Pulling Mateo last night

by Nibbles on Aug 16, 2006 8:51 PM CDT

On the pregame show Dusty told Ron it was his plan all along to pull Mateo when he did. It had nothing to do with him drilling Clemens the inning before. I wish I could buy that.
Look, I'm not into machismo, and beanball wars, but for once this year a guy showed he had a pair for the Cubs. Dusty yanking him was like running the white flag up the pole. Like rolling over and raising your leg in submission. Winning in sports sometimes involves drilling a guy and sending a message. To his credit Clemens didn't make a big deal of it, he's certainly hit a lot of guys on purpose, he took it like a man and walked down to first. Hard nosed baseball, something rarely seen from a team managed by an ex-player who so frequently talks about how things were done in his day.

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Yeah

and what would you have said if Clemens put one in Mateo's ear?

Forget Zito, Soriano, Schmidt & Lee. Its Mulder, Kennedy, Wood & Cameron instead.

by CubFaninCA on Aug 16, 2006 9:19 PM CDT reply actions

That's BS

Clemens knows the rules. No headhunting. Stop trying to turn hardnosed baseball into Lethal Weapon 3.

Players win awards but teams win championships.

by tharr on Aug 16, 2006 9:39 PM CDT up reply actions

And yet...

... Clemens drilled the guy who BATTED for Mateo.

by Al Yellon on Aug 16, 2006 9:41 PM CDT up reply actions

Yes he did

but so what. Theriot stung for a minute and, in return, we got a baserunner. In the end, neither of those events were consequetial.

Players win awards but teams win championships.

by tharr on Aug 17, 2006 3:10 AM CDT up reply actions

If all the rules applied to

Clemens, he would have been tossed for hitting Theriot. It was obvious retaliation. Also, Theriot's not the guy who hit Clemens, so don't be so sure he wouldn't have given Mateo a high tight one. Clemens has only been hit twice in his career, irrc. I'm sure it ticked him off.

Forget Zito, Soriano, Schmidt & Lee. Its Mulder, Kennedy, Wood & Cameron instead.

by CubFaninCA on Aug 16, 2006 9:54 PM CDT up reply actions

I can't believe..

..there wasn't a warning issued when Clemons missed TheRiot on the first pitch. With two beanballs already and him coming that far in on the first pitch, it could have easily meritted a warning.

My Immediate Kindness Eventually Sets Up Cool Kosier Status.

by santo for prez on Aug 16, 2006 10:58 PM CDT up reply actions

Don't forget...

that Clemens is the guy who purposely threw a bat at another player. He's a borderline homicidal maniac. If I'm Dusty, with a team whose pitching staff can't stay healthy, I definitely don't send up a pitcher to bat who gave Clemens a reason to go after him.

by Molechaser on Aug 17, 2006 6:49 AM CDT up reply actions

Wow, that's taking it to the next level.

homicidal maniac

Hyberbole, anyone?

by Santos Sorrow @ Bleed Cubbie Blue on Aug 17, 2006 8:17 AM CDT up reply actions

well, he did say

"borderline".

by davidalanu on Aug 17, 2006 10:11 AM CDT up reply actions

Nothing

There are plenty of things to be pissed at Dusty about his season, plenty of things to think he is lying, fibbing or exagerating about. But him pulling out Mateo is not one of them. We all knew that somebody was going to get hit. It happened and it is now hopefully over.

And anyway, Clemens spent most of his career plunking batters then hiding behind the DH. He can stand to get plunked and not be able to retaliate.

Ask Don Young what he thinks of Ron Santo.

by Ross on Aug 16, 2006 10:55 PM CDT reply actions

I was upset that...

he pulled Mateo early b/c I had a bad feeling about our bullpen coming in that early--Ohman & Weurtz didn't let me down by giving up 4 runs in the 6th.

Granted, our bullie threw 12 scoreless innings after that, but, at the time, I thought Mateo had enough left to go another inning.

If (a big IF) Mateo sets them down w/o scoring in the 6th, its still 5-2 going to the 7th and the events of the last 24 hours might play out a lot differently.

by cubbie08 on Aug 16, 2006 11:35 PM CDT reply actions

Let's look at a few things.

I was watching this game, and at first, the decision by Dusty to pinch hit for Mateo surprised me a bit as well. But let's forget about the beanball war that was being waged and look at the batters who were coming up in the 6th inning:

In the 6th, the next four batters were: Lamb, Berkman, Scott, Huff. Three of those are lefties, and Berkman is a switch-hitter, and all were ready to bat left-handed against Mateo. Against Mateo that night, Lamb was 1-2, Berkman was 0-1 with a walk, Scott was 1-2, Huff was 1-2. These runners comprised 4 out of the Astros' first 6 baserunners. Thus, bringing in Ohman in the 6th isn't exactly a stupid move on paper.

Of course, you could argue that the Cubs were up 5-2 at the time, that Mateo had thrown less than 80 pitches, that allowing Mateo to bat and pitch the next inning would've provided an intriguing (and potentially valuable) litmus test for a young pitcher in a lost season. But I think Dusty is playing to win, and he chose the decision that seemed to make the most baseball sense, and in this situation, bringing in Ohman to face an army of lefties who had already fared pretty well against Mateo was not a statistically poor decision.

by Short4Fanatic on Aug 17, 2006 12:19 AM CDT reply actions

But none of those guys have..

..a batting average of .500 or .667 for that matter....so technically, the statistics would point to Mateo being able to get through that inning unscathed....since statistically they were due for an out.

My Immediate Kindness Eventually Sets Up Cool Kosier Status.

by santo for prez on Aug 17, 2006 7:58 PM CDT up reply actions