Or at least, you should not suppose that your team is the worst (EVAH!) at hitting in these situations. The fans of at least 25-29 other teams in baseball, and perhaps their managers do, too:
''That killed us,'' Guillen said. ''If you watched us all year long, we're really bad with men on third base and less than two outs, maybe the worst team in baseball right now. If someone is worse than us, that's a record. That continues to bite us. Good teams score the guy from third base, and we're not doing that right now. We haven't done that all year long, period.''
Here's how teams in the AL Central have hit with a runner on third base and less than two outs:
.344/.397/.546 -- Cleveland Indians, --3, <2 outs
.310/.342/.518 -- Chicago White Sox, --3, <2 outs
.328/.356/.475 -- Minnesota Twins, --3, <2 outs
.284/.336/.469 -- Detroit Tigers, --3, <2 outs
.278/.306/.412 -- KC Royals, --3, <2 outs
Granted, this is a pathetic division, but Ozzie's Pale Hosers have an .860 OPS in these situations, which is, at worst, a completely respectable performance. Furthermore, they are chasing a team that has been worse in those situations and the team that has been best in those situations totally blew up their team and is rebuilding.
If you look at R/PA (which is, in and of itself kind of misleading), the White Sox look worse, but not even close to as bad as the Royals:
.66 R/PA -- Indians, --3, <2 outs
.65 R/PA -- Twins, --3, <2 outs
.63 R/PA -- Tigers, --3, <2 outs
.62 R/PA -- White Sox, --3, <2 outs
.58 R/PA -- Royals, --3, <2 outs
Probably a better thing to look at would be R/(PA-BB), since a walk doesn't really hurt your chances of scoring a run from third base (or if it does, it was probably an intentional walk, in which case you can't exactly decline the intentional walk):
.75 R/(PA-BB) -- Indians, --3, <2 outs
.72 R/(PA-BB) -- Twins, --3, <2 outs
.69 R/(PA-BB) -- White Sox, --3, <2 outs
.68 R/(PA-BB) -- Tigers, --3, <2 outs
.63 R/(PA-BB) -- Royals, --3, <2 outs
And here, the Mighty Whities are again in the middle of the pack and not in any danger of setting any records for clutch futility. I generally like Ozzie's antics, but pointing the finger at situations like this seems like a sure sign of a weak baseball mind. In the AL, the White Sox are 9th in OPS and 9th in runs scored. If you want to score more runs, worry about hitting better in general. Don't look back at the particular chances you squandered, because you're not getting them back again and you probably didn't do anything out of the ordinary in those situations anyway.
Recent Letters to the Editor
In Response to Capps Askew,
FirstTimeLongTime wrote: Let me preface by saying I am not a Matt Capps fan. With that out of the way now there is something the Boss in March/April that stuck with me. Something along…
In Response to GB Leighton - Twins Territory,
FirstTimeLongTime wrote: If you are not having fun why play the game, right?
cheaptoy wrote: That was the first time I really sat down and listened to that song. I got to the first chorus and could go no further. At least the kids in the front seemed to be…
brianS wrote: Someone is trying to bring the Shat out of retirement.
In Response to Game 140: Twins hosting the Royals,
brianS wrote: because drinking beer while on-line would be pathetic otherwise? ;-)
Milt on Tilt wrote: If youre not wishing for success, what's the point of fandom?
DK wrote: Yeah, you're probably right. It's funny that I read this little bit before any of the bottom section of this log. This part feels like a whole other game now.
brianS wrote: I assume socal was joking there.
DK wrote: Yeah, I missed the game log at the time, and I certainly wasn't happy about the ending of this game as it was happening, but a lot of this log does read like some of…
brianS wrote: I don't think any of us would be here if we didn't want him (and every other dude in a Twins uniform) to succeed when called upon. To borrow a line from Jean-Luc Picard: "Wishing…
Milt on Tilt wrote: I'm not saying don't criticize him. I'm saying we should all want to see him succeed at this point.
brianS wrote: Not having been here for the game, my spleen is still intact. And I can see socal's point. I think we collectively went off the deep end on Capps tonight. As in GOSO territory. sometimes…
DK wrote: And I do think the numbers bear out that Capps, himself, has been shaky a lot but alright. There's been a lot of baserunners, but there's been a lot of BABIP, too, and I…
DK wrote: Again, I'm sick of this whole "he's our guy we should be behind him" blind devotion thing. I refuse to look at anything uncritically. What the Boss said the other day was right…
In Response to Cup of Coffee: September 8, 2010,
spookymilk wrote: Oh, I see. Yeah, it's a wretched title. Well, now I can check it out with my hopes undiminished.
AMR wrote: No, I meant the title sucks. It smacks of an overthought concept album (TI vs TIP, I am... Sasha Fierce). Luckily, that didn't happen and the album's very good. I went online…
punmanbowler wrote: After tonight's victory, the Twins are 7-11 after winning the first two games of the season. Also, the Twins have been swept in a 3 game series only ONCE this year. In Milwaukee.…
spookymilk wrote: Is it bad? Damn. I've been thinking about checking it out, but their peak seems to be long gone.
AMR wrote: I like ATLiens quite a bit (both the album and the title). Now, Big Boi's solo album, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, ugh. This is what happens when you have too…
spookymilk wrote: For *A LESSER dirty southern rap group, I meant to say
spookymilk wrote: Hmm. I always found it low-class in a way ill-fitting of the disc. I think they should have left that title for a dirty southern rap group. Now, Aquemini and Idlewild? …
Can of Corn wrote: Brilliant!
Can of Corn wrote: Really...I always liked that title.
meat wrote: That's nice, JJ Hardy, but if the homers don't go off the flagpole, it just doesn't do it for me anymore. I