I agree. I didn't watch, but I'm pretty sure this was a also a gut move as Turner was swinging the bat well.
The way Twitter presents this, it's like Tony up and decided to walk a dude for no reason. There was a reason. 3 reasons. That being the case, I'd still pitch to Turner.

Id take my chances needing one strike at a dude hitting .800 over needing three strikes to the next guy.

Sox lost by two. If Sousa gets Turner, Sox win. The manager took the ball out of Sousa's hand and to be honest he was probably a little rattled when that happened. I can't blame him if that was the case.

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Batting Leury leadoff is dumber than walking Turner at 1-2. Throwing two 2nd games of doubleheaders is dumber than walking Turner. And I could go on. This is not a top ten of dumb. I hate LaRussa just as much if not more than anybody here. Hell, I hated him the first time around. He was a shitstain who happened to have a brainiac next to him.

Again, 4-8 with a HR, an open base, with garbage in the on deck circle. I disagree with the walk, but the thinking isn't insane. It's just an over think.

100% it was . Players still have to perform . You can’t get beat by a guy hitting .150 in a lefty lefty matchup . Chapman can’t let a piece of garbage like Rajai Davis take him deep.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Right. I mean why the intentional walk? If you're worried about it throw some high heat or outside heat and maybe he'll swing and miss but if you walk him and the end result of the BB is the same. At least you have a chance at a ground out or a pop out or a k. Why the ibb? Why not just pitch away.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

And if you don't have confidence and Sousa being able to get the middle of the order out with two strikes, then why bring him into the game in the first place? It's not like he was facing a pinch-hitter.

Then let him perform. Don't take the ball out of his hand with an asinine intentional walk call.

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No, I don't go out there and talk to some guy named Sousa and trust him to nibble outside the edges. I tell him to get after it. Simple is better. As Frank alluded to, lack of trust for a competitor is harder than failure.

Ok. Thats fair. But I'd rather pitch around him and hope to get a K while giving a walk than giving an IBB without even challenging the guy. That's bad leadership to me on two levels.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Felt like a Joe Maddon type move.

A .254 lifetime hitter with two strikes is not a reason to intentionally walk the guy. While I get Muncy has sucked, you have to take into account how doing something so unorthodox can mess with the head of the pitcher.

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Maddon is currently out of a job, and TLR should be as well.

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This isn't a TLR issue; this is a Hahn problem. The Sox had 2 outfielders playing 1st and 3rd base today. Burger's incompetence ultimately led to 6 runs by the Dodgers in the 5th. TLR has no depth to work with, and the entire lineup has the 2017-2021 Cubs flu.

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Nas: Blago, who has single handedly destroyed CFMB?

Blago: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lftdxd-YXt8?feature=share

"You can’t love your country only when you win." -President Biden

https://youtu.be/R6e4ruziZBI?si=1G4W1vbh0eGQuHfU

TLR is baseball Nagy. Defending him is inexplicable at this point.

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TLR has a 40 year history of winning while doing unconventional things. Matt Nagy was a salesman who was exposed.

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Nas: Blago, who has single handedly destroyed CFMB?

Blago: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lftdxd-YXt8?feature=share

"You can’t love your country only when you win." -President Biden

https://youtu.be/R6e4ruziZBI?si=1G4W1vbh0eGQuHfU

No matter the stats, I doubt Tony knew or cared what they were.

I'm with DS and the Doc on this one.

Just an incredibly dumb move.

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The intentional walk is the defensive analog to the sacrifice bunt. It occurs far more than it should. I don't even want to get into the idiocy of doing it on a 1-2 count.

LaRussa loves to sacrifice with men on first and second. If you don't think your hitter can drive in runners from first and second, he shouldn't be batting in that spot.

And If you don't think your pitcher can get a guy out off a 1-2 count, he shouldn't be on the team.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

Mully said this morning that it was the first time in MLB history that ever happened.

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It's a "cute" manager move. Like intentionally walking a guy with the bases loaded. Even if it works out, it was idiotic. But the guy who did it gets talked about.

The manager should put the nine best guys on the field ordered from best hitter to worst and then get the fuck out of the way.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

I disagree.

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Nas: Blago, who has single handedly destroyed CFMB?

Blago: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lftdxd-YXt8?feature=share

"You can’t love your country only when you win." -President Biden

https://youtu.be/R6e4ruziZBI?si=1G4W1vbh0eGQuHfU

First time someone issued an intentional walk with a 1-2 count? As dumb as it is, seems hard to believe it was the first.

I agree with most here that it was a crazy move, but aside from the specific batter/pitcher stats I'd like to see the probabilities of getting a third out with a runner at second vs first and second. I'm pretty sure it helps a bit to maintain the force out, though it could also lead to a bigger inning.

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Could you expound on that?

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

This is where the interpretation of statistics and what we call "SABRmetrics" gets confusing. The entire basis for how most fans in the post-Moneyball era view the game- yeah, I'm looking at you bernstein and Joe Sheehan- is that a batter's job is to "not make out." And that a pitcher's job is to "limit baserunners." If that's the case, isn't intentionally walking a guy a success for the batter?

That isn't a real question. I know the answer. Because it's obvious that a batter's job is not simply "not making out" and a pitcher's job is not simply "limiting baserunners."

_________________
Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

If your 7-9 hitters are mediocre or suck, you're essentially screwing your #6 hitter by not providing them with any protection. You have to sandwich at least 1 mediocre hitter between your good hitters to maximize the effectiveness of your lineup. If not, you only have a lineup that is good 1-5.

_________________
Nas: Blago, who has single handedly destroyed CFMB?

Blago: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lftdxd-YXt8?feature=share

"You can’t love your country only when you win." -President Biden

https://youtu.be/R6e4ruziZBI?si=1G4W1vbh0eGQuHfU

The numbers show that the concept of "protection" is a myth. I get that it's conventional wisdom that you have a couple popgun hitters at the top and then the big bats drive them in. But realistically, how many times does that occur during the season?

I know this much. When I look at my team's stats at the end of the season and Tim Anderson has more at-bats than Luis Robert and Jose Abreu, I did something wrong. And my team almost certainly scored less runs that it would have if it were the other way around.

_________________
Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

Putting your big bats first hasn't exactly worked either. Kind of like making a closer a setup guy. There is something mentally that goes on that makes them less effective.

_________________
Nas: Blago, who has single handedly destroyed CFMB?

Blago: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lftdxd-YXt8?feature=share

"You can’t love your country only when you win." -President Biden

https://youtu.be/R6e4ruziZBI?si=1G4W1vbh0eGQuHfU

Nobody's ever really done it though. I know Bill James has agitated for it in Boston, but up until now it's been a bridge too far. Just like using your best reliever in the highest leverage situations, e.g. seventh inning in a 2-1 game with one out and two on, rather than holding him for the last three outs of the game.

Baseball is a traditional hidebound game. Radical changes aren't readily accepted.

Anyway, an old school guy like LaRussa would argue that the lineup is constructed to win today's game rather than score the most runs over the course of the season. I don't disagree with that theoretically. What I don't believe is that any manager is smart enough to figure out which specific lineup is going to be best on a specific day and so just getting the best hitters the most possible at-bats seems to be the best idea.

I would have batted Frank Thomas leadoff. But the 60 or however many homers he would have hit leading off games would have been lamented because of the theory that Tim Raines and/or Ray Durham could have been on base. That doesn't take into account all the extra hits/homers Thomas would have gotten over the course of his career when he came up that extra time in a game that only occurred because he batted two spots higher in the order. And some of those hits would have been meaningful.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

I'm sure it has been done. Find the regression analysis of RBIs, yes RBI(S!!!), based on batting order position.

I'd be shocked if 3-4-5 isn't the highest for RBIsssssss.

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https://twitter.com/DrKenCast

This is the bottom line as far as I am concerned. If you have a batter down 1-2 you should be confident in getting him out. For LaRussa to walk him at that point basically tells the pitcher that he has zero confidence in him.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Theres just as much on Sousa for not being able to get a .160 hitter out.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.