Does Small Ball Make Sense When Your Team Can't Get Hits?

/joker’d

Seriously though, where can you find stuff like team ranking in productive outs and taking extra bases on hits?

For instance, is Scioscia using the technique moreso later in games or in close games? Have the Angels played in more ‘close’ games than the Reds?

I think it all depends on when the tactic is implemented.

What I mean by this, is that I highly doubt that if the Angels’ leadoff hitter opened the game with a double, that Scioscia would then have his two-hole batter BUNT THAT GUY TO THIRD!

Yes, the Reds are making ‘productive outs’ but many of them come at idiotic or innapropriate times.

The fact that Cincinnati leads the majors in sacrifice bunts tells me that the Reds are bunting too often, or in scenarios that don’t necessarily warrant a sac attempt.

The Angels are scoring lots of runs despite only hitting 20 more HR than the Reds mainly because they do an excellent job of getting on base.

I also bet, that when they get runners on base (especially with no outs), they don’t try to bunt that often.

The home ball parks might have something to do with this as well. The Angels play on a rather large field with lots of room in the gaps. I would think their line drive rate is probably better than the Reds’ as well.

I guess what I’m saying is, small ball is good if you use it at the right times. Just doing it for the sake of fucking doing it is stupid. And it seems (I have no statistical data to back me up here) that the Reds do it at the wrong times and way too often.

When you have 2 guys with OBP below .300 settin the table, there is no one to drive in.

makes me biased against an informed opinion. But, I do believe that a team that rarely gets on base cannot afford to constantly give away outs and frequently play for only one run.

you’ve been WATCHING Willy’s long-ball game.

mebbe if he ’roided up he could blast it past second base.

but here’s a pic of Joe Everycubsfan, the guy who dumped his beer on Shane Victorino. word is that Mayor Daly is going to give him a medal of honor for exhibiting such civic spirit. they are planning a parade for him and everything. Cubs fans love this kind of stuff.

(Red are)‘last in the league in hits and base runners, and second to last in doubles, batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. The team is second to last in the Majors in runs scored per game at 3.96 despite (or because?) of the fact they are first in the majors in sacrifice bunt attempts and successes.also 5th in the Majors in productive out rate, a category led by the highest scoring team in the majors," (Slyde’s comments)

Although they try really hard, small ball will only be successful when a team has runners in scoring position with only one out. The first batter in an inning has to get on through a walk or a single, be moved over by a productive out or a steal and then somebody has to actually get a hit to drive the run in. (unless the original batter has doubled and been moved to third, or has gotten to 3B with only one out. Of course you can play small ball with two runners on and no outs if the situation calls for it.

I really don’t blame Dusty for trying to utilise small ball, its just that when you don’t have the best OBP guys in (especially) the top of the lineup, then you are set up to fail.

No no no no no.

I don’t care how bad the team is. Given the run environment, giving away outs is a bad, bad way to play baseball. They’re 10-46 when scoring 3 or fewer runs, and 21-50 when scoring 4 or fewer.

And you only have to do the math to see the real story – the Reds are 28-14 when scoring 5+ runs; hell, they’re 39-18 when scoring 4+. Why in the world would they play to only score 2 or 3?

While looking some things up, Dusty’s first year in LA was ’76. The BRM was quite the outlier that year.

No, the Reds don’t have Dunn, Pujols or any other guy cabable of driving in over 100 runs on an annual basis. I don’t think Jay Bruce would even make much difference. The Reds have never had a guy outside of 1st base that ever really gets on very much. We seem to be, over the years, content on taking guys who hit .250 and trying to make them .300 hitters. I’ve never understood that. Taveras, Dickerson, Hairston, etc…are not the answer. The reason the Angels do well is because they have a guy like Figgins at the top of the order. He’s a free agent after this season. If I were a GM, ahem, Walt Jocketty, I’d go after Figgins with everything I got. Put him in left field and be done with it. We still need a center field that bats right handed, but that’s up to the Reds. They can actually hit homeruns quite well with Phillips, Votto, Bruce and Rolen. If you can find one more right handed bat, and no Gomes is not the answer despite hitting 3 hr last night. We need our own Matt Holliday or something similar.