Sending Mike Napoli -- A Poll

considering all the moves that had to go right for the Royals. Additionally, the Rangers have not done well this year in extended games and I’m sure they didn’t want to see the BP have to throw 2 or 3 more innings.

In most cases, Napoli would have been out, but the catcher effed up the play at the plate, and we benefited from it

I probably would have held him, but I don’t think it was a bad decision to test him. The Right Fielder was pretty deep when he got to the ball

Why don’t more third base coaches send the runner when there is a ball hit into the outfield? Naps was out by a mile, so really, no matter who is running or where he is at (obviously not standing on second when the throw is coming in) shouldn’t the 3B coach always send the guy?

The only arguments I can come up with against that is:

1 . Just because 3B coaches don’t do it more often doesn’t make it right (see bunting to move a runner over with no outs in the 4th inning)
2 . These are pros, and the odds of them making those throws, relays, and tags are much higher than the proposed 95/90% that AJM is proposing.

Fangraphs fan scouting report has him at 46/49 for arm strength and accuracy. This may be very well known on his pro scouting reports.

Hosmer is a young kid still learning the ropes in the majors. based on where the ball was hit Hosmer was standing almost next to 1B as the cutoff man. With Elvis rounding first as normal I wonder if there was any thought that Hosmer may for a split second focus on Elvis and then that may affect his throw home.

Just a thought.

After watching the replays I was wondering if it would have been best for Elvis to just keep on going to second base. Hosmer is standing right there and I can imagine he would have gotten confused, if only for a split second, as to whether he could tag Elvis quickly or go ahead and throw home. If Elvis gets in any kind of rundown there Napoli scores easily.

If it was a veteran 1B over there it wouldn’t have crossed my mind but with a rookie of his age I wonder if that was even remotely in the thought process.

I’m curious to know what the gal reaction is

There’s a morale factor of having the elation from getting another hit to get the runner over and having Blanco (2 for 4 on the day) facing an incredibly wild Soria with Hamilton deck… to having him gunned down and deflating that whole situation with everyone now thinking “here we go again”.

Napoli is our second worst base runner in a small sample size of advancing on a hit per Baseball Prospectus. Napoli didn’t expect to be sent there.

TAG couldn’t believe he was sent there.

You were nearly guaranteeing an out like we were bunting. I’d rather not put a runner in a position to need a miracle and see if you can continue to beat their struggling closer.

i didn’t even look at a replay. but if the outfielder fielded it cleanly, i take the relay as a given. then it’s just a gamble of how good a throw it is to home.

It was a chance to score that was far from an automatic run, but like AJM said, you are putting the pressure on the Royals to do everything perfectly.

And beyond that, I don’t want to put our chances of victory in Andres Blanco’s hands or in the bullpen’s hands.

if Napoli was out and we lost the game. I think he odds of getting a run there are very, very poor. I’d give Blanco the chance to drive in Napoli. I also think there is an injury factor. Much of the time, the runner is running right into the catcher on a play like that. That is when injuries occur.

You had to have taken a chance there.

But if it was Hamilton or Young due up, then there’s no way you send him

However, I think that even if it failed it would have been the right move. I think your odds are reasonable and put it into the “not sure, could go either way category”. But I think there are added considerations as well.

The first is that this team has been in a big funk for about a month. They’ve recently shown some signs of life, but they have needed a major shot in the arm for a few weeks now. They needed a win like this one. They’re also a team that won in 2010 by being aggressive. This incorporates one of the new guys into their past success technique. The subjective good from that play is almost off the charts.

Meanwhile, the flip side is that if they don’t send him and Blanco fails – which happens about 3/4 of the time – then there is a fairly good chance they lose given that Dave Bush was probably the next in line for the Rangers. A win would still be sweet – but obviously not quite as exciting as this was – but another bullpen loss would be devastating. At least if Napoli is out at home and the Rangers go onto lose you can pin the blame on Anderson and make a coach the center of angst (we’d have this same poll, but it’d be mega Angrydome time…). Either way though, I’d rather have this poll today than “What to do with Neftali Feliz and the bullpen, who blew ANOTHER game to KC?”

doesn’t mean it was a good idea.

I dont understand the fuss. He was safe. Dave wanted to win the fuckin game and we won the fuckin game. We won the game. We did not lose the fuckin game…we won the fuckin game. This is a non-issue.

if you polled only present and past 3rd base coaches you’d be surprised how many agreed with the decision based on the game situation. I would venture a guess of 90% or more saying they would have sent him also.