The B-List: 7/24

Written by Steve Buffum

In todays B-List, Buff takes an agonizing look at last nights 9-7 loss to the Tigers. After falling behind early, the team rallied back to come up just short. Buff continues his psychoanalysis of Cliff Lee, and still can't handle seeing Gil Mota toe the rubber.

You know, I actually thought the Indians were going to pull that one out. What a sucker I am.

1) Rule Modification Required

Let me say this: in my opinion, you can't give up an unearned home run. If the ball leaves the yard, you gave up a home run fair and square. I understand the earned run rules and why if you give up a home run with two outs in an inning in which an error is made it counts as unearned. But it's not. Yes, Manny Ramirez could give up an unearned home run through an amusing series of misplays. A ball that goes over the wall in fair territory is YOUR FAULT. You gave up the home run. You, you, you.

(To Cliff Lee's credit, he acknowledged this in the post-game interviews.)

As for Lee's day on the mound, what is there to say that hasn't been said before? He is missing more bats, which is good (5 Ks in 4 IP). That's a valuable skill. And he is still the most preposterous flyball pitcher in the league (2:5 GB:FB ratio). And giving up a lot of fly ball outs without truly superior stuff makes one prone to taterosity (1 HR allowed). And except for one truly bad inning, Lee pitched pretty well (3 IP, 5 H, 1 R, but the 2nd and 3rd were quite good).

But ultimately, you can't play "remove the outlier from the sample" in baseball. Yes, if not for one terrible inning, we win. Well, we DID have the terrible inning, so we DIDN'T win. They ALL COUNT. And as much as ANOTHER infield error frustrates me, when you give up four hits, one of which is a three-run jack to a .245 hitter, that's just bad pitching. No second-guessing, no what-if, just bad. Oh, by the way, Lee was pulled after 4 innings because he'd already thrown 100 pitches.

2) Silver Lining Dept.

Getting Lee out of the game after four allowed Eric Wedge to air out Ferd Cabrera, to the tune of 3 full innings. Yes, he was also taterriffic, but 3 hits and a walk in 3 IP is pretty solid stuff.

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The B-List: 7/24

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