Baseball Thread Number 8: Cal Ripken says the playoff hunt is fun

Cito is a bigger douche than Girardi. Posada deserved to get the black eye.
If he wants to show toughness, how about blocking the plate, just once.

 

You say "there's absolutely no way I've underrated the guy," then mention that his playoff decisions "have often been indefensibly terrible" and he "plays favorites at the expense of far superior players." If that's what you think about him, then you've been underrating him. You kill him plenty about bringing in Washburn to face Ortiz, and for calling the suicide squeeze. But the fact of the matter remains that it's not like he cost them either series -- in the four playoff series the Angels have lost since 2002, they've won a grand total of two games. You want to pin that on the manager? Really? Give me a break. Obviously this is my opinion and not irrefutable, but that suggests to me that he's never had the best team in a playoff series he lost.

And how many examples can you actually give of Scioscia playing a favorite (and how do you know who are his favorites, anyway) over a "far superior" player. You really think Howie Kendrick is far superior to Maicer Izturis? Shit, Kendrick's been hot lately but look at Izturis -- better than .290 average every month from June on, more consistency and a higher walk percentage overall. Morales has blossomed this year, but he did not perform well enough in the past to justify writing his name in the lineup every day -- there's no guarantee he would have put up this production last year, plus the Angels aren't exactly in a position where they can play young guys regularly who aren't producing and hope something clicks for them. I just went back through every season of Scioscia's career, and I didn't see one instance of some young stud wasting away on the bench in favor of a guy like Nick Punto. Honestly, you can't win as much as he does if that happens regularly. Scioscia also does a great job with the pitching staff, as he's proving again this year.

Scioscia is thought of as one of the three, maybe five best managers in the game. If you disagree with that, who do you have above him? Because if he's vastly overrated, you must think he's not even in the top 10, which is pretty ridiculous. Of course he's not perfect, but his miscues aren't as frequent as you seem to think. And I don't recall a single malcontent in his clubhouse, which is probably the most important part of a manager's job.

 

Jose Guillen would like a word with you (of course, in Scioscia's defense, they did dump his ass in September 2004).

As for the five guys better than Scioscia, just off the top of my head and in no particular order:

Tony LaRussa
Bobby Cox (at least until October, when his track record becomes positively Scioscia-esque)
Terry Francona
Bruce Bochy
Lou Piniella

You reference the Angels never really having a shot in any of the series they've lost. But go back to last year: The Angels had the Sox reeling and heading for Game Five in Anaheim. The suicide squeeze was an indefensible call.

 

I had totally forgotten about Guillen calling Scioscia a piece of trash after the fact, or whatever his exact words were. But if that's the only incident -- one that was handled pretty swiftly and appropriately -- in a decade, that's pretty freaking good from a handling-the-clubhouse standpoint. I'm not saying you have to think he's the best manager in the game, just that you're overstating/exaggerating his faults. And if you have him below Bruce Bochy, then you're underrating him.

 

Hey, I never denied he does a good job of keeping things under wraps in the clubhouse. I think we're giving too much credit to the guy, though, to say his presence completely erases malcontents. Some franchises are just better than others (cough, the Mets, cough cough) at keeping controversies in house. The Red Sox had people believing Manny was perfectly normal for a couple years prior to last July.

I pegged Bochy b/c he's a guy who, to me at least, far more often than not gets a lot out of a little. If you're going to credit Scioscia for winning the AL West with a tattered rotation, don't you have to credit Bochy for keeping the Giants in contention with a Pony League offense?

Speaking of offense, take a look at how quiet that Angels lineup with nine .300 hitters has gotten in the last month or so, and tell me it couldn't use Howie Kendrick swinging--and hitting--everything in sight.

 

I stayed up until 2:28 a.m. for THAT? Jesus.

Fuckabuncha Pirates.

 

Kendrick's been a tease for a long time. Morales was the same way, too. Kendrick hit .193/.239/.265/.504 in 83 plate appearances (24 games) in May, then hit the DL in June. Had Kendrick been hitting like he has the past two months, Scioscia never would have had to look elsewhere for production at second base when he clearly wanted Kendrick to be the guy from the start.

 

That's all fine and true, Oz, but the guy has been scorching since he got back from the minors. Meanwhile, the Angels are essaying the Giants. Isn't it time to get the guy some regular PT?

 

He does get regular playing time. He's started two-thirds of the games the past two months. It's not like they're treating him like a super-sub or something like that.

 

In other news, Cliff Lee is back to his normal self, dominating the Nationals. But the play of the day belonged to a little girl in the stands...

 

Kendrick's started consecutive games just twice since Aug. 17 (Aug. 28-31 and Sept. 12-13). In that span he is hitting .400. He better be hurt to be playing that sporadically.

 

Obviously, Kendrick needs to show more pop and better plate discipline if he wants more at-bats.