I don’t watch award shows, but I often hit the internet the next morning to see the winners. Even though they didn’t surprise me, some of the results made me shake my head. Two of those were won by the Dallas Mavericks. One of them was their winning the Best Team award. I’ll discuss that in a separate post. This one is about Rick Carlisle’s winning the Best Coach/Manager award. The nominees in this category were Jim Calhoun, Rick Carlisle, Gene Chizik, Mike McCarthy, and Dom Starsia. Where was Bruce Bochy on that list? I understand that the last baseball season ended 8 months ago, but, frankly, I don’t see a compelling argument that any major American sports coach has done a better job over the past 12 months than the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Let me make my case.
As we all know, last year’s Giants won the World Series for the first time since moving from New York to California. They were not a powerhouse. Did you realize that this team went 14 consecutive games without scoring as many as 5 runs? Did you know those games went from September 26 to Game 4 of the NLCS? The Giants went 10-4 in those games. No matter who’s on your pitching staff, you don’t win that many games down the stretch and in the playoffs with a putrid offense without some shrewd managerial moves. But that’s easy stuff; you can see that by looking at the schedule.
To see Bochy’s genius with the 2010 Giants, you have to know the team and the three head cases in the starting rotation. Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and Barry Zito are three of the most inconsistent, nausea-inducing starting pitchers of the current era. Bochy’s first championship decision was to keep Zito, the $126 million man, off the postseason roster and use rookie Madison Bumgarner as the fourth starter. Who knows what the Giants would have gotten from Zito, but Bumgarner pitched brilliantly in his two road starts, the NLDS clincher in Atlanta and an 8-inning shutout performance to in Arlington to put the Giants up 3-1 in the World Series.
Bochy’s next key decision involved his utilization of Cain and Sanchez in the postseason rotation. Sanchez is the kind of pitcher who’s either great or awful; either he’s got it or he doesn’t. And you can usually tell what kind of game you’re getting out of Sanchez within the first 20 pitches. He’ll throw a complete game shutout one outing and get shelled for 5 runs in 2 innings the next, and it doesn’t matter whether he’s at home or on the road. Matt Cain, on the other hand, sometimes lets things get to him. You can see the annoyance on his face. Cain has always been the type of pitcher who has a difficult time recovering; once things start to go wrong, they stay wrong. And if you look at his splits throughout his entire career, you’ll see that he is much better in AT&T Park than he is pitching on the road. Knowing these two pitchers, Bochy made the same decision that I would have—he manipulated his rotation so that Cain would not pitch on the road. As a result, Cain went 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in the 2010 postseason.
The key series for the Giants was the NLCS versus Philadelphia. Going into the series, I thought the Giants’ only chance to win was if they won the series in 4 or 5 games. Lincecum was going to start Games 1 and 5; Bumgarner was going to start Game 4. Cain and Sanchez would start Games 2, 3, 6, and 7 in some combination. The Phillies were going to rock Sanchez in his starts; I considered that a given. And if Cain ever pitched in Citizens Bank Park, he would get shelled as well. No matter what, the Giants were going to lose Game 2. Bochy made the decision to start Sanchez in Game 2, which would allow Cain to start Game 3 in San Francisco. As expected, Sanchez lost Game 2. Cain shut the Phillies out in Game 3. Lincecum lost to Roy Halladay in Game 5, which brought the series back to Philadelphia. At that point, I thought the Phillies were going to win the series. I knew they were going to get to Sanchez in Game 6. I figured they’d light up Cain the next night. Bochy responded by managing Game 6 as if his life depended on it.
Sanchez gave up 3 hits, a walk, a wild pitch, and 2 runs in the first inning. San Francisco tied it up in the top of the third. In the bottom of that inning, Sanchez walked the leadoff batter then hit the second batter. Benches cleared and tempers flared when Utley was hit by the pitch. Bochy knew the Sanchez meltdown had come, and immediately removed him from the game. Not many managers would remove a starting pitcher in the third inning of a 2-2 game while leading the series. He did, and it saved his team’s season. This was the game the Giants had to win. Bochy used Bumgarner on two days’ rest to get a couple of shutout innings. Once the Giants got a lead, he used Lincecum as his bridge to closer Brian Wilson to secure the pennant.
I’m a Phillies fan, and as I write this, I’m reliving Game 6. I don’t understand how Bochy pulled that off. I don’t think any other manager would have done what he did. Benching Zito for the playoffs for an unproven rookie? Going out of his way to make sure Cain never pitched on the road? Using 2 starting pitchers in relief while leading the series?
Try and convince me he wasn’t the coach of the year. Good luck.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Random Linearity 07-09-2011
The human brain is an amazing thing. Last night, reading one simple baseball tweet set off a string of randomly linear thoughts that led me to ask a not-so-simple question.
At 11:17pm last night, Joe Posnanski tweeted “Kyle Davies gave up five runs in six innings. His ERA went down.” Reading that tweet got me changing the channel to the Royals game. The Royals were playing the Tigers, which got me to thinking about Detroit, which led to thoughts about Joe Louis, who fought Max Schmeling, who was a pawn of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi propaganda. We all know the simplified history of how Hitler trumpeted the virtues of the Aryan Nation while he, himself, was not Aryan. Well, is Michelle Bachmann doing anything different? She preaches that women should submit to their husbands, who should be the heads of the households, but she is running to be the leader of this country. According to her own principles, how can she lead the country if she cannot lead her own family? Then again, Donovan McNabb often professed how he was the leader of the Eagles, yet his parents and brother did more speaking out for him than he did himself. Of course, I started thinking about the McNabb/TO drama in Philly. When you think about it, TO final season in Philly wasn’t all that different from Jim Riggleman’s last year in DC, was it? I know one of the things that pissed Riggleman off was knowing that he was the lowest paid manager in the majors, yet his management spent $18million a year for 6 years on a guy who never drove in 100 runs, and in his 3 years as a starter seen his batting average with runners in scoring position go from .274 (.268 with 2 outs) in 2008 to .186 (.139 with 2 outs) in 2010 despite hitting 5th in the best offense in the National League. In that way, Jayson Werth reminds me of Mark Texiera. They both put up good numbers—Tex’s numbers are borderline great—but they always seem to be inconsequential to their teams’ success. Texiera does, however, share the record for the most times homering from both sides of the plate in a Major League game. I’ve never seen a player do that in person, but I had to get on the internet to look up Danny Espinosa. He’s a switch-hitter and I’ve twice seen him hit 2 homeruns in a game (the first time, both came left-handed; the second time, both were right-handed). Danny Espinosa is from Santa Ana, the same town where Matt Leinart is from. Who can think about Matt Leinart without thinking of Vince Young and Jay Cutler? Those two obviously bring Nashville to mind. Nashville is in Tennessee, which is where Memphis is. Thoughts of Memphis reminded me of Toya’s conversation with Chill on The Morning Jones. Chill is from Miami, where LeBron plays. LeBron brings to mind Delonte West who leads to Michael Beasley, who plays in Minnesota. I wonder if Beasley has anyone in his life who really cares about him and will help him get his life together. I wondered the same thing about Eddie Griffin, who also played in Minnesota. Griffin was never able to overcome his demons. I hope recent events do not keep Josh Hamilton from continuing to overcome his. I do wonder, though, why everyone feels sorry for Josh Hamilton right now while Darryl Strawberry only faced ridicule and scorn when he relapsed into drug usage while undergoing cancer treatment. Whenever I think of Strawberry, I think back to the 1999 World Series and how I will always believe the Braves lost that series because Greg Maddux was afraid to pitch to him in the 8th inning of Game 1. Greg’s brother, Mike pitched for the Phillies. Philadelphia teams always have the wrong brother. Dom DiMaggio, Jeremy Giambi, and Harvey Grant are a few examples. Harvey Grant was brought to the Sixers to motivate Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas was foolishly brought to Philly by Larry Brown, who always fought with Allen Iverson, who tried to be a rapper, but wasn’t as successful at it as Shaquille O’Neal, who once admitted that the FU-Schnickens were his favorite rap group. Their first single featured Pfife Dog, who was in A Tribe Called Quest, whose documentary opened today. Why isn’t Beats, Rhymes, & Life playing anywhere near our nation’s capital?
At 11:17pm last night, Joe Posnanski tweeted “Kyle Davies gave up five runs in six innings. His ERA went down.” Reading that tweet got me changing the channel to the Royals game. The Royals were playing the Tigers, which got me to thinking about Detroit, which led to thoughts about Joe Louis, who fought Max Schmeling, who was a pawn of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi propaganda. We all know the simplified history of how Hitler trumpeted the virtues of the Aryan Nation while he, himself, was not Aryan. Well, is Michelle Bachmann doing anything different? She preaches that women should submit to their husbands, who should be the heads of the households, but she is running to be the leader of this country. According to her own principles, how can she lead the country if she cannot lead her own family? Then again, Donovan McNabb often professed how he was the leader of the Eagles, yet his parents and brother did more speaking out for him than he did himself. Of course, I started thinking about the McNabb/TO drama in Philly. When you think about it, TO final season in Philly wasn’t all that different from Jim Riggleman’s last year in DC, was it? I know one of the things that pissed Riggleman off was knowing that he was the lowest paid manager in the majors, yet his management spent $18million a year for 6 years on a guy who never drove in 100 runs, and in his 3 years as a starter seen his batting average with runners in scoring position go from .274 (.268 with 2 outs) in 2008 to .186 (.139 with 2 outs) in 2010 despite hitting 5th in the best offense in the National League. In that way, Jayson Werth reminds me of Mark Texiera. They both put up good numbers—Tex’s numbers are borderline great—but they always seem to be inconsequential to their teams’ success. Texiera does, however, share the record for the most times homering from both sides of the plate in a Major League game. I’ve never seen a player do that in person, but I had to get on the internet to look up Danny Espinosa. He’s a switch-hitter and I’ve twice seen him hit 2 homeruns in a game (the first time, both came left-handed; the second time, both were right-handed). Danny Espinosa is from Santa Ana, the same town where Matt Leinart is from. Who can think about Matt Leinart without thinking of Vince Young and Jay Cutler? Those two obviously bring Nashville to mind. Nashville is in Tennessee, which is where Memphis is. Thoughts of Memphis reminded me of Toya’s conversation with Chill on The Morning Jones. Chill is from Miami, where LeBron plays. LeBron brings to mind Delonte West who leads to Michael Beasley, who plays in Minnesota. I wonder if Beasley has anyone in his life who really cares about him and will help him get his life together. I wondered the same thing about Eddie Griffin, who also played in Minnesota. Griffin was never able to overcome his demons. I hope recent events do not keep Josh Hamilton from continuing to overcome his. I do wonder, though, why everyone feels sorry for Josh Hamilton right now while Darryl Strawberry only faced ridicule and scorn when he relapsed into drug usage while undergoing cancer treatment. Whenever I think of Strawberry, I think back to the 1999 World Series and how I will always believe the Braves lost that series because Greg Maddux was afraid to pitch to him in the 8th inning of Game 1. Greg’s brother, Mike pitched for the Phillies. Philadelphia teams always have the wrong brother. Dom DiMaggio, Jeremy Giambi, and Harvey Grant are a few examples. Harvey Grant was brought to the Sixers to motivate Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas was foolishly brought to Philly by Larry Brown, who always fought with Allen Iverson, who tried to be a rapper, but wasn’t as successful at it as Shaquille O’Neal, who once admitted that the FU-Schnickens were his favorite rap group. Their first single featured Pfife Dog, who was in A Tribe Called Quest, whose documentary opened today. Why isn’t Beats, Rhymes, & Life playing anywhere near our nation’s capital?
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