This post won’t try to explain why Mike Matheny insists on subbing Daniel Descalso in late in close games. But, seeing as Matheny double-switched Descalso in last night, and Daniel got an at-bat, I was curious on his success rate. To wit:
- He has finished 15 of the 34 games he’s appeared in; 16/35, counting last night.
- Four of those games went extras.
- Six times he pinch-hit. He’s 4 for 6 in those situations.
- Ten times he’s come in for defense. He has 13 plate appearances and is 0 for 11 with two walks. That previous walk was over a month ago against Chicago(N).
- The Cardinals almost always lose when he comes in late. St Louis is 2-14 in games where Descalso comes off the bench and finishes the game. Overall they’re 14-21 when he makes any appearance. Don’t worry – they are 3-5 when he starts, so he won’t be starting more. The rest are pinch-hitting appearances.
He’s a pretty horrible hitter this season, unless he’s pinch hitting. As a starter he’s hitting .161/.161/.194. As a sub, he improves to .190/.261/.286. As a pinch-hitter he’s been pretty good (.333/.385/.500). Mike should let him PH and then send him out for Ted Drewes or Dominos.
Oh, he’s a defensive specialist? Not really, not this year. Overall he’s cost the Cardinals a run – and that includes his stint on the mound. Last year he saved the club 4 runs while playing third, and cost them 10 runs when playing second or short (Runs Saved comes from Bill James’ Fielding Bible site).
What we have here is a somewhat serviceable back-up third baseman who’s pinch-hitting well so far in 2014. For the record, in his career he’s a .200/.238/.263 PH in 88 PA, so he’s going to regress.
It’s a good thing this post wasn’t trying to explain why he comes into games late, because based on the above I have no earthly idea.
