Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Does BB's heart actually beat?

In the top of the 6th inning in tonight's game versus the Angels, Emil Brown flew out to right field (surprise, surprise) with the bases loaded for the second out of the inning. Joey Gathright tagged up from third base, testing Vlad Guerrero's arm. The throw met Gathright at home at the plate, but wasn't caught by Molina. HOWEVER, the Angels appeal at third base, and numbnuts umpire Bob Davidson (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Davidson_(umpire) ) said Gathright left before Guerrero caught the ball, and was therefore out. Replays shown after the commercial break showed that Gathright was DEFINITELY still on the base when Guerrero caught the ball, and should have been safe.

Now, Buddy might have come out to argue during the commercial break, but there was no mention of this by the RSTN announcers when they returned for the bottom-half of the inning. So maybe he came out, maybe he didn't. I don't really know (but I doubt he came out). Nonetheless, in my opinion, he should have made a freaking scene and gotten thrown out of the damn game -- HEY BUDDY, MAKE A SCENE, GET THROWN OUT, SHOW YOUR TEAM YOU ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THEM. They were up 7-2 at this point, so getting thrown out would probably not have affected the outcome of the game in any negative way...errrr, wait a minute, I'm not sure it's possible that Buddy Bell's ceasing to manage during a game could do anything except help his team out. Hell, I'm pretty sure a neandertal could do a better job managing a baseball team than Buddy Bell.

In a rare moment, I am going to now speak positively (relatively) about something relating to Buddy Bell's managing of the Royals. His lineup tonight is one of the best I've seen for the Royals this season (with hitting stats through 7 innings):

Kansas City
D. DeJesus CF 1-2
E. German 2B 1-2
M. Teahen 1B 2-3
E. Brown RF 0-4
A. Gordon 3B 1-4
B. Butler DH 1-4
J. Buck C 1-2
T. Pena Jr. SS 1-3
J. Gathright LF 1-1

Although notice the only player without a hit: Emil Brown. While I did fail to mention, in my last post, that Brown had been on a "hot streak" for a short period of time before that post (where I ripped him), I think his recent 5 for 22 hitting "regression" (with one walk and one sacrifice fly) shows the real Emil Brown.

Whadda ya know, Joey Gathright just got another hit, as I typed that last paragraph. And one of the announcers just said "it has been three weeks since Gathright has stolen a base" -- and with that prompt, Gathright steals second.

And before I can get this post completed, Gathright just stole third and then came home on the wide throw.

HEY BUDDY, WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO CONSISTENTLY PLAY TO YOUR PLAYERS' STRENGTHS? Thanks.

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