Man on 2nd with no outs

[Greg Hibbard]

Is Ozzie's plan of attack automatically to always sit back and hope for a home run, no matter who is up? This situation has come up so many times recently and it baffles me why we aren't doing some fundamental things.

 

Last night, I think it was 6th inning - JD up with 1st and 2nd nobody out - and then GIDPs. There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

 

[TCQ]

Is Ozzie's plan of attack automatically to always sit back and hope for a home run, no matter who is up? This situation has come up so many times recently and it baffles me why we aren't doing some fundamental things.

 

Last night, I think it was 6th inning - JD up with 1st and 2nd nobody out - and then GIDPs. There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

 

Jermaine Dye is arguably the best hitter on our team right now, what do you want them to do with him bunt? The only thing that i partially argee with is certain strategy. I think that if we would hit to the opposite field or just hit grounders to the right side with guys on second or third with less than two outs wed knock in a bunch more runners.

[Lemon_44]

there aren't too many managers that are going to take the bat out of the hands of their 3,4,and 5 hitters.So he happened to hit into a DP,that happens. You didn't want a bunt in that situation di you? If they do bunt,which would rarely even be considered, they just walk Thome to load the bases and set up another potential DP or force out.

[southsider2k5]

Is Ozzie's plan of attack automatically to always sit back and hope for a home run, no matter who is up? This situation has come up so many times recently and it baffles me why we aren't doing some fundamental things.

 

Last night, I think it was 6th inning - JD up with 1st and 2nd nobody out - and then GIDPs. There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

 

Thinking back to that AB, JD didn't really have much of a chance to move that runner over. Lee did an excellent job keeping the ball in on his hands to not let him roll over to the right side.

[Greg Hibbard]

I knew the response was going to be something like this.

 

Look, the bottom line is with the existing M.O. our batting average with RISP sucks, so it might stand to reason that we might need to do something differently?

 

Grounding out to third is about the worst thing you can do in that situation.

 

Your primary objective with a man on 2nd no outs has to be to get that man to third with 1 out, regardless of who's up.

[Greg Hibbard]

there aren't too many managers that are going to take the bat out of the hands of their 3,4,and 5 hitters.So he happened to hit into a DP,that happens. You didn't want a bunt in that situation di you? If they do bunt,which would rarely even be considered, they just walk Thome to load the bases and set up another potential DP or force out.

 

 

As long as we have a man at third with less than 2 outs, if we ground into a DP at that point I can live with that I would think you're going to hit a fly ball enough times to score that run to justify giving up the out earlier.

[BFirebird]

Is Ozzie's plan of attack automatically to always sit back and hope for a home run, no matter who is up? This situation has come up so many times recently and it baffles me why we aren't doing some fundamental things.

 

Last night, I think it was 6th inning - JD up with 1st and 2nd nobody out - and then GIDPs. There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

 

It is when there are 2 outs that we struggle. We are only hitting .207 and ranked 27th.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

Another reason why the Twins will probably eventually fall off:

 

They are currently hitting .280 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs and hitting .313 overall with runners in scoring position. With the small margin of difference between RA and RS (lots of close games), I would assume they will start to lose a lot more games once they get fewer hits with RISP.

[southsider2k5]

The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

 

It is when there are 2 outs that we struggle. We are only hitting .207 and ranked 27th.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

Another reason why the Twins will probably eventually fall off:

 

They are currently hitting .280 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs and hitting .313 overall with runners in scoring position. With the small margin of difference between RA and RS (lots of close games), I would assume they will start to lose a lot more games once they get fewer hits with RISP.

 

I have no doubts the Twins can continue their RISP numbers. They really work hard on contact, versus killing the ball. It is much easier to put a ball in play when you work with the pitch instead of trying to hit it 500 feet.

 

[Greg Hibbard]

The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

 

It is when there are 2 outs that we struggle. We are only hitting .207 and ranked 27th.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

Another reason why the Twins will probably eventually fall off:

 

They are currently hitting .280 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs and hitting .313 overall with runners in scoring position. With the small margin of difference between RA and RS (lots of close games), I would assume they will start to lose a lot more games once they get fewer hits with RISP.

 

Interesting - I thought we were way worse. My bad. It seems like every time we have a man on second with nobody out recently we struggle to score him.

[letsgoarow]

i thought we won 6 in a row...hmm

[NorthSideSox72]

There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

 

Look, the bottom line is with the existing M.O. our batting average with RISP sucks

 

 

The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

[Chisoxfn]

there aren't too many managers that are going to take the bat out of the hands of their 3,4,and 5 hitters.So he happened to hit into a DP,that happens. You didn't want a bunt in that situation di you? If they do bunt,which would rarely even be considered, they just walk Thome to load the bases and set up another potential DP or force out.

If it was the 9th inning or even 8th inning I wouldn't have even given a damn if the Sox pinch hit Dye and put in Pablo to drop a bunt. But in the 6th inning I see no issue (and 99.9% of the time this is the case, regardless of the inning) with sticking with your big bopper. Afterall, these guys are paid to knock in runs and they do a damn good job of it. I do agree Dye should be going the other way, but Cliff Lee completely PWNED him that at bat (and you got to tip your cap to Lee for that).

[RME JICO]

The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

 

 

 

It is when there are 2 outs that we struggle. We are only hitting .207 and ranked 27th.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg

That is really surprising since we are 3rd in batting "Close and Late" which is probably the best indicator of timely hitting (.271).

 

It is really odd to see that we've had the least chances with 2-outs and RISP. Minnesota also had that easy streak vs AA pitching from the NL to pad their numbers.

 

 

Also, 10 of our last 12 runs have come with 2 outs, and 15 of our last 23. So I would say that we are doing a much better job with 2 outs and RISP than we were earlier in the year.

[Chisoxfn]

The club is hitting terribly with 2 outs and runners on, but aside from that, this offense has really been rock solid. Heck, can we hope this offense performs like the 06 offense did during the first half of the season (which was one of the best offenses I've seen on the Southside ever and that says something because the early 2000's had some pretty amazing offenses).

[TCQ]

That is really surprising since we are 3rd in batting "Close and Late" which is probably the best indicator of timely hitting (.271).

 

It is really odd to see that we've had the least chances with 2-outs and RISP. Minnesota also had that easy streak vs AA pitching from the NL to pad their numbers.

 

 

Also, 10 of our last 12 runs have come with 2 outs, and 15 of our last 23. So I would say that we are doing a much better job with 2 outs and RISP than we were earlier in the year.

 

Well researched sir, bonus point for you and good day.

[RME JICO]

Well researched sir, bonus point for you and good day.

..and a good day to you.

 

 

Pittsburgh leads the league in batting with 2-outs and RISP, and Baltimore is 3rd. The Sox are 27th, the Cubs are 23rd, and Boston is 21st. That stat in itself doesn't tell you much.

 

The Sox are 2nd in PH BA, 6th with Runners On, 3rd with RISP, 6th with Bases Loaded, 5th after the 6th inning, and 3rd Close and Late. The only one we are bad in is 2-outs with RISP, and that is probably because we just hit a HR and the next guy doubled.

[iamshack]

Part of the fact that we don't bunt much in that situation is a function of our team, and not of our strategy. It's worse strategy to ask Paulie, Jimmy, or Jermaine to bunt than to just let them do what they are capable of actually doing.

 

Like Hawk says, you find out what your guys can't do, and don't ask them to do it.

[WCSox]

Part of the fact that we don't bunt much in that situation is a function of our team, and not of our strategy. It's worse strategy to ask Paulie, Jimmy, or Jermaine to bunt than to just let them do what they are capable of actually doing.

 

Like Hawk says, you find out what your guys can't do, and don't ask them to do it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't see enough of Jimmy trying to hit the ball the other way with RISP. While I don't expect him to bunt, I don't like Chris Rongey's retarded excuse of, "They pay him to hit home runs."

Edited July 2, 2008 by WCSox

[TCQ]

Thome would be batting 500 right now if he could ground weakly to third base. At least 500 maybe 591, but well never know.

[ptatc]

Is Ozzie's plan of attack automatically to always sit back and hope for a home run, no matter who is up? This situation has come up so many times recently and it baffles me why we aren't doing some fundamental things.

 

Last night, I think it was 6th inning - JD up with 1st and 2nd nobody out - and then GIDPs. There has to be a better plan of attack for this situation with our atrocious RISP batting average.

 

I think Ozzie is the Venezuelan Earl Weaver. Hopefully we can win as much as they did in their prime.

[YASNY]

I think Ozzie is the Venezuelan Earl Weaver. Hopefully we can win as much as they did in their prime.

 

Earl Weaver was a pretty damn good manager. 'Nuff said.