_ You are correct and last year was in no way under-achieving. Hundreds of teams would have loved to have been in our shoes. This isn't an issue of small ball either. We aren't hitting or finding any other way to manufacture runs PERIOD. Our OBP which is a huge part of what small ball is about is pretty pathetic. Our slg% isn't so hot either. We've hit 31 homeruns this year compared to 25 for our opponents.
As for catching. I asked Robe about catching last week prior to the series and he stated that EVERY pitcher wants Lafleur behind the plate. Lafleur is the best leader on the team and works best with the pitchers. Griffen is better at blocking the ball and will typically catch for Buddy because of how hard his pitches break and often end up in the dirt. Your also trading a guy hitting around .160 for a guy hitting around .130. Not exactly night and day. I will say that I think Griffen has more upside and generally makes better contact but we aren't talking apples and oranges here.
Sunday in the 7th inning there were a number of us questioning why robe didn't pinch hit for Lafleur when the bases were loaded but we now know he didn't have anyone else to really catch once Lafleur came out of the game.
Last year (ten games or more played) we had ten guys hitting over .300 and only one hittting below.200. This year we have four guys hitting above .300 and five guys hitting below .200 Yeah we lost some bats but we didn't lose that much.
As far as pitching goes keep in mind that it is much easier to pitch from a lead. A pitcher can be a lot more aggressive. So far this year we haven't been a position to give our pitchers that advantage. Not to say that our bullpen has been lights out. They have certainly had some holes.
In all honesty when you look at this team we have holes almost everywhere. 1. Hitting 2. Defense 3. Pitching We can't seem to put together a complete set in any area. Some guys are playing lights out and some aren't. Injuries have hurt us too.
It isn't coaching, or game philosphy its just bad baseball right now.

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