The Stats Geek

The Stats Geek takes a look at Mac(k)'s first week as manager and compares it to Mac. He notes the on-fire Punch and Judy combo at the top of the lineup, the fact that Jose Mesa has been removed from the closer's role (but fails to mention he's still put in position to blow games). He moves on to talk about bunting and sac flies, and I mostly agree with him. His point is that no matter how many runners move up, an out is an out. A team that needs more big innings like us can't afford to give away outs. Curiously, after all the complaining that's been done about this team's ability to hit in the clutch, get sac flies, etc., we're second in the league in sac flies (behind Florida). We don't need more sac flies and we don't need more bunts. We need more hits. He then goes deeper into McLouth and JWilson performances saying that it's not unreasonable to think Duffy and McLouth can push each other for a spot in center and Jack hasn't been completely awful since April and he's actually been good of late at the plate, so maybe we shouldn't throw the white flag up yet, especially with his (in a fair world) Gold Glove performance at short. Despite these positives, why do we still lose, he wonders. He gives a simple solution:

They were outslugged (.410 to .402) and outwalked (31 to 22) last week. The rest won't matter until they fix that.

The difference in slugging percentage isn't drastic, the difference in walks is. Until this team finds some plate discipline, they could probably provide the city of Pittsburgh with all the wind-based power they need. McClendon isn't the only person that needed to go... they need to rehaul the entire coaching staff.