Wayne Countryman wrote:
Ortiz has been running hard on the bases and scoring. He says his knees are good enough to get through the Series. If I were the Rockies, I'd bunt on him when practical. When his knees act up, his hitting suffers and he clogs the bases.
I agree. Even if it doesn't slow Big Papi down, it could affect him psychologically, as well as the rest of the team. The pitcher might come off the mound to get to a ball the first baseman would normally get to, which could lead to a wild throw to first.
Wayne Countryman wrote:
A peeve: We constantly hear about the disadvantage AL teams experience in Series road games because they can't use a DH and their pitchers must bat. But NL teams are at some disadvantage on the road because they lack DH specialists. That's seldom mentioned.
Yeah. They normally have a pinch-hitter specialist on the bench, but making him into a DH is like taking your eight-inning reliever and having him start the game. It's a whole different way to have to approach the game.