Dumb Luck

Rich over at Craven Cottage Newsround pointed out an article posted on Paul DePodesta's blog. He describes possible outcomes of management decisions using this matrix:

Does anything scream "Bad Process" more than Ned's decision to use (and stay with) Julian Tavarez in Saturday night's loss to the Twins? Let's follow the Twins half of the 11th inning:

- J. Tavarez relieved S. Torres
- D. Young struck out swinging
- B. Buscher singled to left
- B. Harris singled to center, B. Buscher to third
- M. Macri hit for M. Guerrier
- M. Macri walked, B. Harris to second
- C. Gomez struck out swinging
- A. Casilla grounded out to shortstop

0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors

Fool me once, shame on me. Bases loaded w/ one out is usually not a good situation, at least if you're a pitcher. Tavarez was lucky to get out of this mess. Bad Process, but it turned out ok equals dumb luck, says our Moneyball hero. After the Brewers fail to score in the bottom of the 11th, Ned fails to realize that he lucked out, and sends the ineffective Tavarez out for another go. The results are predictable:

- J. Mauer singled to second
- J. Morneau walked, J. Mauer to second
- J. Kubel walked, J. Mauer to third, J. Morneau to second
- D. Young grounded into fielder's choice, J. Mauer out at home, J. Morneau to third, J. Kubel to second
- B. Buscher singled to center, J. Morneau and J. Kubel scored, D. Young to second
- M. DiFelice relieved J. Tavarez
- B. Harris flied out to deep right center, D. Young to third
- M. Cuddyer hit for B. Bass
- M. Cuddyer tripled to deep center, B. Buscher and D. Young scored, M. Cuddyer scored on center fielder M. Cameron's throwing error
- C. Gomez flied out to deep left center

5 runs, 3 hits, 1 errors

Fool me...you can't get fooled again! The Twins scored 3 more runs on Cuddyer's little league home run after Tavarez was removed, but the damage was already done.

Yosted once again.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.