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1. Levi Stahl Posted: February 02, 2008 at 04:54 PM (#2682240)Sure, it seems facile, but some people out there believe TLR doesn't pay attention (or at least enough attention) to OBP. That is how I end up in a position of defending a man I can't stand.
I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure he was reassuring fans that he wasn't going to bat Izturis leadoff, not presenting this as a groundbreaking discovery.
Ah, but he's close despite being the youngest and fittest of the Molinas. Just imagine how slow he'll be when he gets as old and as fat as Bengie.
I am pretty sure there is one playing now.
Bengie Molina is really friggin' slow. I'd have a hard time believing that his younger brother is slower. When B-Mo was still with the Halos in 2005 he was just a terribly bad baserunner - it has to have gotten worse with more wear and tear on the knees...
When TLR says it, snarks and complaints.
Talking about him strictly as a manager, I really don't understand the amount of flak he catches here.
Tony's good and I have a soft spot for him because those A's teams of his were a blast when I was in high school, but he creates a lot of animosity because of his overt arrogance and occasional moralizing. I understand why he rubs people the wrong way. Also, I think Tony's biggest problem is that he seems to completely lack any kind of sense of humor about himself or his profession or even exessive faltulence. This may not be true, and he may be a funny guy in person, but he comes across as a someone who needs to lighten up a bit. (This is just public preception I'm talking about. Personally, I think his drive and focus are one of the things that have made him a great manager. Nobody outworks Tony and I think his professionalism and drive rubs off on his players, at least his players that don't hate his guts for it.)
1-Elston Howard
2-Sean Casey
3-Ron Hassey
4-John Wockenfuss
5-Frank Howard
6-Gus Triandos
LaRussa is and has been a fine manager. His teams play smart, they play hard every night, and they play tough. A LaRussa managed team is always a legit challenge.
However, it was Don Tony who introduced the fire drill of relievers that slow the game and clutter up my godd#mn scorecard. It's Tony who keeps the whole notion of retaliation via head-hunting alive and well and then has the unmitigated GALL to complain about other teams going after HIS players. And THEN, in sophistry that would make a politician blush, claims to have worked to ban the practice but to no avail. Finally, he has worked diligently to create an "us against them" mentality on his team making the Cards a unified force and impressive to watch play but Jes_s H Chr#st a bunch of whiny brats. B#tch, b#tch, b#tch. "Everybody is out to get us.". "The umpires have a grudge.". And blah, blah, blah.
Have your team face this nonsense 19 times a year EVERY d#mn year and Tony would wear a bit thin. Guaranteed.
Great manager.
But in looking to get that edge he and his team take the joy out of almost every contest.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/run-slowly-and-carry-a-big-bat/
I'm betting on Matt Stairs for the 2007 title (non-Molina/catcher division)
"Strictly as a manager," I don't think he gets much flak, but I agree in the sense that sometimes his record does not get the respect it warrants from sabermterically-inclined media outlets and fans. HW, in contrast, always makes a point of acknowledging LaRussa's strengths and accomplishments before he talks about the aspects of TLR as a manager and as a guy, he does not like.
What TLR does take #### for, and often deservedly, is his self-righteousness, pomposity, and tendency to bash players in the press.
1. His stance on steroids is somewhat laughable, seeing as that he managed two of the poster boys for the problem in Canseco and McGwire.
2. His alienation of players on his team. If he wants to confront them privately, that's the way to handle it. Calling them out to the media is cowardly.
3. Playing David Eckstein everyday and batting him lead off - this has been covered enough.
4. His and Duncan's handling of Anthony Reyes. He's a power pitcher with a good 4 seam fastball, and they keep telling him to throw a 2 seamer and pitch to contact. They are messing with what works for the kid. If I'm not mistaken, Duncan and LaRussa have preached this pitch to contact philosophy for a while with their starters.
5. The whole "pitcher 8th, hitter 9th" in the batting order.
I would like someone to come into this forum and with a straight face tell the masses at BBTF that Tony LaRussa doesn't know what goes on in his clubhouse.
Which, as many of you have likely guessed, I don't buy for a minute. Tony LaRussa knows EXACTLY what is going on in his clubhouse. And it is HIS. He has made that clear to any member of the media who crosses Tony.
I have kept my distance from the entire steroids brouhaha but one thing I would be fascinated to watch is Tony LaRussa take an oath of honesty and tell whomever that he was "shocked, SHOCKED" to discover steroids were being used in baseball.
Now THAT would be interesting television.
It's possible that Tony might even blink...............
Oh dear God. There is no way this could be considered a bad move on La Russa's part. Eckstein is a good player, and a fine leadoff hitter.
And every sabermetric evaluation has shown #5 on that list to be the correct approach.
C - Mirabelli, Lombardi, 5 Molinas, Howard, Wockenfuss, Hassey, Triandos, Lollar
1B - Cecil, Casey, Aikens, McGwire*
2B -
SS - Ed Brinkman*
3B - Ken Reitz*
LF - Luzinski, Howard
CF - Gorman Thomas*
RF - Stairs
* My nominations
At SS, Dick Grote or Cal Ripken
At 2b: Mazeroski
At 3B; I gotta go with Brooksie
DH: Harold Baines or Ken Singleton
Gotta make room for Le Grand L'Orange in that OF
2-Sean Casey
3-Ron Hassey
4-John Wockenfuss
5-Frank Howard
6-Gus Triandos
Smoky Burgess has them all beat (if "beat" is the word I'm looking for here)
My boy Rocky was very slow, also; the Indians had a fat, jolly first baseman named Bob Chance in the early 60s, who was one of the slowest players I've ever seen; he didn't play long enough to cement his reputation
I doubt that too, as LaRussa isn't much for hobnobbing with his players. 3NiA portrays him very much as an isolated loner, even if Bissinger wasn't bright enough to recognize this.
What?
How do you find this to be a problem?
The guy was an average or above shortstop during his time in St. Louis.. and his STL OBPs were in the 350-363 range. Why do you hate him leading off?
Who did you want in there? Hector Luna?
and #5, A.. hardly matters, B, is probably the right call
I don't think this was all that mysterious. I think Sandy was looking to leave when it became clear Bud wasn't going to give up the job anytime soon.
You know your baseball, but I am baffled that you honestly believe that a control freak like LaRussa wasn't or isn't privy to what transpires in the room next to his office.
Setting aside actions there is talk. There are likely visitors. There are the player's physiques. Trainers' comments and/or observations.
Tony LaRussa doesn't walk around covering his ears and eyes shut. That guy is more focussed on his players than a just released prisoner on a $2 hooker.
That's 2006 World Series MVP David Eckstein to you, Bub -- and do-on't you ferget it.
Yeah slowest sox player I ever saw unless it was his teammate big Ted Klu.
BTW the two of them once pulled off a double steal-I think the catcher was doubled up with laughter.
James's comments on Aikens in the 82 Abstract remains some of his best/funniest writing.
Johnny Ray for 2B
And Devereaux? WTF? You want a slow Os CF, try the 36-year old corpse of Fred Lynn that was in the OF for them in the late 80s.
whoo! congrats on that one!
Mark Loretta, for a skinny White guy he's the slowest mofo I've ever seen.
Sheets didn't have enough time to beat out Baines and Singleton at DH and RF, imo. But, he was an arterial plaque on the basepaths.
3B has to be Brooksie, who I believe is the only player in MLB history to ground into two TP's in his career.
Robby Thompson was pretty slow at the end of his career, but he also had back problems. And I distinctly remember Mike Piazza barely getting from 1st to 2nd on a long single to right at Candlestick.
Why exactly would Congress single out LaRussa when it has become increasingly clear that every clubhouse had the exact same things going on? If they're going to call in TLR and take him to task for not taking a more proactive stance on this, they need to call in roughly 100 other managers as well.
Fun.
Actually, according to PI, he grounded into a minimum of three, and lined into another:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/jg6Y
you are pretending like Congress would be actually interested in finding out facts or actually doing something other than grab face time. TLR is a big name, has connections to a couple of big names who have already been revealed/outed, so he is perfectly logical for this type of witch hunt.
I have read before that batting order doesn't really matter, and I've seen others mention that the pithcer 8th/hitter 9th doesn't really matter either. Can someone link me to something that explains this? This just seems wrong to me, but I'm not one to argue if the numbers prove otherwise. Thanks for calling me on my comments; I need that once in a while.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/run-slowly-and-carry-a-big-bat/
Ha, it's amazing just how many catchers are on that list.
I didn't even realize Gary Bennett, Jason LaRue, Henry Blanco, Matt Treanor, Mike Redmond or Todd Greene were slow, but there they are with Bengie, Estrada, Toby Hall and Hatteberg. I guess I should just assume that about all catchers from now on, no matter how skinny they are (Yadier).
It's not that complicated of a concept to be honest, innuendo used as evidence is pretty much all I need to call something a witch hunt. Sure the Congress grandstanding (hey MLB why couldn't your testing policy be as effective as such paragons of virtue as the NFL and USOC) is also a big part of it. I know you seem to think that roids are the worse thing to ever happen to baseball, me personally I don't give one rats behind, it makes zero difference to me in the big picture, and Congress using a meaningless hot button issue is pretty much the norm for politics nowadays--or always, distract the brainless with meaningless issues so that they don't realize that there are bad things happening.
Once again, congress business in the steroid controversy is purely a grandstanding event, fans speculating on who is doing is pure witch hunt.
I don't know of an Internet link that explains it, but there's a good explanation in The Book by MGL and Tango Tiger. From page 146, where the authors are running a Markov-chain simulation to see how many runs different lineup orders would be expected to score for an average team.
Let's re-run our model by swapping the players in the eighth and ninth spots. That is, let's test thesecond leadoff theory. This time, the model generated 4.847 runs per game [as opposed to 4.835 with the pitcher batting ninth]! It exists! This is a gain of .012 runs per game (or two runs per season). So, the cost of having the pitcher get more PA is indeed more than balanced by having a half-way decent hitter set the table for the top of the order.
They then present a table showing the expected runs per game with the pitcher hitting in each spot in the lineup: having the pitcher bat eighth does result in the most expected runs.
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