Double Steal w/Prince Fielder at the plate...

[ESPNOwen]

...last night. Cameron gets thrown out at third, and now there's two outs - right move or wrong move?

[TooLiveBrew]

Awful, awful, awful call for the steal. Horrible timing.

[ESPNOwen]

My co-host says he likes Yost being agressive considering the team has been scuffling. I say he's giving away an out and taking the bat out of Prince's hands. Plus, I wonder if it undermines Prince...

AND - the next batter up, Corey Hart, has hit .375 for his career against Maholm.

NOTE: Prince is 0-10 in his career vs Maholm.

[Brian the Automator]

I'm of the Earl Weaver school of thought which says you should only steal bases if you need to score ONE run, or you have Rickey Henderson.

[joepepsi]

Earl Weaver: "If you play for one run, that's all you'll get."

[splitterpfj]

Hey Owen, thanks for reading Brian and JoePepsi's posts on the air.......it's Brewerfan.net, not BrewerSfan.net.

[ESPNOwen]

Whoops: The forum is called "http://brewersfandemonium.yuku.com" so that's where I got the "s" on the end of Brewer...

[jhart05]

Considering Prince has warning track power lately and he was facing a LHP, I didn't mind it. (Yes, I know he hit one in Boston.)

 

Sac Fly scores one, a single scores two, and you also avoid the DP, of which he's had a few of those lately.

 

If Prince was hitting like Braun right now, then no, don't steal. But he's not hitting like Braun right now, is he?

 

Besides Cameron was safe anyway.

[twobrewers]

The dirty secret no one is really talking about is that Prince has been pretty bad this year.

 

Apparently Yost realizes the same thing - or else he wouldn't have called for the double steal.

 

Well, unless Yost is just an idiot.

[jhart05]

Cool. Someone else who agrees with me.

[Glennron]

Whether or not Prince is slumping, it's a bad call. It's not like some chump was on deck either, it was Corey Hart.

[TooLiveBrew]

The dirty secret no one is really talking about is that Prince has been pretty bad this year.

 

.259/.363/.437/.800 -- and that's a slow start. Not sure how you can call that 'pretty bad', unless you mean 'by his standards'

[ESPNOwen]

6hr - 24rbi...that stinks out loud

[TooLiveBrew]

RBI... not a stat over which a player has much control. 6 HR when you're not hitting well? That's a great total so far.

[ESPNOwen]

RBI... not a stat over which a player has much control. 6 HR when you're not hitting well? That's a great total so far.

 

So, we agree that he isn't hitting well.

[twobrewers]

259/.363/.437/.800

He bats 4th in the line up.

 

He has a productive hitter in front of him and behind him. (The only person on the Brewers who can say that)

 

He had an OPS of over 1.000 last year.

 

The only thing keeping his numbers respectable is his walks. And frankly, we need him to drive in runs - not get on base for Hall and Hardy. His slugging percentage is horrible thus far.

[TooLiveBrew]

So 'by his standards', then? The fact that Prince Fielder slumps at an .800 OPS level should be encouraging. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

His July 2007 line was basically the same as his line to this point. It's just that, at that point in the season, your 'slump' is hidden by not being the first month + of the season, and looks better on the scoreboard. I agree that he hasn't been near his 2007 level, but I personally didn't expect him to necessarily be that good again. It's early enough in the season that once he goes on a HR binge like Braun has lately, the SLG will spike quite a bit.

[ESPNOwen]

So 'by his standards', then? The fact that Prince Fielder slumps at an .800 OPS level should be encouraging. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

I've finally figured out who you really are. I call you out NED YOST!

[bullox]

Them's fightin words round these parts.

[Brian the Automator]

He bats 4th in the line up.

 

He has a productive hitter in front of him and behind him. (The only person on the Brewers who can say that)

 

He had an OPS of over 1.000 last year.

 

The only thing keeping his numbers respectable is his walks. And frankly, we need him to drive in runs - not get on base for Hall and Hardy. His slugging percentage is horrible thus far.

He's got an OPS of 1.035 over the past 7 days.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

So, we agree that he isn't hitting well.

I agree that, by his standards, Prince hasn't gotten started yet. As Brian points out, part of the problem in 'declaring' things about a player based on any sample of < 200 PA, is that the rate stats can change in a hurry.

In the meantime, we've just had to suffer along with an (OBP-heavy) .800 OPS & 25 BB over 158 ABs. I know we all hope for & expect more from Fielder, but to treat this portion of the season like it's any different & more descriptive/predictive from any other random sampling of ~ 200 PA is a mistake imo.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I thought it was a questionable call, but I'm going to give the coaches the benefit of the doubt on it. Being more aggressive is a conscious philosophical change by the Brewers. It didn't work there, but it did work when Sveum sent Hall later in the game. A good throw would have had him easily, but McLouth couldn't do it and Hall scored. Otherwise it would have been a 100 post thread about "the windmill".

 

They are going to be aggressive and at times will look bad because of it...the double steal was one of those times. If we aggregate all of the aggressive calls, my guess is its had an overall benefit.

[dadofandrew]

Very, very few double steals are called for from the bench. I assume Cameron went on his own, and Braun followed.

[endaround]

You know what you do when you assume? They left at the same time. It was called.

[crewcrazy]

Prince's 24 RBI isn't that bad considering he hasn't had a ton of RBI opportunities so far this year. When he has had runners on or runners in scoring position, he's been much better this year:

 

Bases Empty - .228/.290/.391 (.681 OPS), 3 HR, 3 RBI, 20 K, 7 BB

Runners On - .303/.441/.500 (.941 OPS), 3 HR, 21 RBI, 8 K, 18 BB

RISP - .289/.421/.526 (.947 OPS), 2 HR, 19 RBI, 7 K, 10 BB

 

Once the top of the order starts getting on base, Prince's numbers will start to look better. It's not like Prince has been grounding out with tappers to second base every time up, either...even though he went 0-5 last night in Pittsburgh, most of the balls he hit were scorchers. He likely won't match last year's HR total (and I don't think it's fair to expect him to hit 50 every year -- it takes an outstanding year to hit 50), but there's still plenty of time for him to get his production up to his standards.