October 21, 2011

Turning On La Russa

It’s amazing how fast a manager goes from genius to idiot:

Game 2 put La Russa in the cross hairs that had been trained on Texas manager Ron Washington after Game 1. La Russa’s magic touch with his manic bullpen usage finally came under question. The Cardinals were in position to win when the trap door finally opened on their charmed bullpen.

As the Rangers had the tying run on third and go-ahead run on second with no outs, this is what La Russa scripted: he yanked his closer, Jason Motte, and in a situation in which he needed a strikeout, brought in his relief pitcher least likely to get a strikeout, Arthur Rhodes (career-low 5.7 strikeouts per nine innings as a reliever). And behind Rhodes, rather than veteran righty-killer and troubleshooter Octavio Dotel, La Russa wanted rookie and converted starter Lance Lynn to finish the game — the same Lynn who has finished precisely three games in his professional life.

I’m sorry, either Tony knows how to use his bullpen, or he doesn’t. Given that he’s been managing this way since his days in Oakland, and his success, I’d say La Russa made the moves that most likely improved his chances of winning. After all, his relief pitchers did get three outs after Jason Motte gave up two singles. In most cases, that would work. It doesn’t take much to turn fly balls into pop ups, and then Tony looks like a genius again. Give the Texas hitters credit for delivering.

4 thoughts on “Turning On La Russa

  1. Theron

    I seem to recall he was criticized for not calling on his bullpen in Game 1 of the NLCS and look how that series turned out.

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  2. Sal

    Managers get too much credit when a team wins and too much blame when they lose. 99% of what goes into a win and a loss has nothing to do with the in game decisions of the manager. Tony has won a lot of games over the years, but that has almost nothing to do with his pattern of bullpen usage.

    Good, bad, or indifferent, it doesn’t matter that much.

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  3. Devon

    I thought the pitching was fine. The Rangers hitting was just a bit finer. The Rangers baserunning was also a bit finer.

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  4. Jeff Adel

    I thought LaRussa was wrong to take out Motte, but when you get to second and third with no one out, there are no really good options.

    Also, Ron Washington came thisclose to being to being the goat. If Kinsler had been thrown out trying to steal, all anyone would have talked about was “How can you have him steal in that situation?” He was safe, though, so Washington is a genius and LaRussa is an idiot. That’s how it goes when you’re a manager.

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