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| Thursday, October 11 Where was Shane Spencer? By Rob Neyer ESPN.com |
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Early in Wednesday night's game between the Yankees and Athletics, broadcaster Joe Buck wondered about the presence in the lineup of Chuck Knoblauch, Paul O'Neill, and David Justice. Buck referred to Knoblauch's "lost season," and O'Neill and Justice both bat left-handed and have recently suffered from injuries. See, A's starter Mark Mulder throws the baseball with his left hand, and he's pretty darn tough on left-handed hitters; this year he's limited them to a .281 on-base percentage and a .338 slugging percentage. And here's how the aforementioned three Yankees fared this year against lefties (few of them as tough as Mulder): vs. LHP AB OBP Slug O'Neill 127 .338 .394 Justice 112 .274 .420 Knoblauch 99 .362 .414 Joe Buck is right; this has been a lost season for Knoblauch, a left fielder who sports an overall OPS below 700. But he does get on base at a decent rate against lefties, and anyway somebody has to lead off, right? But in left field? Knoblauch's a lousy left fielder; doesn't track batted balls with any sort of precision and can't throw. So if he's going to play he should be the DH, with O'Neill held in reserve for pinch-hitting duties, since he apparently can't run well enough to play right field. And in left field? I never played the game, but can anyone tell me why Shane Spencer wasn't in the lineup last night? This season Spencer slugged .563 against left-handed pitchers. OK, so that's only 64 at-bats. You want a bigger sample? From 1998 through 2000, Spencer slugged .616 against lefties in 203 at-bats. This guy was born to start against left-handed pitchers, and you're going to write Justiceon your lineup card? Here's the best Yankee lineup against A's left-handers Mulder and Barry Zito, given the 25-man roster as currently composed: DH Knoblauch SS Jeter CF Williams LF Spencer C Posada 3B Brosius 1B Martinez RF Justice 2B Soriano So my cleanup hitter is on Joe Torre's bench. Loyalty and experience are great, but sometimes you're better off with your best players in the lineup. Other games yesterday ...
Bottom of the fifth, Astros have runners on first and third with one out. With the pitcher due next, Chris Truby popped out of the dugout to pinch hit. Showing great restraint, he took three balls. Well, four. Except that the fourth ball, a fastball three or four inches off the plate, was called a strike by plate umpire Chuck Meriwether. You see that call every day, because umpires seem to expand their strike zone a bit when the count is three balls and no strikes. But this time it really cost the Astros. Because after watching what should have been ball four, Truby swung at, and missed, two more pitches that also should have been ball four. So he struck out. And then Craig Biggio, whose postseason woes remain woeful (.120 in 50 at-bats), hit the ball hard but right at the second baseman, and once again the Astros were stymied. And they're done, folks. Roy Oswalt's a great little pitcher, but even if healthy he's not good enough to win three games.
Rob can be reached at rob.neyer@dig.com, and to order his new book, "Feeding the Green Monster", click here. |
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