GatewaySnayke wrote:Since some have asked for me to defend my position...I will.
First, I think La Russa suffers from a serious lack of communication. He doesn't seem to connect that well with his players (i.e. Rolen, Isringhausen, Mulder). The players on the 2003 team seemed to agree with me when they went to La Russa and told him he was too intense or whatever.
I don;t disagree, EXCEPT to the extent that it is always dngerous to assume that we know how well or how poorly a manager communicates behind closed doors that we are on the other side of, inside dugouts where we have no audio, and with people we do not know (and who, for the most part, ain't sayin').
Second, I think that La Russa plays up his obliviousness to injuries. I got weary of people telling me that La Russa was not at fault for Isringhausen or Mulder this past year, because it's "the players decision." I guess technically it IS their decision, but it's also La Russa's priority to know that if something isn't right, he has to step in. Him and Duncan have been in professional baseball for what...35 years? I think they know when a player isn't right, yet for some reason they choose to ignore it and keep pushing.
I agree with this. I do not buy into the arguments advanced by some that he is
responsible for players having injuries, or that the Cards have disproportionately many injuries because of him. But I would admit that it seems like he uses players who are hurt for longer than it seems, from the outside, like he should.
Third, I don't care for the way he treats rookies. Look, I realize that Josh Kinney and Tyler Johnson were not doing much to have the faith put in them down the stretch last season. But, neither was Braden Looper or Jason Isringhausen for that matter. And I also don't care that Anthony Reyes had an ERA of over 8.00 last ST. The guy was ready to be a starter (so was Wainwright), yet they went with a re-tread in Ponson. Reyes was and still is a big part of the team's future, and there was more to gain from him being in the rotation than someone who had proven that they couldn't handle it.
This is a fairly common criticism of him; I have mixed feelings about it myself. It's easy to SAY he distrusts young players or whatever, but the truth is, 24-year old rookie Anthony Reyes
did start game one of the world series last year; 25 year old rookie Adam Wainwright
was given the ball to get the last three outs of the NLCS against the middle of the Mets order last year. Yadi got 150 AB as a 21-year old rookie, and has been the starter since his age 22 season. He's had three and a half rookie of the year award winners, one of whom was age 20. So he does know it when he sees it . . . .
And the whole "pitch to contact" philosophy? Totally works if your name is Jeff Suppan. If you can ring it up to 95 and then get hitters looking foolish with a changeup that is 18 mph slower, you shouldn't have to worry about getting ground ball outs. I know that ground balls are efficient and that the quicker innings would help a pitcher, but it had been working for Reyes since he was drafted, and telling him to completely alter the way he approaches a hitter seems foolish to me.
We probably see this similarly. Messing with a fella who, at the time, was perfectly healthy, had good mechanics, and was blowing the ball past hitters at all levels (including major leaguers in ST 2005) is not my preferred approach.
Fourth, whether it's company BS or not, even implicitly saying that you don't care how Molina hits as long as he fields is just garbage. Stinky garbage.
I don't knnow that it's "garbage." Lots of people over-value catcher defense. but it is probably an area that I, along with you, disagree with TLR.
I hammered this out without knowing beforehand, so there are probably some other things that I don't like about Tony. This is just the basic stuff that bothers me.
Me too. For instance, I do not like the way he makes decisions on the basis of tiny sample sizes.
But there is a lot to like too. Every spring I moan about his downright bizarre choices for who to keep for the bench and who he cuts -- and every year he uses them well. Every year I am concerned about the way he is putting together the pen -- and every year he uses them well. Every year I get frustrated at how he slavishly uses the platoon splits to make a zillion pitching changes -- and every year he gets productive outings from relievers that don;t belong in the big leagues.
