Follow-Up

Let's continue the discussion about the Twins from yesterday.

Nate's response:

While I like your way of thinking, that thought can go two ways. The new skipper would look like a genius if we would have won opening day with our #2 pitcher but with a loss it may not sit well that he's trying to be so different. If this was a established manager it may not be that big of a deal but I can about imagine what the media would try to make that into.

Me now: Since it's baseball, 162 game season, they are on the road, and it's the Tigers, (probably the best team in the division) doing something like this shouldn't be that big of a deal. Everyone would see what he's doing would be the "right" move even if it doesn't pay off. Just like walking their best hitter with runners on second and third with two outs, or shifting your defense for Ortiz.  If just one manager of a perennial losing team would do this even once, you would see more doing it the next time.

The "ace vs ace" mentality makes sense when two good teams collide, but when one team is acknowledged as the clear underdog, the manager's job of THAT team is to WIN more games in the course of a season. The Tigers have to throw their best starter at home on the first day of the season but the Twins don't. That's a strategy that makes sense. And it's little things like that in the course of a full 162 game schedule that will make you a manager worth keeping. Gene Mauch was a manager for the Twins back in the day who did the craziest things on a case by case basis. Tom the Retired Twins fan remembers him well. Late in the game, he'd often go to a five man infield with two outfielders playing shallow with the bases loaded when he had a ground ball pitcher throwing.

It worked so well so many times that I was surprised so few others did it. Today's radical defensive shifts are a direct descendant of Mauch's genius. Baseball's just waiting for that next amazing strategist, otherwise what's the point of hiring a new manager? Gardy would have played the same game Monday. In fact he played the very same game against Price and the Tigers the last game of last season, his last game. We lost that one 3-0. Sometimes it's the new skipper's fault for being too much like the man you replaced.

I say it again. Think different.