OFFICIAL TLR HEAD SCRATCHER THREAD

[cards2468]

Another chapter - Schumaker starts at 2nd and DeRosa is in LF for MDs first Cards game.

To be fair, DeRosa hasn't played an inning at 2b this year.

This is true, might want to let him get settled in before we start giving him defensive challenges.

[jim]

Talked about in the GMD thread but it might be fun to keep this up to date and reminisce in the off season.

Jun 30 vs SFG. Rasmus PH for Carpenter in the bottom of the 5th against Johnson in the 8 spot. We basically have no right handed bats on the bench, so it's lefty on lefty. Thurston, playing LF and hitting 9th, makes the 3rd out of the inning. Kinney comes into pitch and hits in the ..... 2 spot naturally so that we are forced to make a pitching move after Kinney looks better than he has all year. We get an added bonus, not only do we shove the pitcher up as soon as possible we take DeRosa, a precise RH bat, out of the game. And of course, Thurston remains in the game. Thurston neither belongs in the game, or even on the roster unfortunately.

Next inning comes up and Duncan hits (lefty on lefty), and does walk that is followed by a Pujols homer. So in all fairness I want to state that. We get Kinney out, and now we have our lineup really loaded up with lefties so that Affeldt can mow their asses down. As I type this Affeldt freezes Duncan for a called strike 3.

So, what would I have suggested? The simple maneuver of inserting Kinney in the 9th spot for Thurston and leaving DeRosa in the game. That's it. Now Kinney can go an extra inning, you have an extra guy on the bench, DeRosa in the game instead of Thurston.

The last time something this bizarre happened I warned that if that players was hurt I would retract (it was Rasmus that time), and I'll do the same here. If DeRosa is hurt I guess you can make some sense (not much, I still would have put Duncan in LF for Thurston and moved the pitcher to the 9 spot so that you didn't HAVE to PH).

[Faceman]

Honestly, I think TLR thought the game was over. He wanted to PH for Kinney after one inning. He wanted Miller to get an inning.

Kinda goes against the whole "play a hard nine" but I think TLR was chalking this one up.

If he were playing to win, he would have put McClellan in instead, put him 9th and pulled Thurston, and went for 2 innings out of McClellan.

[Socnorb11]

Talked about in the GMD thread but it might be fun to keep this up to date and reminisce in the off season.

Jun 30 vs SFG. Rasmus PH for Carpenter in the bottom of the 5th against Johnson in the 8 spot. We basically have no right handed bats on the bench, so it's lefty on lefty. Thurston, playing LF and hitting 9th, makes the 3rd out of the inning. Kinney comes into pitch and hits in the ..... 2 spot naturally so that we are forced to make a pitching move after Kinney looks better than he has all year. We get an added bonus, not only do we shove the pitcher up as soon as possible we take DeRosa, a precise RH bat, out of the game. And of course, Thurston remains in the game. Thurston neither belongs in the game, or even on the roster unfortunately.

Next inning comes up and Duncan hits (lefty on lefty), and does walk that is followed by a Pujols homer. So in all fairness I want to state that. We get Kinney out, and now we have our lineup really loaded up with lefties so that Affeldt can mow their asses down. As I type this Affeldt freezes Duncan for a called strike 3.

So, what would I have suggested? The simple maneuver of inserting Kinney in the 9th spot for Thurston and leaving DeRosa in the game. That's it. Now Kinney can go an extra inning, you have an extra guy on the bench, DeRosa in the game instead of Thurston.

The last time something this bizarre happened I warned that if that players was hurt I would retract (it was Rasmus that time), and I'll do the same here. If DeRosa is hurt I guess you can make some sense (not much, I still would have put Duncan in LF for Thurston and moved the pitcher to the 9 spot so that you didn't HAVE to PH).

FWIW, Derosa was apparently hurt, and that's why he left the game.

[M1IRONMIKE]

So, what would I have suggested? The simple maneuver of inserting Kinney in the 9th spot for Thurston and leaving DeRosa in the game. That's it.

Hmmmmmm...........having the pitcher bat 9th..........What a wild and crazy idea.....so crazy in fact it may be pure genius.....now if only we could find a way for TLR to believe he invented this blast of ultra modern baseball theory!!!!

[jim]

Talked about in the GMD thread but it might be fun to keep this up to date and reminisce in the off season.

Jun 30 vs SFG. Rasmus PH for Carpenter in the bottom of the 5th against Johnson in the 8 spot. We basically have no right handed bats on the bench, so it's lefty on lefty. Thurston, playing LF and hitting 9th, makes the 3rd out of the inning. Kinney comes into pitch and hits in the ..... 2 spot naturally so that we are forced to make a pitching move after Kinney looks better than he has all year. We get an added bonus, not only do we shove the pitcher up as soon as possible we take DeRosa, a precise RH bat, out of the game. And of course, Thurston remains in the game. Thurston neither belongs in the game, or even on the roster unfortunately.

Next inning comes up and Duncan hits (lefty on lefty), and does walk that is followed by a Pujols homer. So in all fairness I want to state that. We get Kinney out, and now we have our lineup really loaded up with lefties so that Affeldt can mow their asses down. As I type this Affeldt freezes Duncan for a called strike 3.

So, what would I have suggested? The simple maneuver of inserting Kinney in the 9th spot for Thurston and leaving DeRosa in the game. That's it. Now Kinney can go an extra inning, you have an extra guy on the bench, DeRosa in the game instead of Thurston.

The last time something this bizarre happened I warned that if that players was hurt I would retract (it was Rasmus that time), and I'll do the same here. If DeRosa is hurt I guess you can make some sense (not much, I still would have put Duncan in LF for Thurston and moved the pitcher to the 9 spot so that you didn't HAVE to PH).

FWIW, Derosa was apparently hurt, and that's why he left the game.

Then Kinney in for Thurston, Duncan to LF hitting 2nd. That is effectively what he did in the end but he did it in such a way to force the removal of Kinney. Why put yourself into a position to force a move when you don't have to? At the time we were down 6-1 so why not leave the possibility open of letting your mopup guy actually mopup?

But the DeRosa injury turns this from a bona fide head scratcher to a simple raise of the eyebrows.

[fanforever]

7/1/2009-First inning... Skip on second with nobody out...and Rasmus...hernia and all...Bunts out to Bengie Molina.

[KeepingItCasual]

I thought Rasmus took that upon himself.

[st.lewis11]

I thought Rasmus took that upon himself.

So did I.

[longhornbaseball]

8-3 and we're bunting.