Scott Cousins‘s decision

In the tenth inning of the Saturday night game between the Marlins and Mets, Scott Cousins made an interesting decision that apparently got the Marlins’ brass talking. In a situation with no one out and Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan at second and first respectively, David Wright popped a foul ball into right field that Cousins intentionally dropped. That sounds like a strange move, but listen to the reasoning Cousins provides:

Cousins didn’t make the catch, he said, because both runners would have tagged into scoring position with one out.

Ignore the fact that Wright later singled and plated Reyes anyway. Was this the right decision? To figure this out, we have to look at a lot of very interesting factors. Let’s start with a simple win expectancy examination using this table provided by Tom Tango.

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