Richie Allen wrote:The other complaint, the one I was addressing, is the number of plate appearances by bench guys. In my opinion, this isn't much up for debate. It appears to be a pretty real fact that the Cardinals give many more plate appearances to backups than most teams and far more than the other 3 NL post season teams. The Dodgers pretty much had 8 regulars other than Manny missing all of those games. Without his being out, there likely would have been far fewer bench ABs. From the top (PA by bench players) you've got Jaun Pierre with 425, then down to 204, 121, 107 and then down to double digits. With the Phillies, top bench guy got only 169, then 130, 129, 118, 104 and 104. The Rockies only have 4 bench guys with more than 69 PA, once regular Atkins with 399, 393 from lifetime 100 OPS+ Spilborghs, 317 from 122 OPS+ Gonzalez and 242 from somewhat regular catcher Torrealba. The Cardinals, as I mentioned before (with OPS+ in parenthesis) 404 (76), 307 (72), 304 (83), 193 (63), 170 (107), 116 (57), 114 (75) and 112 (63).
While it's true that they give more to the bench than other teams, this year is something of an outlier. 3B, SS, and LF were all open competitions until at least mid-June for SS and until the end of July for 3B and LF (when DeRosa got off the DL and they acquired Holliday). 3/8 of the lineup either had legit candidates that were hurt (Glaus), underperforming their career marks (Ankiel, K. Greene, Duncan), or shouldn't be starting in the first place (Thurston, Barden, T. Greene).
Throw in the fact that for most of the season, your 2B needed a defensive replacement at the end of games; the 2B and CF had really ugly platoon splits v. LHP's; and that every team is going to have a backup catcher with 100-200 PA's; and it's easy to see how it happened.
I'd be very curious to see the breakdown you use above, but only taking it from 7/26 until the end of the year. We all know TLR loves playing his bench players and giving his regulars a lot of breathers, but I'd contend that it was much, much, much more accentuated this year. It's not like he was sitting better players to give Ankiel, Duncan, Thurston, Barden, or either of the Greenes more playing time.
