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April 03, 2008

Small Giambi Rant

I’m not sure if this came up in the YES broadcast last night – as I was at the game – but, I have to rant on Jason Giambi a bit for something that didn’t happen in the game last night.

After six and a half innings, the Yankees were trailing the Jays by a score of five-zip. In the Yankees half of the seventh, Abreu leads off with a walk and then A-Rod hits one into the bullpen to cut the score to 5-2. Toronto then lifts A.J. Burnett and replaces him with Brian Tallet. Jason Giambi is the first batter to face Tallet.

It’s the bottom of the seventh, no outs, no one on, and the Yanks down by three. The crowd is still buzzing about the Rodriguez homer. It’s a great time to get a rally going – if you’re a Yankee. The Blue Jays put the shift on Giambi – where the third baseman is at least 40 feet off the line and deep. The rest of the infield is swung over to the right side of the infield. And, this makes sense, as, in the fifth inning, Giambi grounded out into the shift.

At this point in the game, the Yankees need base runners. This keeps the rally going and it keeps the crowd into the game. In this at bat, Giambi is not going to hit a homerun to tie the game – as there’s no one on base. (Last time I checked, you can’t hit a three-run homer when there’s no one on.) In this situation, the best – and most exciting – thing that could happen would be for Giambi to push a bunt down towards third base. Once it’s past the pitcher, with the shift on, there’s no way the Jays could throw out Jason (even with his lack of speed). If Giambi reaches in a manner like this, the crowd would go crazy and it then brings the tying run into the on-deck circle.

But, what does Jason Giambi do? He swings from the heels on a 1-0, 85 MPH cutter, and misses. Then, when the count is 3-1, he takes a 87 MPH fastball for a strike. Finally, on a full count, Giambi then takes another big rip and whiffs on a 86 MPH cutter. And, like the air coming out of a balloon, the crowd dies down and now it’s one out with no one on – and the Yankees still down by three.

Why, oh, why, when the Jays are giving Giambi that free hit (with the shift), would he not take it in a spot that screams with the need for base runners? Didn’t we hear all spring about how Jason was going to use the whole field to hit this year? Or, was that just talk? I just don’t get it.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at April 3, 2008 01:04 PM

Comments

Agreed. And while I'm sure Giambi's probably a horrible bunter, no one's asking him to lay down a beauty against a defense that is expecting bunt. Even a clumsy attempt that would be a routine 5-3 putout against a regular defense could work against the extreme shift.

I would also add that simply trying to go the other way for a groundball base-hit down the LF line or a little blooper behind the bag at third would be an acceptable approach. David Ortiz seems to manage a few hits in that way so I can't understand why Giambino is still so pull-happy, three years after making a big show of working with Don Mattingly about going to LF.

Posted by: MJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 3, 2008 01:28 PM

giambi should've probably gone with a bunt (scutaro was basically playing 2b at one point), But in a all fairness, the "strike" that came on the 3-1 count was pretty high, and there were signs giambi had been trying to go the other way, even in the last game. giambi's got a decent eye, and they probably figured he could work a walk out of the at-bat.
in the end, the yanks had some chances that were squashed with bad base-running(jeter trying to stretch the error made by burnett to get to 2nd), and lack of timely hitting (the bottom of the 9th...).
burnett was too good tonight for the yanks to miss the few opportunities they had.

Posted by: robbymelky [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 3, 2008 01:58 PM

How about all the noise during spring training Giardi made about having those RH power options and versatility off the bench. I know it's the 2nd damn game of the season and I really don't want to be a Monday morning quarterback, but why didn't he pinch hit Duncan or Ensberg for Giambi? Obviously, if Giambi gets onbase then it's a different story. That's why I hate writing these types of things.

Posted by: gphunt [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 3, 2008 02:35 PM

This topic has been brought up time and time again, and I think I've kind of decided that I'm against the whole bunting through the shift thing.

When you consider the entire distribution of possible outcomes when Giambi swings away, I bet he'd have to be successful on his bunt attempt something like 60% of the time for it to make sense. Is Giambi capable of pushing a bunt past the pitcher in a specific direction and not popping it up 60% of the time, when he's probably never practiced bunting in his entire life? I would say no. Unless he really dedicated himself to working on this play (which is something that should have been brought up in spring training), then I think he should keep swinging, but maybe think about going the other way with an outside pitch.

Posted by: Jordan Meisner [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 3, 2008 04:43 PM