Light blogging lately
Busy with a lot of things, including my new CD.
And my day job, which mercifully prevented me from having to follow the 9-8 debacle yesterday. I'm sure that, if I had had to experience the elation of the 6-run first inning followed by the slow torture of the game slipping from our grasp, I would be as angry as everyone else on the net seems to be. But from my detached perspective, it looks to me like it was a fairly rare bullpen failure from a bullpen that has been decent overall, and a poor start from a starter who isn't likely to be pitching for us too much longer. On the other hand, Bay is becoming more Baylike, Castillo is coming around, and Bautista and Sanchez are making it increasingly difficult for Tracy to justify a return to the starting lineup for Randa when and if his foot heals.
The Duffy situation, about which I wrote the other day, is like watching a couple that you didn't like too much to begin with go through an acrimonious and highly public divorce, placing each individual's worst qualities on public display. Duffy's early success in 2005 was a kind of curse that set everything that has happened this year into motion. It fooled Duffy into thinking that his hitting approach was going to be adequate for the major leagues. Evidently, he still thinks this, and thinks that his problem is that he is "too coachable." I don't think this is his problem, and as long as he thinks it is, he has no future with the Pirates.
Duffy can be excused for believing that he could hit .341 in the major leagues after doing so for 12o at bats last year. Any of us would believe the same. But what in the world were the Pirates thinking asking this guy to change his entire approach to the game while batting leadoff for a team whose fans are justifiably impatient after 13 years of losing? Putting people into positions in which they are doomed to fail is right out of the bad management textbook.
And my day job, which mercifully prevented me from having to follow the 9-8 debacle yesterday. I'm sure that, if I had had to experience the elation of the 6-run first inning followed by the slow torture of the game slipping from our grasp, I would be as angry as everyone else on the net seems to be. But from my detached perspective, it looks to me like it was a fairly rare bullpen failure from a bullpen that has been decent overall, and a poor start from a starter who isn't likely to be pitching for us too much longer. On the other hand, Bay is becoming more Baylike, Castillo is coming around, and Bautista and Sanchez are making it increasingly difficult for Tracy to justify a return to the starting lineup for Randa when and if his foot heals.
The Duffy situation, about which I wrote the other day, is like watching a couple that you didn't like too much to begin with go through an acrimonious and highly public divorce, placing each individual's worst qualities on public display. Duffy's early success in 2005 was a kind of curse that set everything that has happened this year into motion. It fooled Duffy into thinking that his hitting approach was going to be adequate for the major leagues. Evidently, he still thinks this, and thinks that his problem is that he is "too coachable." I don't think this is his problem, and as long as he thinks it is, he has no future with the Pirates.
Duffy can be excused for believing that he could hit .341 in the major leagues after doing so for 12o at bats last year. Any of us would believe the same. But what in the world were the Pirates thinking asking this guy to change his entire approach to the game while batting leadoff for a team whose fans are justifiably impatient after 13 years of losing? Putting people into positions in which they are doomed to fail is right out of the bad management textbook.
posted by Billy at 12:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home