Conlin’s article is dead on…Charlie really threw convention to the wind yesterday. And we were all worried that he wasn’t taking the bullpen issues seriously enough. Talk about an overreaction. Using two potential game 3 starters in a losing effort? Letting Cliff Lee pinch run? How about letting Cole Hamels pitch in the first place? If Heidi was in the hospital and labor was imminent, maybe Charlie should have turned to someone else for game 2.

What did we just witness? It’s shocking. These are the kind of moves Fregosi should have been making in game 6 of the 1993 world series. Not in game two of the NLDS where we’re up a game. It smacks of panic. And listening to his postgame comments, it sounds like he’s just making these decisions on a whim. Whew.

Charlie better hope… no pray, that this works out. Otherwise, that truckload of goodwill he built up from last year is going to dissipate as quickly as a fart in the wind.

I think the reaction to Manual’s moves is actually pretty ridiculous. If Happ didnt get hurt, Blanton did poop on the field, and the Phillies had won it is possible that everyone would be gushing right now. As far as the game 3 start, both Blanton and Happ could go for Game 3. They didnt throw that many pitches, and there is a day off. For Game 4, Blanton and Happ will be more than fine. That is 2 days rest, if I calculate right after a small bull pen session. Some teams put there starting pitcher out after 3 days rest from a full 100 pitch or so game.

As far as Hamels goes, it is just as likely he would have to not go to CO (or miss his baby’s birth! haha) if he didnt pitch today. Labor being imminent can mean a long time, especially in terms of playoff baseball.

I think Manual’s decisions were fine (except maybe pinch running Lee, but that is pretty minor and Manual has his reasons).

How many times do managers make a bad choice, it works out, and then people say it was still a bad choice. Here Manual made at least neutral choices, they worked out as poorly as is probably concievable, and it is inconsistent to now say they are the worst choices ever made. They were semi neutral gambles, and they didnt work, but oh well.

Haha, also thank god for the Onion!

The stories of fan behavior are getting ridiculous.

I have a great story about Game Four of last years world series that I’m tempted to tell. It involves Evan Longoria’s mother and her love of her middle finger -and showing it to Phillies
fans. Philly fan bashing is old.

I’ve never before heard so much about labor issues in baseball without hearing the names of Marvin Miller or Donald Fehr. Regarding this somewhat different version of labor, consider the following:

1. Heidi Hamels was and has been very pregnant. She was not in labor prior to the game so far as I am aware. Labor comes when it comes. She (and he) should not be compelled to induce labor or make other major medical determinations based on the convenience of fans. That was offered tongue in cheek as a comment to this post, but it is obviously silly.

2. Nobody knew when the ball would drop, so to speak. This is not New Year’s Eve at Times Square. You also can’t put Hamels on the DL with “anxiety pending wife going into labor” for possibly a few weeks — life goes on.

3. Hamels should have started because: (a) Happ is a rookie, and (b) the Rockies have awful platoon splits versus lefties, and © Hamels was the remaining lefty starter option after Lee and after Happ is excluded (I am assuming Hamels’ experience and prior performance were worth considering, which is admittedly a big leap), and (d) Hamels has been inconsistently decent, albeit with fairly bad luck this year on BABIP.

4. Personal drama does not preclude good performances. To wit (and I’m going anecdotal here): (a) Pete Rose getting divorced during his 44 game hitting streak, (b) Brett Favre on MNF against the Raiders the night after his father died, © my wife going into labor between days 1 and 2 of my first felony criminal trial: I had about 2 hours of sleep and, while the case was lost at trial, I was able to cultivate enough issues to win the case on appeal. With the client bailed the whole time, he dodged a significant jail sentence on a burglary. In case you missed it, I got a Web Gem for it.

The point being that labor (or another similar significant personal event), in and of itself, is not necessarily a debilitating condition. People can perform at a high level under personally stressful events.

To simply assert that Hamels should have been held back because of a possible, but uncertainly-timed, incidence of labor is not really supported clearly by anything I’ve heard or read so far. I an unaware of any statistical body of work to suggest that it is a help or hindrance to professional athletes, or starting pitchers in particular.

In short, the whole tenor of this “he should have been held out because Heidi was about to drop” smells like unsupportable bullshit.

There’s a vein of wishful thinking in it that we want to believe. It goes like this: The possibility of a spouse going into labor with a first child is so emotionally overwhelming that it must affect job performance. It seems so plausible on its face that it “must be true.” The idea is therefore adopted uncritically, since everyone just gives it a pass without examining it further. I call bullshit.

Finally, while he wasn’t lights out, Hamels hardly crapped the bed yesterday. He had 5 strikeouts and 0 walks. He gave up 7 hits and four runs (should have been 3) in 5 innings. The homer is on him, but this was hardly a meltdown.

With tighter defense in the first, he probably goes 7 innings, because I don’t think you pinch hit for him in the bottom of the fifth and his spot wasn’t up till the bottom of the seventh. It’s a whole different game. Of course, if my uncle had tits, he’d be my aunt, but there you go. I am not worried about Hamels, nor am I upset that he started yesterday.