lots of good things
28 August 2007A feel like a lot of good things are happening lately… the Giants are playing well, I’m quickly moving through my last semester of grad school, and Jayson Stark has asked for help a couple times in the last week, which gets my name into his articles… thats not so bad. His most recent article credits me again… It’s another “insider only” access, so I’ll post the portion I helped him with here.
USELESS PITCHING-BUFFET INFO
Speaking of creative managing, a bunch of loyal readers checked in last week to report that, in an Aug. 21 game against the Royals, the ever-energetic Ozzie Guillen did something we’d never heard of:In a span of five pitches, he used five different pitchers. Seriously.
Ehren Wasserman got a fly-ball out. Mike Myers gave up a single on the next pitch. Ryan Bukvich allowed a single on the next pitch. Matt Thornton got a double play on the next pitch. Bobby Jenks kicked off the next inning and threw the fifth pitch in that sequence.
One of our favorite loyal readers, Aneel Trivedi, reports that in the 20 years in which pitch counts have been part of the box-score small type, only one other team ever came within one of that five-pitcher, five-pitches super-quinella.
That was the Orioles, who used four pitchers to throw the last four pitches of a May 5 win over the Twins. Those four: Dave Schmidt, Mike Kinnunen, Mark Williamson and Ken Dixon, who earned (what else?) a one-pitch save. Talk about managing with your hair (or bullpen) on fire.
I’ll hopefully have time to get some Giants-related content on here shortly… I’m actually headed out to DC on Friday to catch them play the Nationals. At the very least, I’ll get some good pictures.