Hall Running Out of Time

[PeaveyFury]

Now I'm no prophet but even I called for Bill Hall to be traded after his stand out season as it was an outlier at age 26.

 

Hall actually had back-to-back stand out seasons in both 2005 and 2006, so there wasn't really an outlier.

[BrewCrewForever]

Yeah I actually thought his 2005 season might have been more impressive then his 2006 season. And all be it little, Hall had improved every season since getting called up in 2002.

[jeffy]

jeffyscott wrote:

I had gotten the impression that his doing this with Hall was more about trying to give Hall some confidence by playing him when the opposing pitcher was someone he had had some sucess against in the past. But maybe I was just hoping that this was his thinking.

His reasoning doesn't matter. Pitcher vs hitter matchups are an extremely small sample with almost no predictive ability...

Yes, all that statistical analysis certainly has it's place. But Bill Hall, like other baseball players, is also a human being, sometimes human beings are actually affected by their own emotions, feelings, etc. If Bill Hall had lost confidence in his ability to hit RH pitching, that belief, itself, could adversely affect his performance against RH pitching. On the other hand, if he believed that he could hit well against certain RH pitchers, that confidence could, potentially, have helped his performance.

 

This was the impression I had gotten from some of Macha's comments...that he was trying to put Hall in situations where he (Hall) might have more confidence in himself.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

On the other hand, if he believed that he could hit well against certain RH pitchers, that confidence could, potentially, have helped his performance.

 

This was the impression I had gotten from some of Macha's comments...that he was trying to put Hall in situations where he (Hall) might have more confidence in himself.

You know -- if I could be certain that Macha's motivation for starting Hall when he has good numbers vs. a pitcher was entirely as you describe (namely, that Hall might think he's likely to succeed even though Macha knows full well he isn't any more or less likely to succeed against those guys than against RHP he's hit .000 against) -- I'd actually have zero problem with it.

 

If you've decided you have to give him a few more chances against RHP (because of his contract, preservation of team morale, loyalty, whatever...) and want to spread them out, assigning the starts based on vs. pitcher x splits is no dumber than just doing it randomly. Since Hall probably has some recollection of whether he's hit a pitcher or not, you might even be scoring some brownie points with him by "putting him in a position to succeed".

 

Unfortunately, the rationale for Hall's insertion in the lineup is relayed to us through Haudricourt. He either fully believes in the relevance of these numbers, or believes it's his job to believe in them, since we, the dumb fans, believe in them. Thus, we have no way of knowing whether Macha actually thinks they have predictive value or not. And we never will, since the next time this issue comes up, it will still be Haudricourt telling us why player x is bewilderingly in the lineup today.

[logan82]

If you've decided you have to give him a few more chances against RHP (because of his contract, preservation of team morale, loyalty, whatever...) and want to spread them out, assigning the starts based on vs. pitcher x splits is no dumber than just doing it randomly. Since Hall probably has some recollection of whether he's hit a pitcher or not, you might even be scoring some brownie points with him by "putting him in a position to succeed".

 

I guess I agree that it doesn't matter how he does it if he is going to do it. I will say however that I would prefer Macha give Hall a chance to succeed in place of Counsell instead of Gamel. Over that I would prefer Hall never start against RHP.

[PrinceEatMeat]

If you've decided you have to give him a few more chances against RHP (because of his contract, preservation of team morale, loyalty, whatever...) and want to spread them out, assigning the starts based on vs. pitcher x splits is no dumber than just doing it randomly. Since Hall probably has some recollection of whether he's hit a pitcher or not, you might even be scoring some brownie points with him by "putting him in a position to succeed".

 

I guess I agree that it doesn't matter how he does it if he is going to do it. I will say however that I would prefer Macha give Hall a chance to succeed in place of Counsell instead of Gamel. Over that I would prefer Hall never start against RHP.

I agree that he should be seeing time at 2b if they want to give him a chance, just because I think Counsell will burn out at some point if he keeps playing this much. I highly doubt we'll see him against RHP much more this season. I think Gamel will likely cement himself in as the starting 3b against RHP for the rest of the season. Although, I think he should get some looks against LHP. He has said before that he feels more comfortable at the plate against LHP, because he doesn't allow himself to open up as much. I think that's why he is successful against LHP. But Macha will do what he wants I guess. I guess he doesn't want a rookie lefty in there against LHP.