Let me get this out of the way, first: I do not pretend that baseball is an easy sport to play. It takes an insane amount of coordination and skill to be able to hit a 90-100 mph pitch that moves both vertically and horizontally, moving towards you from only 60 feet, 6 inches away. The best contact hitters in MLB history only successfully got hits 30-35% of the time they recorded at-bats. It is extraordinarily difficult to consistently get on base, especially when there is an opponent whose entire job while you are batting is to prevent this exact goal.
Now, what I do NOT understand, with the exception of pitchers and catchers—whose bodies need time to heal, as they put their limbs through a lot of physical stress—is why baseball players need so many off-days. Is it really THAT grueling to field seven or eight balls at shortstop over the course of two-to-three hours and sling them over to first base? How many times does a center-fielder have to enter a full-on sprint to track down a ball hit towards the left-center gap, causing him to expend an obscene amount of energy?
While I cannot say for sure that the average ball player does not need days off, seeing as I never played competitive baseball, it seems ridiculous to me that professional athletes cannot play a game that does not appear particularly physically demanding more frequently, but they do not. Thus, we have the proverbial “day game lineups”, where many managers across Major League Baseball trot out the absolute dregs of their roster to try and win games. Ironically, day games are usually the last game of a series, and often decide the winner of said series, so some lineup decisions almost appear as though the manager is waving the white flag.
Take yesterday’s Pirates game against the Rays, for instance. The Buccos lost 10-3 on Friday before winning 4-3 on Saturday, setting up a rubber match on Sunday, with rookie phenom Paul Skenes taking the mound against Tampa Bay’s Aaron Civale. The Pirates’ lineup was as follows (OPS values are from after the game):
- Ke’Bryan Hayes, .606 OPS
- Bryan Reynolds, .809 OPS
- O’Neil Cruz, .716 OPS
- Rowdy Tellez, .593 OPS
- Edward Olivares, .645 OPS
- Jared Triolo, .563 OPS
- Jack Suwinski, .561 OPS
- Yasmani Grandal, .509 OPS
- Michael A. Taylor, .494 OPS
That is right. In a game to decide the series, Derek Shelton fielded a lineup with TWO (2) hitters with OPS values above .650 and FIVE below .600. Look at the bottom of that lineup. This is completely inexcusable. Every game matters. It is not as though the team is filled with offensive juggernauts—the team is collectively ranked 28th in OPS—but he left on the bench Connor Joe (.711), Andrew McCutchen (.742), and Nick Gonzales (.761 OPS). Those are three of your five best hitters. Why does Cutch need a day off when he is the designated hitter? Why does Nick Gonzales need a rest day at 25 years old? Mustering 3 hits and 1 run against Civale, who LEFT the game with a 5.20 ERA, is absolutely shameful.
This is not the first time that Shelton has fielded a God-awful lineup in a rubber match. How about June 13th against the division rival Cardinals, where he trotted out the EXACT SAME LINEUP, just in a different order (Tellez and Olivares’s lineup slots were flipped), en route to a 4-3 loss.
I am not saying that the Pirates would have won those games—the Pirates are never a lock to win ANY game. However, it is the team’s obligation to at least put a lineup out there that can compete, barring injuries. Shelton should be ashamed of himself for throwing that shit out there multiple times in games to decide series. How clueless can you be? How IDIOTIC can you be? Nice job wasting a good pitching performance yesterday—I look forward to the next day game on Wednesday when we have two guys with Major League-level OPS values in the starting lineup again, moron.