Joe Girardi goes down with his hand-picked nine

By: marinersnate

marinersnate — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:56:24 +0000

“Surprised there wasn’t more of a reaction from it.”

There would have been if it had been the other way around.

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:43:07 +0000

Louise, is it too much to ask for a little consistency?

You, rightfully so, must not read a lot of NY Media if you expect any consistency from them!

By: sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo

sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:23:59 +0000

Nunez was the entire Yankee offense, and Gardner saw more pitches this game than Swisher has in the entire post-season. I would say the moves improved the team, just not enough. Girardi can do what he can do, but he can’t make the hitters hit.

While it is probably not the difference in this game, how is it that Verlander was getting pitched 8 inches of the plate called strikes, while Hughes was getting pitches right down the middle called balls? (http://riveraveblues.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Holbrook-strike-zone.png) There has been a bit of that throughout the series.

By: stex52

stex52 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:15:03 +0000

To me that’s a lot of the difference between a #2 pitcher and a #1 pitcher (except maybe strikouts). When they don’t have their best, they still have enough tools to make it work anyway.

By: vicksprman

vicksprman — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:57:13 +0000

A-Rod shouldn’t have been benched in the first place, the whole line up isn’t hitting but you can’t replace them all you just bench A-Rod, that’s really working out well for them. Bottom line with the way this club isn’t hitting doesn’t matter what line up he throws out there they aren’t going to win.

By: mqcarpenter

mqcarpenter — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:40:27 +0000

This is all arm chair quarterbacking. We are questioning moves in the las T bat with all ice cold hitters. That isn’t fair. Girardi gambled and lost. He has very little to work with offensively and went with his gut. So be it. The truth is that if Arod had pinch hit for jab ez and got out girardi would be trampled in the high and mighty media.

By: polegojim

polegojim — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:03:38 +0000

@hyper… ok… that’s pretty circular. According to your reasoning, it didn’t matter anyway, so what’s your beef?

They aren’t hitting and scoring with A-Rod and Stewart. If he leaves things alone, he earns criticsm for not knowing how to shake things up to wake his team up. So… he did what ANY good manager would, he made changes to find a more productive recipe.

Go Tigers!

By: pisano

pisano — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:58:11 +0000

I agree 100%, why would Joe bring in Arod or Swisher? do you think he wanted to watch two more strikeouts?

By: metalhead65

metalhead65 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:47:56 +0000

yea really dumb move by giradi by not sticking with arod. dusty baker would never bench his washed up/slumping starting 3rd baseman. got to have that veteran leadership in the lineup no matter what and look how well that worked out for him… oh wait never mind. can Joe send dusty the page in his book that shows it is ok do things like that? that page seems to be missing from dusty’s book.

By: Alex K

Alex K — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:42:31 +0000

Matthew has everything to do with writing the headline. This isn’t ESPN.

By: josemartez

josemartez — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:27:03 +0000

I thought that play looked off to me. Surprised there wasn’t more of a reaction from it.

By: stex52

stex52 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:25:22 +0000

It’s like playing the stock market. When the team hits, the manager is a genius. Everything he does works. When the team doesn’t hit, he’s an idiot.

Let’s keep the focus of the blame where it belongs. I don’t even blame Girardi for showing some desperation right now. Those guys are awful.

By: mj1818

mj1818 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:18:04 +0000

That’s part of what makes verlander great is that he can be real good when he is not at his best.

By: ray1950

ray1950 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:10:26 +0000

Considering the fact that Joe Girardi’s father recently passed away, I’m surprised to see “Girardi dies with his hand picked 9″ on the front page. I’m not a Yankees fan (and I realize Matthew has nothing to do with writing the headline) but the choice of wording indicates a lack of respect and decency.

By: thehypercritic

thehypercritic — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:23:26 +0000

What? Pointing out that Girardi did about as much as a manager could do to lower the odds of winning the game throughout does not negate the fact the Tigers won and would likely have done so if Girardi wasn’t sabotaging his team’s chances at every turn.

By: jayquintana

jayquintana — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:18:12 +0000

Exactly! The media’s said A-Rod’s done. Now they’re saying that if he pinch hit for Ibanez, he’d have hit a three run homer! Geez Louise, is it too much to ask for a little consistency?

By: polegojim

polegojim — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:52:17 +0000

Hats off to Girardi for smartly trying everything reasonably possible.

Tigers just playing VERY smart baseball.

Go TIGERS!

By: thehypercritic

thehypercritic — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:18:18 +0000

Ichiro may have fared well against lefties, but Coke isn’t nearly as effective against righties.

By hitting for Ichiro, Girardi could have either significantly lowered the efficacy of the pitcher on the hill or forced Leyland to burn Coke and leveraged that against the rest of the overtaxed backend with the rest of the inning.

By: dan1111

dan1111 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:53:03 +0000

Actually, for his career Ichiro has hit lefties just as well as righties. He also hit well not just in the postseason, but in 60 games with the Yankees. I think leaving him was defensible.

I agree with your basic point, though.

By: cdeangelus

cdeangelus — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:39:58 +0000

When every bullet’s a blank, it doesn’t matter how good your aim is.

By: sagnam

sagnam — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:03:02 +0000

Is he going to call for replay tomorrow because Cano was 2 feet off the bag when turning the bases loaded inning ending double play? That play actually cost the Tiger a run.

By: thehypercritic

thehypercritic — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:20:48 +0000

Ichiro was worse than Ibanez, but both involve magical thinking and pretending nothing a ballplayer’s done before mid-September can tell us anything about a players’ likely performance.

It’s incompetence and shouldn’t be how a billion dollar business makes decisions.

By: mike5606

mike5606 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:18:41 +0000

Can’t really blame Girardi for not pinch hitting Ibanez in that spot. The guy has done so much for the team in the last month and a half, you can’t take him out with the game on the line. If he did and let’s say Swisher or A-rod came up and struck out, or blew it, then there would be a post complaining about how Girardi pinch hit for his hottest hitter at the plate.