I started to think about this topic after hearing his comments regarding Jason Motte throwing inside to Ryan Braun after Albert Pujols had been hit earlier in the game about a week ago. From what I could understand from La Russa's mostly incoherent rant, it wasn't ok for the Brewers to throw inside to Pujols, but it was fine when Jason Motte threw inside twice to Braun, hitting him the second time. The two teams don't have much of a history form what I'm aware of, and when I saw the inside pitch that hit Albert, I didn't think that it was intentional.
La Russa's teams have been temperamental in recent years. Last year, the Cardinals got into a bench clearing brawl with the Reds, that was started when Brandon Phillips tapped the shinguard of catcher Yadier Molina. Phillips isn't the most popular player in the Cardinal clubhouse, but to quote Ron Burgundy, "That escalated rather quickly."
I think that the Cardinals are the best team in the NL Central on paper this year. They lost Adam Wainwright to Tommy John surgery before the season, but the bounce back season that Lance Berkman is having this season has almost made up for it, as far as Wins Above Replacement is concerned. All season long, I've been waiting for this team to flex their muscles, and start to pull away from the pack. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday have both spent time on the disabled list, and that has kept them from firing on all cylinders for parts of the year, but I still think that this team should be in first place. I think Tony is keeping them from reaching their maximum potential.
One thing that drives me crazy is when the he has the pitcher hitting eighth. As far as i know, none of their pitchers are named Ruth. He's now done this enought times that we can see that his team consistently scores fewer runs when the pitcher is hitting in the eight hole. If you're into advanced metrics, then you know that the optimum lineup is arranged in descending order with the player with the highest on base percentage batting first, and the lowest OBP batting last. There isn't going to be a Billy Beane-esque revelation that shows that hitting the pitcher eighth helps you win, just stop doing it Tony.
I also don't think that Tony uses his bullpen pitchers very well. Last night for example, the Cardinals were playing the Brewers again, and La Russa sent Octavio Dotel out to pitch the 10th inning, after coming in to get the third out of the ninth. The only problem with this was the fact that two of the first three hitters Dotel was to face were Nyger Morgan and Prince Fielder, both left handed hitters. Dotel is what I consider a righty specialist. Much like what I wrote about Joe Smith earlier this week, Dotel should never be allowed to face a left handed hitter. Here are the OPS for right handed and left handed batters against Dotel over the past three years:
2011 2010 2009
Right Handed: .413 .576 .652
Left Handed: .938 .933 1.000
Predictably, Nyger Morgan got a hit, Ryan Braun made an out, and Prince Fielder got a hit, which allowed Morgan to advance to third with one out. Casey McGehee then got a hit to score a run, followed by a Yuniesky Betancourt sac fly. John Axford then came in for the bottom of the inning with a two run lead to shut the door and give the Brewers the win.
I know some people say that La Russa is a good bullpen manager, but those are also the people who agree with Tony when he said that Corey Patterson (and his career .291 OBP) has the talent to be a good leadoff hitter. Corey Patterson should be banished to Class-AAA, and never allowed to return. Seriously, Corey Patterson?
The next thing is the whole Colby Rasmus situation. We may never know exactly what happened between Tony and Colby, but it wasn't good. Rasmus was a former first round pick, and was twice rated as a top 5 prospect before making it to the majors. He put up great minor league numbers during the four years he played there before being called up, even though he was almost always young for the level he was playing in. Rasmus had a good 2010 as a 23 year old, but was off to a bad start in his 94 games this year with the Cardinals. Rasmus is still young enough to develop into a perennial allstar, but St. Louis had to trade his because of the differing hitting philosophies between La Russa, Colby, and Colby's dad aparently.
All the Cardinals got for Rasmus when they traded for his was Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson, and players to be named later or cash. A lot of quantity, but not much quality. We've seen Jackson with five other teams, who were all willing to part with him, and he his career ERA of 4.55. Dotel is a situational reliever who isn't long for this league at age 37. Marc Rzepczynski is still young, and some think that he could be a back end left handed starter down the road. Corey Patterson would have been more helpful to the Cardinals if he would have gotten stopped and detained while going through customs on his trip over the border. St. Louis is obviously in "win now" mode with Albert Pujols and to a lesser extend Lance Berkman being free agents at the end of the season. Even with that considered, it looks like Toronto made out like kings getting a piece like Rasmus who could blossom into a franchise player.
After the trade, the Cardinals are now playing Jon Jay and Corey Patterson in center. Jay is playing a little over his head right now. He's not good enough defensively to be a true center fielder, and I think he will get exposed if the Cardinals continue to give him regular playing time. My thoughts on Corey Patterson are well known.
The shelf life for the coaches in the Major Leagues is fairly short, and La Russa has been with the Cardinals for for 16 seasons. As an alum of The Ohio State University, i've seen my fair share of Joe Paterno. La Russa is starting to give me the feeling that I get from Paterno, which is a "deer in the headlights," "I'm too old for this," type of feeling. He's accomplished a lot in St. Louis, including winning the World Series in 2006.
Around the League:
For the second straight night, the Double-A Astros got out to a big lead on the Diamondbacks. This time however the Diamondbacks game back to win the game, mostly on the back of Justin Upton, who went three for five with a double and a homerun. Upton has always been an MVP-in-waiting, but if the Diamondbacks manage to beat the Giants out for the NL West pennant, I wouldn't be surprised it Upton got some major MVP consideration.
The Indians defeated the Tigers tonight in 14 innings on a walkoff hit by pitch. Both starters went only two innings because of a two hour rain delay. Going into this series, I thought that the Indians needed to take the first two games of this series with Masterson and Jimenez on the mound because the series finale will put Justin Verlander up against Fausto Carmona. Carmona has been better as of late, but is still having a down year. The Indians still have three more series against the Tigers this year, including the final series of the year. This has the makings of a great race that could go down to the final day. The White Sox are only one game behind the Tribe, and now four games behind the Tigers, and certainly have the talent to win the division if they can manage to get anything out of Alex Rios, Adam Dunn, and whoever they're throwing out to play third base.
James Shields shutout the Royals 4-0 in a game that only took an hour and fifty-three minutes. If i went to that game I'd feel like I didn't get my moneys worth. It's like when you're bowling and get a strike, I feel like I got ripped off because I want to throw again.
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