You Be the Manager- Switches and Role Players- Part I

Friday, May 12 2006 @ 07:00 AM EDT

Ever fantasized about being Tony LaRussa?  You haven't?  I cannot imagine why not. And today is your lucky day, because not only do you get to be that masculine god, but you get to manage National League style.  We're going to do this one in 3 parts, with questions every few hours. We'll start with a relatively easy one.

It's Friday May 12, and your Cardinals have almost caught those surprising Reds in the NL Central.  The team had the day off yesterday, after a 7-4 victory  on Wednesday over the also-surprising Rockies.  In tonight's game at home, you have Mark Mulder going against the Snakes and righty Claudio Vargas.  Your bullpen is well-rested, and as it turns out, that is a good thing because Mulder doesn't bring his A game for you tonight.  As a matter of fact, he doesn't bring his B or C game either. We're getting ahead of ourselves here.

The lineups are  posted and your scorecard looks like this:

Player

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Counsell  6

Byrnes  8

C. Jackson 3

Tracy   5

Estrada    2

DaVanon   7

Green    9

Hudson  4

Vargas   1

Eckstein  6

Luna   4

Pujols  3

Rolen   5

Edmonds  8

Encarnacion  9

Bigbie 7

Molina 2

Mulder 1

"And the home of the brave", and the Redbirds take the field.  In the first inning, Mulder walks Counsell and Byrnes, and Conor Jackson follows with a long homer.  You stare off into the crowd, hunting for an interesting face rather than glaring at Mulder.  He gets out of it with just  those 3 runs.  In the bottom of the frame, Eckstein bunts his way on, and after a Luna popup, Albert unloads another homer and it's 3-2 after an inning. 

The game continues in this vein through 3 innings, with baserunners aplenty and the score tied at 4.  DaVanon makes the last out of the 3rd inning for the Snakes and Encarnacion for the home nine.  You figure that with Green, Hudson and the pitching spot up, you'll get at least 4 innings out of Mulder.  No such luck.  Green lines the first pitch to right for a single.  Mulder is unnerved and walks Hudson on four pitches.  You decide to leave Mulder in to face the pitcher; Mulder is wild but Vargas successfully lays down the sacrifice, leaving runners on second and third with one out.  You decide that it's time to take Mulder out of the game.

Who do you bring in for Mulder?  Do you make any other moves?

Stay tuned later this morning for Part 2 of YBTM and innings 4-8.

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