Piniella Doesn’t Pull His Hunches

Relaxing at a racetrack, Lou Piniella might make an occasional hunch bet, but he will never play a hunch as manager of the Seattle Mariners.

“Two things I don’t do,” Piniella said. “I don’t manage with hunches and I don’t have a doghouse.”

In other words, Piniella said, in weighing lineup options he believes strongly in how a hitter has performed against a pitcher over a legitimate period of time--at least a dozen at-bats.

“I try to keep percentages in our favor as much as possible,” Piniella said. “I believe in data, the more data the better. Baseball is a percentage game. If you can keep the percentages on your side, you’re going to win more games than you lose.”

The Mariners tied a major league record with 116 wins, but, Piniella added, there are human variables that have to be considered along with the data, and there is more to managing than making out the lineup.

“If it only came down to the data,” he said, “I could have one of those Microsoft guys come over and make out the lineup.”

Against right-hander Mike Mussina in Game 2 of the American League championship series with the New York Yankees, Piniella used the switch-hitting Mark McLemore at shortstop and switch-hitting Stan Javier in left field. McLemore replaced Carlos Guillen, still regaining his strength and still being treated for tuberculosis.

Whom will he start against Orlando Hernandez in Game 3?

“Maybe I’ll get out my Ouija board,” said the data-minded Piniella.

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Of course, Piniella doesn’t believe in data to the extent of disrupting a good thing. Ichiro Suzuki had hammered Cleveland’s Bartolo Colon this year, and Piniella said he considered dropping Suzuki to third in the lineup against Colon in Game 4 of the division series, with McLemore batting leadoff, but “we had played well all year with Ichiro in leadoff and I didn’t want to have to answer to all my Japanese friends,” Piniella said.