Manuel managing just fine
By Gordon Edes, Yahoo! Sports Oct 13, 3:27 am EDT
Admit it: If someone had asked you before the playoffs which manager would most distinguish himself by bold and daring decision-making, Charlie Manuel would have been the $1,000 claiming horse in a field that included such highly touted entries as Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, Mike Scioscia and Terry Francona. Ron Gardenhire would have finished ahead of him on underdog reputation, Joe Girardi because he manages in New York, and Jim Tracy because he sounds like the captain of his college debate team while ol’ Charlie can sound like he skipped every class but shop.
But as the Philadelphia Phillies prepare to fly to Los Angeles for the next step in their defense of their World Series title, no manager has taken bigger gambles – and risked greater ridicule – than Charlie Manuel. And while his team will be praised, and rightfully so, for its resilience in closing out the Rockies at home where Colorado had been nearly unbeatable, maybe ol’ Charlie’s willingness to lay his own neck on the line inspired his Phillies to do the same.
Faced with a bullpen crisis born of damaged arms and wounded psyches, Manuel took two starters, J.A. Happ(notes) and Joe Blanton(notes), put them in his bullpen, and used them both in Game 2, leaving people to scratch their heads about what he intended to do for a Game 3 starter.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel watches batting practice before Game 4 against the Rockies.
Manuel waited until the day before to announce that he’d put his trust in Pedro Martinez(notes), even though he’d pitched only three innings since Sept. 19 and hadn’t pitched in a postseason since his “the-Yankees-are-my-daddy” days in Boston. Martinez’s gallantry is never a question, but had he been lit up by the Rockies, ol’ Charlie would have been pilloried for picking a 38-year-old Pedro.
Chances are Manuel had one eye on the forecast when he played it that way, because when sub-freezing temperatures caused a postponement of Game 3, he had Happ ready to go and Game 1 starter Cliff Lee(notes) on deck for Game 4.
Then, after hedging about who he would use as closer, he turned to Brad Lidge(notes) – he of the 11 blown saves and 7-plus ERA &ndash: to save the Phillies’ 6-5, Game 3 win, Lidge setting down Colorado’s most dangerous hitter, Troy Tulowitzki(notes) on a pop fly.
Thus the assumption in Game 4 that Lidge would get the ninth inning again if the Phillies had the lead. Wrong. Manuel chose left-hander Scott Eyre(notes), a serviceable left-handed setup man but one who has been pitching with “loose bodies” in his elbow and hadn’t saved a game, any game, in five seasons. Postseason? The 37-year-old Eyre had pitched in 19 previous playoff games over nine different series and didn’t have a save.
The other day, when Cole Hamels(notes) left the game early because his wife was having a baby, Eyre had talked about facing similar circumstances, and throwing five no-hit innings with his pregnant wife about to deliver. Monday night in Coors Field, Eyre got to experience the labor pains.
Lidge would have been the safer choice. Give the closer a clean inning to start. Eyre was Manuel’s personalized invitation to a fearsome hometown beatdown if the Philles blew the game. Clearly, Manuel didn’t care.
And Eyre came through. So did Lidge, for that matter. Eyre got two huge outs in the ninth, and after the Rockies put a couple of runners on base, Lidge entered to strike out Tulowitzki, who’d seen only fastballs in Game 3 and exclusively sliders in Game 4, including the one he waved at feebly to end the game.
When the Phillies won their third straight division title, Manuel stayed in his office while his players went bonkers. “I was probably happier than anybody out there,” he said the other day, “but I came in here and sat down. I wanted them to celebrate – this was something they did.”
No one will ever call Charlie Manuel a genius like La Russa, offer him endorsements like Torre, pay him to be a motivational speaker like Francona. But anyone who doubts that Charlie Manuel isn’t afraid to do what he believes right hasn’t been paying attention. And that’s a big reason why the Phillies are back in the final four.
Holliday giving
Here’s an exercise that has a chance to keep us entertained for years to come: Which team will ultimately come out ahead in the wheeling and dealing for Matt Holliday(notes).
Cardinals OF Matt Holliday batted .167 in the division series against the Dodgers.
The Rockies traded him to Oakland last winter when they couldn’t re-sign him, and got a closer, Huston Street(notes), out of the deal, plus an outfielder, Carlos Gonzalez(notes), who had 10 hits against the Phillies in the division series, tying a club record, and sore-shouldered lefty Greg Smith(notes). Street saved 35 of 39 games in the regular season but took the loss in each of the Rockies’ two games. He’s a year away from free agency and will command big bucks in arbitration, so the Rockies may have a decision to make.
The Athletics dealt Holliday to the Cardinals, where he instantly formed one of the league’s most potent tandems with Albert Pujols(notes). But Holliday is a free agent, his time with the Cardinals may well prove short, and the memory that will endure if he leaves is losing a line drive in the lights at Dodger Stadium with the Cardinals an out away from winning.
The Athletics, meanwhile, not only got four months out of Holliday, but a slugging corner infielder, Brett Wallace(notes), a former No. 1 choice, and two other prospects, outfielder Shane Peterson and right-hander Clayton Mortensen(notes). The Athletics are making a first baseman out of Wallace, who came up as a third baseman, but he looks like he’ll hit anywhere, with an .870 OPS in 44 games with Sacramento, Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate.
Depending on how much Gonzalez blossoms, Oakland may still become the team that profits most from the Holliday wheeling-dealing, unless Holliday stays in St. Louis.
More October blues
Yahoo! Sports colleague Tim Brown notes that in a span from the ninth inning Sunday night to the third inning Monday, Rockies manager Tracy disputed calls four times with four different umpires: first base umpire Ron Kulpa on Sunday, then, in order in Game 4, Angel Hernandez at first base, Tim Timmons at second base and Gerry Davis at third base.
For all that fussing, Tracy missed the real argument in Game 3, the ninth-inning ball Chase Utley(notes) hit off his thigh that rolled into fair territory. It should have been ruled a foul ball; instead it advanced Jimmy Rollins(notes) to third, from where he’d score the game-winner on a sacrifice fly.
“I think we need to move on,” Tracy said. “We can’t do a damn thing about it. There’s things we can do better rather than sit here and belabor the point about umpiring or whatever. We can walk less people. You know, when we have opportunities with runners on base, we could get that add-on hit and then we won’t be discussing this. We won’t be discussing this as much as we are.”
According to the replay, Tracy appeared to be 1-1-2 on the validity of his dissents. Of course, he was 0-4-0 on the outcomes.
