Why Wedge needs to go... in his own words
Via Castrovince: Luis Valbuena, owner of a .179 average, is not only a regular, but now (or today, at least) he's batting leadoff. Wedge wanted to give Jamey Carroll a day off, and he didn't want to move the struggling Ben Francisco (5-for-42) back to leadoff. So Valbuena gets the job for the night. Wedge said he liked seeing Valbuena work two walks off Dave Bush last night, and he's talked the past week about how his at-bats are better than the stats indicate. "I don't look at the numbers," Wedge said. "This is a good opportunity to get him up there. It could be a good shot in the arm for him."
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I took this quote more as a statement that the process and approach to an AB is more important than whether any one AB results in an out.
That is much of Wedge meant but it goes beyond that. It also goes to how well the ball is being hit. Valbeuna has been making fairly solid contact even on his outs and he has been showing decent gap power. Going into tonight he had 8 doubles in just 84 ABs (and 2 more tonight).
Wedge has been very positive about Valbeuna over the last three or four weeks asserting more than once that Valbeuna does not look overmatched. He also has said Valbeuna has good baserunning instincts.
As fans we have a tendancy sometimes to put too much emphasis on stats and not enough emphasis on how a player is actually performing. A hitter can go 0 for 3 hitting three hard line drives and 2 for three with a bloop that fallos between two fielders (either of who should have caught it) and a “swing. bunt” on a checked swing.
by JenniferMarie on Jun 16, 2009 11:32 PM EDT up reply actions
As fans we have a tendancy sometimes to put too much emphasis on stats and not enough emphasis on how a player is actually performing. A hitter can go 0 for 3 hitting three hard line drives and 2 for three with a bloop that fallos between two fielders (either of who should have caught it) and a "swing. bunt" on a checked swing.
Yes. If we had better stats, then this would be less of a problem, which is largely why sabermetricians do what they do.
I’m sure that the Indians are keeping internal stats that address the issue you brought up, so for example a hard-hit line drive, caught or not, is a plus. I think this was discussed in Moneyball as an analogy to derivatives in finance.
Luis isn’t hitting all that well, but he’ll walk and get the occasional extra-base hit, and he’s playing good defense at shortstop. In a perfect world, he’d be sharing time with Jamey Carroll at second, but thanks to Asdrubal’s injury, he’s an everyday player now. I don’t see him being overmatched at the plate.
I’m pretty disappointed by Ben…not that I thought we had something great out there, but I think he can at least put up a high-.700 OPS. I wonder if by trying to make adjustments to use more of the field that he’s just gotten really screwed up. When he came up, you couldn’t throw a fastball by him. Now he’s getting hammered with fastballs, and tonight he was chasing a ton of breaking balls. Grady needs to get back soon.
Past tense, you mean. I don’t think he can put up high .700s. There maybe was a time when I dreamed that could be possible, but that time has passed. He’s been given enough plate appearances, and we don’t need to see many more.
Pitchers adjusted with the fastballs, and threw him down and away. Now he can’t catch up to the fastballs anymore. Story over, Ben. Time for bed.
that’s just something managers say
i mean, cripes, do you expect wedge to say, “well i sat down and looked at luis’ LD% and BABIP, and it looked like he was hitting into a lot of bad luck. he’s also got one of the highest P/AB on the team, so it’s pretty clear he’s making tough outs.” (note: i don’t know whether any of this is actually true or not)
i’m GLAD wedge doesn’t sit a guy like valbuena based on his .179 BA. wedge probably notices that valbuena still is walking a lot, and he probably notices other things in his approach at the plate that are more difficult/impossible to quantify that makes him think valbuena will have better production going forward.
wedge should be playing the guys who he thinks have the best chance to produce, and while sometimes past performance can be an indicator of who those guys are, it certainly isn’t the only indicator. i have my share of complaints about the dude, but none based on this statement.
by Cap'n Snegiryov on Jun 17, 2009 7:37 AM EDT reply actions
“I don’t look at the numbers,” Wedge said. “Really, I mostly look at the Pitch/FX chart for each of his at-bats.”
Steel Nick
But yet he start BEN FRAN, Giminez, and Barfield and sit Caroll… i think Wedge is talking out his ass
What was Brick’s comment from another thread? A career-long slump punctuated by two hot streaks? I liked that.
Steel Nick
This was a comment made earlier today by someone on cleveland.com, I think. You could also say a career built on good performances against Tampa.
BenFran OWNS Tampa. You can see his seeting hatred of all things dasyatis americana boiling just beneath the surface, only to irrupt in a fury of hard hit gappers and titanic shots to deep, deep left field.
Just give it up, Andy Sonnenstine. The BenFranciso Treat is here to demolish your bathroom, take your ladies and generally destroy all semblance of life as you know it.
Other pitchers and teams, however, have little to fear.
by woodsmeister on Jun 18, 2009 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions
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