Platooning, Riggle-style
Bloomquist/Reed, centerfield.
Bloomquist plays against lefties, Reed against righties.
Bloomquist career against lefties: .272/.332/.362
Reed career against lefties: .169/.247/.228
Now, in terms of where they are and how they’re hitting this year, if you played Reed all the time you’d probably be just as well off — Reed’s better than where he was back in 04/05, and while I don’t have access to his minor league splits off the top of my head, it seems unlikely that he’s quite that helpless against lefties that his hitting would be reduced to Bloomquist levels. Still, this is defensible at least.
Anyway, so there’s data point one.
What really makes no sense though is Vidro. Historically, Vidro hits the same from both sides (seriously, the lines are within points of each other) — about a 800 OPS.
This year, he’s hitting almost equally badly from both sides — .215/.269/.312 vs RHP, .226/.250/.340 vs LHP (small sample size here, obviously) — and both Jose and Pepe are equally done. He is among the worst hitters in baseball against both left and right-handed hitting. Being a switch hitter just means he sucks from both sides of the plate.
Nearly everyone else playing baseball is better at hitting left or right handed pitching compared to Vidro. Clement qualifies as “nearly everyone else”. He’s a hugely talented hitter and even if you believe that he’s not as good against left-handed pitchers he cannot possibly be worse than Vidro in any situation at this point. Ever. Vidro’s done, he’s toast. Clement has a pulse. There is no situation you’d ever want Vidro over Clement, because in every situation of the other four hundred something hitters currently on major league rosters at least four hundred of them will be better than Vidro, and many of the three-hundred-some pitchers will too.
So beyond why you’d run a pseudo-platoon at DH with those two, it entirely baffles me why Riggleman would pinch-hit for Clement against lefties with Vidro.
I think you mean “Vidro” where you said “Cairo.”
Great post!!!
In your penultimate sentence, I think you meant “Vidro” when you typed “Cairo”.
But you’re right.
And you could probably replace “Vidro” with “Cairo” throughout and still be speaking truthfully, though the numbers would be a little different.
Then there is the additional factor of base-running speed. I can’t imagine that Clement is slower on the bases than Turbo. Assuming Turbo got on in the eighth inning of tonight’s game, wouldn’t a rational manager have wanted to pinch run for him?
You don’t want Turbo at the plate and you don’t want him on the bases. I don’t want him on the team.
Bloomquistian?
Bloomquistesque?
[wrong thread]
Isn’t ot possible that they’re trying to get Vidro’s option to vest?
What is the reason for them having Vidro and Cairo on the team? Is there any defensible reason?
Simple explanation: Riggleman isn’t too bright.
Reed against lefties in the minors this year: .405/.450/.676 in 37 ABs. Not that that means anything, but there you go.
I bet you know this, but the answer is traditional managers believe young left-handed hitters can’t hit left handed pitching and sit them to take the pressure off and they must be platooned, REGARDLESS of other options. And Riggleman, and perhaps the M’s as a whole, don’t understand that Vidro is done. It baffles the mind that not only aren’t they releasing Vidro, but he’s hitting cleanup. What about Vidro’s career, 2007, and current batting line differentiates him from Sexson who the organization has rightly benched and dropped to the 6 or 7 spot in the order?
And the question that raises—how DO young left handed hitters learn to hit left handed pitching?
I think part of the reason is that you have to have a 25 man roster and no-one in Tacoma seems to be making a strong case for a call-up. On the 40 man roster you have down in Tacoma Balentien (I guess the team thinks he needs more time in AAA), Rob Johnson (no need for a fourth catcher), Yung Chi-Chen (currenlty with a .638 OPS in AAA) and Bryan LaHair (not a prospect according to Dave). If there was a 2004 Justin Leone or Bucky Jackobsen tearing up Tacoma, I suspect they’d be up by now. Or pretty soon in any event.
How much are Vidro and Cairo signed for? You know they will play them simply because they´ve spent so much money on them.
At first, I was dumbfounded by the team’s willingness to drop Sexson in the order and bench him when this was compared with their treatment of Vidro, who is currently an even worse hitter and defender than Sexson. But then I remembered how they treated Sexson last year.
Yeah, when you rely heavily on past performance to predict the future, it takes a long time to realize that someone is done.
It’s like Mr. Burns pinch hitting Homer for Strawberry. He’s playing the percentages!
I can’t explain it either. The organization just can’t seem to accept the Vidro is done, and that BLoomquist isn’t a everyday player.
And yet, at the same time, Riggleman clearly knows about Vidro’s groundball tendency. He knows enough to have Vidro bunt in certain situations, and he knows enough to start the runners to try to stay out of the almost certain doubleplay.
I am having a hard time reconciling the above knowledge and evidence with Riggleman platooning Clement with Vidro, and when Vidro starts a game, having him hit cleanup.
My brain just can’t connect and reconcile it.
Rigglemania