Due to the excitement surrounding A-Rod's walkoff grand slam, I lost sight of a criticism of Joe Torre I wanted to mention.
I totally thought Torre mismanaged his bench in the 8th inning. Dannys Baez had just walked 2 consecutive batters and then gave up Giambi's 3-run shot to cut the O's lead to 1. There was 1 out and Miguel Cairo was coming up. Now it sounded on the radio like Cairo was never supposed to step into the batter's box. Either way, I think bringing Damon in to pinch hit was the wrong move. Baez was obviously having control problems and the O's were leaving him in. He even threw ball one to Cairo. Torre pulls Cairo for Damon and the O's move to lefty specialist Jamie Walker, and he promptly gets Damon out. The right move in my opinion was to let Cairo hit, and save Damon so he could hit in Mientkiewicz's spot. Granted Dougie has been hitting the ball well and hit had a nice liner of Chris Ray, but considering Baez's control issues and with there only being one out, I would let Cairo hit, and worst case, you have Damon leading off the 9th off righty Chris Ray. Just my opinion. To me it made more sense considering the situation. In the end, it all worked out, so it doesn't really matter.
Happy Easter!
J
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Armchair Managing
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