Is Tony La Russa Insane?

June 19, 2009

The staff of Grubb Hub enjoyed its yearly company baseball outing at Busch Stadium 3-D last Wednesday night from one of the many posh luxury boxes available at the new stadium. And by staff I mean myself, and by posh luxury box I mean free right field bleacher tickets.

Anyhow, we noticed a peculiar set of stratagems employed by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa during the bottom half of the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 4-3 triumph over the Detroit Tigers which we found quite perplexing to say the least.

Yadier Molina singled to lead off the inning on a sharp ground ball that pitcher Edwin Jackson deflected to third baseman Brandon Inge. As the Tigers are oft to do while in the Gateway City, Inge promptly chucked the ball into the stands, allowing Molina to advance to second.

So with Molina in scoring position and nobody out, third baseman Joe Thurston stepped to the plate. Now, mind you third base is typically a run-producing position. Ah, but Joe Thurston (.234, 1 HR, 18 RBI) is not your average third baseman. In fact, he is very much below average.

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Pujols Home Run Derby Snub Makes No Sense

August 10, 2008

In the weeks leading up to the 2008 All-Star game in New York City, Albert Pujols was all but openly campaigning for a spot on the Home Run Derby. He’s been quoted as saying he enjoys the contest and would love to take part in it.

Normally it works the other way around. What usually happens is a slugger with the star power the likes of Pujols participates in the home run derby a time or two and then decides it’s not worth his time, that he’d rather spend his All-Star break time loafing or “visiting with his family”.

But here you have, arguably the greatest slugger in the game today, openly expressing his desire to partake in the home run derby, and the response from Major League Baseball is apparently…thanks, but no thanks.

Huh?

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