This is the kind of loss that drives me nuts. With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth and the heart of the Blue Jays' order coming to the plate, Joe Torre hands the ball to Chris Britton. Meanwhile, Mariano Rivera watchs his team lose from the bullpen.
Torre has allowed himself to become a slave to the save. Granted, he's not alone in this. Most, possibly all, major league managers refuse to bring in their closer unless its a save situation, letting a statistic dictate their strategy. Don't get me wrong; I'm a big stat geek, but they're only supposed to inform your decisions, not make them. Sometimes the most crucial situation in a game isn't a save situation, because baseball is more complicated than the eight lines that make up the definition of a save.
For example, when its the bottom of the ningth in a tie game, when just one run ends the game, and the other team's best hitters are coming to the plate, I say that you want your best pitcher on the mound. If that means that a lesser pitcher facing lesser hitters picks up a save, then so be it. If you end up losing the game altogether, then at least you can say that you gave your best.
Friday, September 14, 2007
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2 comments:
Unfortunately, Joe Torre is not what you say. If he were, Mariano Rivera would've won several Cy Young Awards for "total regular season saves." Other managers use the save stat as a marketing device and to help their inferior closer get a cheap save--eg Joe Borowski, Trevor Hoffman, etc. I'm aware a closer often won't be used in a tie game if it's an away game--however it is customary for a closer, even lightweight closers, to be brought in in a tie game if the game is at home. Mariano Rivera as you may know, got 4 outs the night before, entering in the 8th with 2 men on base, ended up loading the bases on an infield chopper, got out of it and got out of the 9th as well. It was a long, tense game. The remaining games in the season for the Yankees will all be challenging. They have no chance at all without Rivera. If his entering with men on base and extra innings doesn't mean anything, then why don't the other guys do it? As you may have read in Joel Sherman's recent column, Torre has continued to use Rivera for 2 jobs--set up and closer throughout the season in spite of having said he wouldn't do so. Kyle Farnsworth was not available Wed. or Thurs. night which is partly why you didn't see Rivera tonight--if Torre had been able to limit his use last night by using Farnsworth for part of it, he wouldn't have had to lean on Mo. To make the statement about Torre working off the save stat is just what the competition wants to hear, and it's as far from the truth as you can be. Mariano Rivera has been expected to pitch in 12 consecutive post seasons along with 12 regular seasons. They would like him to pitch in his 13th consecutive post season. Torre is expected to get the team to the post season--he doesn't have the luxury of screwing around with the 'total save stat' for regular season jollies. If you'd like to discuss this issue further with me, I'd be glad to do so. It's easy for misinformation to get out on the internet--I'd like to stop it in this case.
Susan, I'm not accusing Torre of trying to run up Mo's save totals. I'm saying that Torre has bought into this ridiculous notion that you can't bring in your closer unless its a save situation. I don't think he does it as a marketing tool, or for any other reason than thats what the conventional wisdom is.
That said, Torre does deserve a lot of credit for being willing to use Mo for a four or five out save. Too many managers would refuse to bring in their closer unless its the ninth inning, leaving it to someone else to get the tough out. Again, I don't think these managers are doing it to run up their closers' stats, I think they're just doing it because that's the conventional wisdom.
What's frustrating is that while Torre was smart enough to ignore the conventional wisdom Tuesday night, he wasn't Wednesday night. Still, it is worth saying that he's better with his closer than most managers.
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