July 3, 2009
The Answer Is Yes
By
Zeldink
Posted at 8:03 pm
Mike at Redleg Nation is on board the Dusty Baker is a clueless frickin’ idiot manager bandwagon. Welcome aboard! May us Reds fans soon no longer have to deal with his blithering incompetence and willful anti-intellectualism.
In his post, he cites Baker’s continued insistence to give away so many outs each game when he has Willy Taveras start and asks, “Is this the single worst thing a recent manager has done to hurt the Reds chances of winning?”
Now, I can’t tell if it’s a rhetorical question or not. In case it isn’t, let me go on record as saying, “Yes. Yes, it is.”
That’s a little venomous, even for you, Zel. In Dusty’s defense, he’s dropped Taveras all the way to second in the order tonight.
It was a little meaner than I probably should have been. I find him so frustrating, though.
He does seem to adjust the lineup eventually. Unfortunately, it seems it’s always a month after he should have.
Well…I don’t share the irrational hatred of Dusty Baker that a lot of people in Reds Nation seem to have, but I’m not above pointing out mistakes when I see ’em, either – and Dusty could have outmaneuvered Tony LaRussa last night, but failed to turn the key.
The Cardinals had the pitcher, Pineiro, leading off the eighth. LaRussa sent Rasmus up to pinch-hit. Now, because of LaRussa’s obsession with lefty/righty matchups with his relief pitchers, the Cardinals carry 13 pitchers. That means they have eight relief pitchers , but the tradeoff for that is that they only have four position players on the bench to begin with – and Rasmus was the only lefty hitter on the Cardinal bench last night.
So what Dusty should have done (yes, the Managerial Strategy 101 class here on RHM is now in session, so get you a fresh cup of coffee and pay attention here!) is to send Bailey out and let him throw his warmup pitches, then after Rasmus is officially announced as the pinch-hitter for Pineiro, he should walk out there and wave Rhodes in from the pen, thus forcing LaRussa to choose between the lesser of three evils:
1. Let Rasmus hit against Rhodes (this is an evil from the Cardinals’ point of view because Rasmus has a .147 platoon split against southpaws).
2. Shorten his bench even further by sending out Tony Greene (.238) or Hoffpauir (zero MLB at-bats before last night).
3. Burn his backup catcher (Jason LaRue) by using him as a pinch-hitter and hope Molina doesn’t get hurt in the bottom of the inning.
Instead of seizing the initiative, Dusty left Bailey on the mound and allowed LaRussa to have the matchup he wanted. Oops. The Cardinals got the leadoff man on, and it was all downhill from there. If Dusty simply brings in Rhodes after Rasmus is announced, we’re probably not even talking about Pujols with the bases loaded.
But since he didn’t do that and we are talking about Pujols with the sacks drunk – no question about it, I walk him on four pitches that aren’t in the same zip code as the plate. I don’t care if the bases are loaded, I have a three-run lead and this is a guy with 30 homers and 77 RBI’s already (well, 31 and 82 now!), while the All-Star break is still more than a week away. No way do I give a guy like that the opportunity to beat me when Ludwick and Ankiel are hitting something like .238 and .245 behind him. I walk Pujols, forcing in a run (better to be up 3-1 than down 4-3), and Ludwick’s grounder to Phillips that followed Pujols’ grand salami now becomes an inning-ending double play since the bases are still loaded. Or the throw comes home for the force out, and Ankiel makes the last out of the inning. Then I take my chances handing Cordero a 3-1 lead, against the bottom of the Cardinals’ order in the ninth and with no lefty hitter to come off the bench…and I have to say I gotta like my chances with that situation.
This concludes Managerial Strategy 101 for today. We now return you to our regularly scheduled thread, already in progress.
HMZ
I’m sure Dusty Baker is a hell of a guy, but he could certainly use a refresher course of Managerial Strategy 101.