Winner winner chicken dinner.

Yeah, but a pinch hitter against Franklin - it's the right move.

Franklin lives off first pitch strikes. He made his bones last year by throwing a get-ahead strike and then attacking hitters from ahead in the count.

As the season progressed, guys realized what Franklin was doing and that he didn't have the raw stuff to overpower them with that first pitch strike.

And pinch hitters need to go up there attacking, IMO. They don't have their eye in place, they're not terribly likely to draw a walk anyway.

Combine Franklin's tendencies with the fact that a pinch hitter was up there and if I'm managing the Astros, I'm pissed if the guy's not first-pitch swinging.

Yeah, but your opinion is different than mine and therefore wrong.

Sorry, I don't make the rules.

The difference is that Franklin is still a spot nibbler, and as such, you aren't going to get "meat".

His decline meshed perfectly with the normalization of his BABIP.

We're going to have to change your name to Dane's Left Nut. LMAO

That's why you swing at the first pitch.

He's a nibbler when he's ahead in the count. However, watch him pitch - his first pitch is rarely a good one on the black. He generally comes to the strike zone until he gets ahead in the count.

Once he gets you to 0-1, you're going to have to hit his pitch. When he's ahead in the count, he will nibble you to death. However, on his first pitch, you'll get something tasty to swing at until he makes an adjustment to the hitters.

The way to get to Ryan Franklin is to swing early.

They found a way to get it done. Taking care of business. Get the sweep tommorrow.

Somewhere in that great Busch Stadium in the sky Jack Buck was calling him out on that. I smiled a bit last night when the TV annoncers made the same observation.

Who is BOOG and the Big Sweat :shrug:

I spent many a summer night as a youth listening to Jack Buck and Harey Carey call a Cardinals game.:thumb:

:thumb:

Same here...I'm afraid with the advent of Direct TV and the FSM channels, the young of today will not be able to grow up with the pictures in our minds
like we were able to with Jack Buck. He's in the hall of Fame for a reason.

Same here. It was not unusual for me to go to sleep, with a transistor radio under my pillow, listening to the Cardinals when they were playing on the west coast.

He's got the job done. Yeah, it was the Astros but its something positive. It's in our best interests to have him succeed.

From STLtoday:

Franklin got the official save but Reyes got the biggest out after he had walked Michael Bourn to load the bases. Pitching coach Dave Duncan had said something the other day about Reyes' modus operandi. Duncan said: "When he has to throw a strike, he generally does. He doesn't like to throw too many before that."

I'm sure there were millions of us doing that same thing in multiple states. Nice to have the same shared experiences with fellow fans in places you never heard of or been to as a kid. :thumb:

I have to say I never heard Jack and Harry enough to make a comment but listening to Jack play the straight man to a drunken Mike Shannon was always entertaining.

Looks like we're about to get beat by ****ing Houston.

How embarrassing. :shake: