Focus in on the wording there, I am genuinely asking for all opinions and thoughts. Can this team with its current philosophy make any sort of noise in October.? I used to think the problem was Rocco but I am at a point where idk if he even has a single say it the backward ass stuff we do. If it is all Falvey then I do question why we are paying millions for his services, but I digress.
Anyways, this is going to be a long tangent but I do genuinely want to know everyone elses thoughts. Can we win running this team the way we have all year??
Falvey was negligent at his job and didnt get us relieft help, committing malpractice.
It does not matter who the the lefty is, we are robotic and NO MATTER WHAT start a right handed lineup vs lefties. It is the most unispried and unintellectual game planning I have ever seen in sports. Like we dont even bother to look at the pitchers stats or batters stats or anything. Fresh out of the all star break we faced JP Sears for Oakland. At the time of that game he had a .289 average against lefties and .222 average vs righties. We started SEVEN righties and only two lefties(because we literally had no other options) simply because he throws left handed. What happened that game? Kirilloff and Kepler the lefties went 2/5 with a homer, the righties were 2/19 with a homer and both hits were Vazquez. They pulled Sears and then we brought in our TALENT and we wont the game against the As.
But here is the funny thing. It seems we only refuse to look at splits for our young talented left handers. The other day we stared JORDAN LUPLOW vs corbin burnes. Why? Because Burnes is worse against righties as a right hander. What that ignores however is the fact that Burnes is still very good vs righties and if Jordan Luplow faced right handers he would no joke fail to make the Curaco roster in the little league word series. Stop playing objectively bad players.
Before injury we kept batting Willi Castro FIFTH vs left handers. Please I challenge you without laughing, to look up Castros stats vs lefties and a right handed hitter.
This team aside from the bullpen that Falvey refused to add to is actually very talented and versatile. But we lose that versatility but conintually starting players we shouldnt. Example again being Castro. Hes been a god send. He can cover 6 positions and he steals bags. Hes the perfect 7th inning tie game pinch running weapon. We cant use that weapon when he starts a game and bats 6th as a weak hitting center fielder who is statiscally BAD at center field.
So last night, lefty in and that means immediately pull Julien. Why? Because hes left handed. God forbid our 24 year old on base machine and future of the organization ever gets a chance to develop reps vs a Lefty. Bring in Kyle Farmer a guy that everyone knows for 7 years is going to have a OPS of ,700 at best. Like we flat out know who he is. But heres the worse part, right before Julien hit we let Vazqeuez bat. We didnt pinch hit for a guy with a .600 OPS all year.
Better yet, that guy is our catch who catcher AT WORST every other game. Please look around the league, tell me one team that has refused to start their better catcher back to back games. You cant find one. This has been a thing for centuries. Jeffers isnt just our better hitting catcher, hes better at blocking pitches, throwing out runners, and our pitchers PITCH better with jeffers. This is insanity. Are we really going to start Christian Vazquez in a playoff game? This full season says he starts game 1 or 2. Its mental.
This offense got hot right out of the break because in Seattle it started batting Julien and Kirilloff in the middle of the order. Why? Because they are two of the best hitters on the team. Its that simple. Stop looking at how old guys are and what hand they swing the bat. Wallner had to put up historic AAA numbers to even get up here. Was he blocked by Ronald Acuna and Bryce Harper. LOL.
Here is the best thing. I again challenge you, look up Julien, Kirillof and Wallners numbers in AAA vs lefties. two of them absolutely eat them alive. But our philosphy up here is to stunt growth and have them sporadically face them. Are any of them hitting lefties up here? No. But do they get consistent reps? No. We refused to develop the actual talent.
Look at the good teams in the league. Are we the Braves or Dodgers? Of course not. But look at the good offenses. Do they platoon their talent?? Nope. Freddy Freeman bats second every single game no matter the pitcher. The braves play the same 9 guys every single game unless someones leg literally falls off their body. You dont win games by starting Kyle Farmer and JOrdan Luplow 3-4 times a week. Theres a reason we were able to pick them up and no one wanted them
I have about a million other things I can say about our backward ass logic every game but Ill stop now. Do you agree or disagree with how we run this roster day to day? Do you think this team can win in October with this philosophy? Do you think game 1 vs Framber Valdez we will trot out our usually lefty failure lineup and play objectively worse players simply cause they hit right handed? Will Vazquez start a game?
I genuinely want opinions on this. HOwever I will say that nothing can possibly sway my opinion because we have 130 games worth of proof that show I am right. This entire season we have won 4 games, lost 3, won 2, lost 4, won 3, lost 2, won 3, lost, won 2, lost 2. There is a very specific reason why we constantly hover at the exact same record with a really solid run differential. We kill our own momentum by refusing to play good lineups consistently.