Comments on: Cardinals 5, RAYS 4: Maddon Loss #1

By: Hazleton Jason

Hazleton Jason — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:54:05 +0000

These last 2 days were just annoying, that the kind of erratic play you get with a young team and relying and on Gary Glover and his 1.8 WHIP to get the job done… Need to get back to pithing well, because Oakland certainly can pitch.. Hopefully we can get a series win in Oak town and get back to doing what we do…

I hope Balfour gets his shot soon…

By: Scott Caruso

Scott Caruso — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:04:56 +0000

For the record, I was saying in the chat room even before Howell gave up the runs that it was the wrong move. PA can vouch for me!

You know me, I’m straight up – if the move had worked out and I was wrong, I would own up to it. But, for one brief fleeting moment, I felt smarter than the manager. :)

By: CharlieRay

CharlieRay — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:47:17 +0000

I’m back from Greece with 20 hrs of flying to watch the first game in 12 days and over joyed with the way Maddon was able to handle the Club without me. So I won’t get on his case. The only real thing I see him doing wrong before I left and is still doing wrong now you touched on. “MILLER is a LEFTY Specialist” and should only be used that way. We waited for years for a good lefty in the bullpen to go to now lets use him that way. I think if Howell holds them and Wheeler doesn’t give up a HR Maddon looks like a genius and we have nothing to say.

By: bobr

bobr — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:58:20 +0000

A manager does not make decisions purely on what a pitcher has done in the past, but also on what he and the pitching coach see happening on the mound. I have no idea if they observed that Jackson’s mechanics were off or that he was struggling in such a way that they could not fix at the moment, but I would not be so quick to call the move a mistake. One of many reasons that I think second guessing managers is usually (not always) a futile exercise is that it is nearly always based on very partial information.

The Rays will have an interesting decision to make soon. I noticed that Aybar started at 2B for Vero Beach yesterday, so he is apparently nearly ready to return. He went 0-3 with a walk, by the way. Given the current roster, I do not see a spot for him unless Zobrist is sent down and Aybar becomes the backup shortstop as well as an infield reserve elsewhere. Or, of course, unless there is a trade.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:21:49 +0000

I’m not scared, it was tough to watch these close games to be lost, but I’m still confident in my team. We can play better, hit better, pitch better. We were off this series, let’s turn it back on.