Polk... So who's smarter now?

[HighPointDawg]

I'm not a big fan of his right now due to all the stupid "croom-like" mouth running in and lack of coaching but since he was absolutely BLASTED here and in the media for wanting to NOT schedule a DH yesterday I think it should be discussed.

Ole Miss ops to play the DH (and they would have gotten a game in today, I was in Oxford most of the day) and have to play a RED-HOT Ark twice and get smoked.. 11 HRS for ARK on the day... I mean in baseball sometimes your just hot and you won't lose... so the good thing is that you don't play again until tomorrow so everything is different.

We played a UT team that hit the ball very very well on Saturday... but today not nearly anything like yesterday. Had we played UT twice yesterday (and I know this is hypothetical) I think we don't hold them to 3 runs.

Maybe for this instance we gotta say Polk might have made the right call...?

 

[skydawg1]

they lost because they are not as good as they'd like everyone to believe.

Additionally, why didn't anyone else besides UM/Ark. schedule a DH when the entire South was gonna get rain today? Contrary to popular belief, Polk was not the only coach who nixed the Satuday DH idea.

I think the UM staff ended up looking like douches.

 

[Duane Chapman]

do you mean from like 1 to 4am? I've been here all day and the rain has been steady up until about 20 minutes ago. No way they could've played a game.

 

[Todd4State]

I am one of those that criticized him. He turned out to be right in this instance, but I guess the odds were on his side as he has made mostly bad decisons all year. You figure he was going to get something right sooner or later.

I still think you play the odds, because while it doesn't guarantee that something will or won't work, it's better to do what is most likely to be right than take a chance in this instance. To me, what he was saying was that he would rather not play than try to take care of business on the field to "attempt" to get into the SEC Tournament. We need to make every effort to play as many games as possible to get in. (Insert Jim Mora impression here.)

Had he turned out to be wrong, the weather fiasco thing would have been minor compared to other instances this season, namely the naming his successor fiasco, the getting ejected three games in a row vs UK, and the mean USM fan debacle, not to mention his overall poor job of managing this team. This would have been a footnote to the crazy things that he has done this year.

As far as Ole Miss, that's apples and oranges because we had Pigott going in game three, and I think he probably would have pitched pretty well. We also hit relatively well this weekend, and I think Ole Miss is kind of struggling at least a little bit.

 

[Coach34]

It doesnt make a monkey 17 that we played today and won. There is no way of knowing how things would have turned out had we played another game last night. It worked out for Polk, thats great. It still doesnt mean playing 2 yesterday was wrong.

 

[8dog]

he took a chance he didn't have to take that could've cost his players.

And as for Bianco should've waited for game 3, you do realize that he made that decision before the outcome of the first game was known right? When he made that decision, ole miss was the hot team after winning 12-4 and was trotting its hottest pitcher out to the mound.

Polk wasn't right about anything, he was just stubborn as usual and he was fortunate.

 

[AceLeroy]

I'm not a big fan of his right now due to all the stupid "croom-like" mouth running in and lack of coaching but since he was absolutely BLASTED here and in the media for wanting to NOT schedule a DH yesterday I think it should be discussed.

Ole Miss ops to play the DH (and they would have gotten a game in today, I was in Oxford most of the day) and have to play a RED-HOT Ark twice and get smoked.. 11 HRS for ARK on the day... I mean in baseball sometimes your just hot and you won't lose... so the good thing is that you don't play again until tomorrow so everything is different.

We played a UT team that hit the ball very very well on Saturday... but today not nearly anything like yesterday. Had we played UT twice yesterday (and I know this is hypothetical) I think we don't hold them to 3 runs.

Maybe for this instance we gotta say Polk might have made the right call...?

Is this really the right question to ask?
</p>
Were the results REALLY smarter or just fortunate?

Example: You are sitting at a blackjack table with an 9 and a 10. The dealer's show card is a 9 and you decide to take a hit. You draw a 2 that brings you to 21 and the dealer turns over another 9 for a total of 18.

You win the hand , but were you smarter.............or just fortunate?

Polk took the risk and was fortunate.............or maybe he is just a better weatherman than Dick Rice.

Who knows.

 

[dawgoneyall]

Baseball isn't played in the rain often.

 

[Agentdog]

The thing of it is, Polk gave a good baseball reason and people still *****. Playing extra innings the night before was a good reason to extend the series.

But hey, playing a game on Sunday just isn't as hip as forecasting weather and playing two on Saturday. </p>

 

[8dog]

was that he doesn't like the rule and isn't in the business of being a weatherman. He then stated that it would hurt the bullpen and that it would be hard to inform fans about the change.

Again, he was just being stubborn and was fortunate we were able to get the game in. The need to get the game in far outweighed the harm our pen would suffer by having to play half a day earlier. Not to mention, it would affect TN's pen just as much. You would think that someone who's been around as long as Polk has would recognize that.

 

[HighPointDawg]

I was at the folks house in Wellsgate .. far n-west side of Oxford.. it lightly rained this am-early afternoon.. it has not rained much (maybe 1/2") since noon. I guess 3 miles from oxford stadium.. maybe it's in a different weather system and it poured there all day.. who knows.

Sorry Polk was wrong again!! company line right?

 

[Uncle Leo]

You can't judge a decision in hindsight because decisions aren't made with the benefit of hindsight. If you take a risk and it happens to work out for you, that doesn't automatically mean you made the right decision.

 

[Todd4State]

we only used two pitchers on Fri. Lalor and Weatherford both pitched a little more than two innings, even though it was an extra inning game. Plus, we don't have any midweek games this week. That means that Whitney should have been available for relief. We also should have had Busby, Moore, Carver, Houston, and Wilson all available for game 2.

 

[ArrowDawg]

........Polk turned out to make the right call? It's a game of luck, and that's all there is to it. He lucked out, amid a bad weather forecast, and the weather held off long enough to get in an official game. There was just as much chance that it could have gone the other way. It doesn't make him right or wrong. It makes him lucky, just like you are when you pull the lever on a slot machine.

This hardly matters anyway, that is unless we're somehow able to win and/or sweep the next three series, two of them on the road, if we want any shot at playing in the post-season. If we were in the race for getting into the SEC tourney right now, then Polk's decision would be worth discussing. Right now it's not.

 

[RebelBruiser]

he took a chance he didn't have to take that could've cost his players.

And as for Bianco should've waited for game 3, you do realize that he made that decision before the outcome of the first game was known right? When he made
that decision, ole miss was the hot team after winning 12-4 and was trotting its hottest pitcher out to the mound.

Polk wasn't right about anything, he was just stubborn as usual and he was fortunate.

</p>

Exactly. When we decided to do a DH, we had won the first game fairly easily. Our bats had scored 9 or more runs in 3 straight games, and we were probably feeling pretty good about our chances. Not to mention, we had Pomeranz going in Game 1 of the DH. Pomeranz had given up 1 HR all season coming into this weekend. There is no way anyone could've guessed he'd give up 4 in one day and that Arkansas would be able to even come close to creating that kind of momentum at the plate. If they were thinking anything about what would be beneficial as far as wins and losses, Bianco had to feel pretty good about sending his best pitcher to the hill to start the DH to try to get momentum on our side. In reality, I don't think anyone was thinking about wins and losses. I think Polk just didn't want to change his schedule, and I think both Van Horn and Bianco were primarily concerned about being sure they got all 3 games in this weekend.