It’s a week after the Dodgers had the World Series handed to them so everyone has had their say about Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash lifting starter Blake Snell in the sixth inning after just 70 pitches despite having allowed just two hits and striking out nine. So there’s no reason to belabor the level of boneheadedness of that decision beyond saying the following.
If you read this space regularly you won’t be surprised to hear me say that if Tampa Bay had to lose the World Series I’m glad it happened exactly the way it did. Second, I guarantee you when Cash was on his way to the mound to lift his untouchable starter for the uncertainty of a relief pitcher, every single person in the L.A. dugout knew he was giving them a far better chance at winning the game.
I’m not even sure we can blame Cash because he probably got a text from the stat geeks upstairs telling him what to do, or did it because he’s so programmed by their lunacy/propaganda that he relied solely on the so-called “data” rather than what his eyes were telling him in that moment. That would be to remove any pitcher, be it Koufax, Gibson, Mathewson or Jack Morris, before he faces a batting order the third time around no matter what the circumstances. But the icing on the cake is it was done by people so impressed with themselves that they affixed the term “advanced” to “analytics” in naming this New Age way of baseball thinking like they had just invented plutonium, and it led to the single dumbest decision in World Series history. Good job, fellas.
Now a few other thoughts from around baseball.
The best two post-Game 6 Twitter comments came from Famer Frank Thomas — “another analytics meltdown” — and Mets hurler Noah Syndergaard — “Who gets to pull the manager?” If I were on Twitter, mine would’ve been, “Guess Calvin Schiraldi wasn’t ready yet.”
Yes, a disappointing Red Sox season. But I’ll put it to you this way: If they had to have a season like this, wasn’t this the perfect time to do it?
With the Sox still looking for a manager as I write this, the bad news is that 76-year-old Tony La Russa is off the market. I’m guessing the White Sox hired such a young buck because Connie Mack and John McGraw weren’t available.
Baseball 101: Name the only two managers in history to win more games than La Russa.
OK, it paid immediate dividends with Mookie, but how has the $340 million spent for Bryce Harper paid off in Philly? While the numbers (35 and 114) in Year 1 were decent, they missed the playoffs his first two years there. Meanwhile manager Gabe Kapler got blamed/fired for their under-achieving (81-81) 2019 season before they went backward under replacement Joe Girardi to finish 28-32.
With Mookie gone and JBJR on his way out the door the Red Sox need a leader to go along with Xander Bogaerts. They also need a second baseman, lead-off hitter and center fielder, plus three relievers and two starters. Free agent George Springer checks three of those boxes. Not willing to go 10 years, but if it’s five years with a big number I’d consider it because he’s the anti-Harper, smart, tough, versatile and his 19 postseason homers in just 64 games show he’s clutch.
By going 4-1 Clayton Kershaw had a David Price-like redemption in the postseason. But it still only got him to 13-12 lifetime and that has me wondering why some guys are great regular season pitchers and so ordinary in the postseason. Ditto for 300-game-winners Greg Maddux (11-14) and Tom Glavine (14-16), mostly with Atlanta when it went to just two World Series during 14 straight postseason appearances. My theory is living on the black ate up bad to mediocre teams, but better line-ups in the postseason handled that much better.
One last thing about this not letting pitchers face a line-up the third time around. If the numbers back it up, it probably has more to do with the pitch count than ineptitude of good starters like Snell. By limiting pitchers to a certain number of pitches they’re not conditioned to go beyond their count (see Pedro, Game 7, 2003 ALCS) and thus are giving up hits because they’re tired, not because pitchers are actually ineffective the third time around. If that’s the case, how did Nolan Ryan pitch seven no-hitters, Sandy Koufax throw 134 pitches on two days rest to shut out the Twins in Game 7 of the 1965 Series after throwing 130 in his Game 5 shutout, or Jack Morris go 10 innings for his 1-0 Game 7 win over Atlanta in the 1991 Series?
Baseball 101 Answer: The only two with more managerial wins than La Russa’s 2,728 are the aforementioned Connie Mack and John McGraw, whom he’ll pass early in 2021 unless he gets hit by a bus during spring training. While Mack’s 3,731 wins are the most in history, he also had 3,948 losses to actually be under .500. How’d he pull that off? Because people who own a team rarely fire themselves. As for McGraw, he lasted for 30 years with the Giants mainly because everyone was afraid of him, though having a .586 winning percentage with his 2,731 wins probably helped.
Those who think baseball is dying a slow death just got more ammo. The Fox TV audience in 2020 averaged a lowest-ever 9.7 million viewers per telecast. Last year it was 14.1 million and 2020 was off a whopping 32 percent from 2012’s previous low 12.6 million viewers as the Giants swept Detroit. So the question is why — indifference to the Covid season, more entertainment options, it included a team whose own city doesn’t care about them, or the slide to “go for broke homer or strike out” stat geek baseball?
My vote goes to robot managers and that the lack of constant action/pace is catching up with it.
